ASUS $199 Eee PC laptop

[AntiFreze]

so what kind of games could you play on this? And no, im not asking if WoW or Crysis would run. I'm thinking light gaming for a plane trip - adventure games, puzzle games, older FPS - Quake 2?

 

[frostedflakes]

Anything about five years or older would run pretty well I'd think, especially after overclocking (I think it is possible to run the EEE at over 1GHz). Quake II should definitely work, as I think Quake III even runs fine on the EEE.

 

[IlllI]

i cant imagine how difficult it would be to play a fps with that tiny keyboard

:disgust:

 

[randomlinh]

I finally got to see one in person at microcenter. My biggest complaint is the keyboard. The touchpad shortcomings I can get over, tho the mouse button felt like it'd break in a year. I just could not accurately type quickly. The kicker was the apostrophe and backspace. I'm not sure I could get used to it. And I don't know if anyone has said if the 8.9" keyboard is any bigger. I'd take every mm I could. That and the price is what will keep me from getting one this fall/winter. Given the build quality, I wouldn't spend over $400 for the 8.9" version. If it exists, it'll unfortunately be a 4G probably (I want the 8G just for breathing room).

 

[abaez]

The bigger version is going to be around ~$600.. too much imho.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: abaez
The bigger version is going to be around ~$600.. too much imho.

it's going to be around that price... w/ a 12GB SSD in it. An 8GB version was shown as noted by engadget, but no pricing info (and all still in other currencies anyway). The question will be do they also have a 4GB version, and push the 7" laptops down even further? I think they should... just have a 2G/4G surf (these are lower spec'd I believe than the non-surf) and then these

 

[lurk3r]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: abaez
The bigger version is going to be around ~$600.. too much imho.

it's going to be around that price... w/ a 12GB SSD in it. An 8GB version was shown as noted by engadget, but no pricing info (and all still in other currencies anyway). The question will be do they also have a 4GB version, and push the 7" laptops down even further? I think they should... just have a 2G/4G surf (these are lower spec'd I believe than the non-surf) and then these

The $399 for the 4G one is way too much, I'd rather have the 14" WS acer laptop Microcenter has now for $359. This device was a beautiful toy at $199, at double the price its a great idea killed by crap pricing.

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: lurk3r

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: abaez
The bigger version is going to be around ~$600.. too much imho.

it's going to be around that price... w/ a 12GB SSD in it. An 8GB version was shown as noted by engadget, but no pricing info (and all still in other currencies anyway). The question will be do they also have a 4GB version, and push the 7" laptops down even further? I think they should... just have a 2G/4G surf (these are lower spec'd I believe than the non-surf) and then these

The $399 for the 4G one is way too much, I'd rather have the 14" WS acer laptop Microcenter has now for $359. This device was a beautiful toy at $199, at double the price its a great idea killed by crap pricing.

People are always saying that it's better to get a cheap laptop than the eee. Your example weighs 6 pounds... there is no way I'd take it hiking or oversears and carry it in my bag all the time like I do with the eee.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: abaez

Originally posted by: lurk3r
The $399 for the 4G one is way too much, I'd rather have the 14" WS acer laptop Microcenter has now for $359. This device was a beautiful toy at $199, at double the price its a great idea killed by crap pricing.

People are always saying that it's better to get a cheap laptop than the eee. Your example weighs 6 pounds... there is no way I'd take it hiking or oversears and carry it in my bag all the time like I do with the eee.

what he said. It's a completely different market. It's like the macbook air, most of us would say grab that same 14" WS microcenter notebook. But some folks want (and can afford) to pay for ultra slim/almost ultra light. I still personally think it's way too much, even for it's market, but there's nothing to compete against it.

The EeePC is similar. It's a tiny grab and go. It's specs aren't that great, but it serves it's purpose, for the most part. I am with abaez that paying $600 is a stretch for what it is, but again, it's a different market from the normal notebooks

 

[frostedflakes]

Just got Windows XP installed on this bad boy and am pretty happy with it, this is a nice little machine. It's snappier than I figured it would be too, since I got a 4G Surf (originally I was only looking at the 2G Surf, but found this for a good price) I didn't bother doing an nLite XP and just installed a full copy. Still have a decent amount of space left after installing a few big apps (OpenOffice, for example), about 1.78GB.

Was also kind of surprised at how much umph it has at the full 900MHz. I loaded up some 720P H.264 anime encodes and it was able to (just barely) run them smoothly. Granted they are pretty low bitrate, the entire episodes are only about 230MB, but still I thought this was pretty neat. This is just with one of those everything-in-one codec packs installed as well, with some optimizations it could probably perform even better.

The only thing I don't really like is the keyboard. I'm getting used to it, but the keys are smaller than I expected (I had actually used small keyboards before, foldable ones for PDA's and stuff like that, and they were more pleasant to type on than this). It's still very usable, but more usable if you have skinny fingers.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Originally posted by: Looney
I think i just heard Palm curl up and cry in a corner.

ROFL !!! I second that statement

 

[IlllI]

little more info about the 9in model

Text

 

[aceO07]

Originally posted by: clandren
little more info about the 9in model

Text

Wonder why they don't offer 8GB for Linux OS and only for XP. Seems like Linux will be 12GB and up. I think it's to pad profits since they want to charge more for the 12GB without Windows fees.

The addition of the Atom will be nice. I hope the price will actually drop from $499 and NOT increase.

 

[lurk3r]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: abaez

Originally posted by: lurk3r
The $399 for the 4G one is way too much, I'd rather have the 14" WS acer laptop Microcenter has now for $359. This device was a beautiful toy at $199, at double the price its a great idea killed by crap pricing.

People are always saying that it's better to get a cheap laptop than the eee. Your example weighs 6 pounds... there is no way I'd take it hiking or oversears and carry it in my bag all the time like I do with the eee.

what he said. It's a completely different market. It's like the macbook air, most of us would say grab that same 14" WS microcenter notebook. But some folks want (and can afford) to pay for ultra slim/almost ultra light. I still personally think it's way too much, even for it's market, but there's nothing to compete against it.

The EeePC is similar. It's a tiny grab and go. It's specs aren't that great, but it serves it's purpose, for the most part. I am with abaez that paying $600 is a stretch for what it is, but again, it's a different market from the normal notebooks

If I want tiny, mobile and easy, I use my Samsung i730 phone, it has wiireless (802.11b), and can get internet access over the cell line. Mine cost me a whole $100 on the VZW new ever 2 plan. Like I said not worth it at twice the price it was supposed to be. There's alot more hardware in the laptop that is available for less. This thing is built on the technology available in a $69 dvd player, with no operating system (linux is free), no hard drive, no optical drive, and basically no memory. The full retail value, to build one yourself would be under $200. Someone should start making a competitor in their basement and selling it with 4X the memory at $300.

 

[aceO07]

Originally posted by: lurk3r

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: abaez

Originally posted by: lurk3r
The $399 for the 4G one is way too much, I'd rather have the 14" WS acer laptop Microcenter has now for $359. This device was a beautiful toy at $199, at double the price its a great idea killed by crap pricing.

People are always saying that it's better to get a cheap laptop than the eee. Your example weighs 6 pounds... there is no way I'd take it hiking or oversears and carry it in my bag all the time like I do with the eee.

what he said. It's a completely different market. It's like the macbook air, most of us would say grab that same 14" WS microcenter notebook. But some folks want (and can afford) to pay for ultra slim/almost ultra light. I still personally think it's way too much, even for it's market, but there's nothing to compete against it.

The EeePC is similar. It's a tiny grab and go. It's specs aren't that great, but it serves it's purpose, for the most part. I am with abaez that paying $600 is a stretch for what it is, but again, it's a different market from the normal notebooks

If I want tiny, mobile and easy, I use my Samsung i730 phone, it has wiireless (802.11b), and can get internet access over the cell line. Mine cost me a whole $100 on the VZW new ever 2 plan. Like I said not worth it at twice the price it was supposed to be. There's alot more hardware in the laptop that is available for less. This thing is built on the technology available in a $69 dvd player, with no operating system (linux is free), no hard drive, no optical drive, and basically no memory. The full retail value, to build one yourself would be under $200. Someone should start making a competitor in their basement and selling it with 4X the memory at $300.

I'm not sure if a phone with QVGA(240 x 320) resolution is in the same class as the EEE 700 (800x480) or 900 (1024x600). I have an iPAQ with VGA(480x640) resolution and I still think that's too small for regular use.

Things that I miss on my iPAQ are big keyboard, even higher resolution and screen, more speed, usb ports, vga out. It has wireless, bluetooth, 2 expansion slots (SD + CF), touch screen and WM6.

I'd love to see a competitor come out with a better/thinner laptop for a cheaper price. I know there are announcements (of better products) from competitors, but no real product yet. There is also the Cloud and XO(?), but they seem to have problems or hard to get hold of.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: Dazed and Confused

Originally posted by: Looney
I think i just heard Palm curl up and cry in a corner.

ROFL !!! I second that statement

If Palm had built the Foleo, it prob would have tanked, Palm just can't seem to get anything right...

 

[Ackmed]

Few pics of my Asus Eee, including one compared to my M16A4 rifle. Very good piece of field gear.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23100685@N05/

 

[IlllI]

.

 

[IlllI]

lol its funny how when these were first announced they were 'supposedly' going to be 199...

ASUS Eee PC 900 Coming May 12 With $549 Price Tag =/

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: clandren
lol its funny how when these were first announced they were 'supposedly' going to be 199...

ASUS Eee PC 900 Coming May 12 With $549 Price Tag =/

yeah i posted about the new one the other day, too much $$$. i might like one with an Atom at $500, but i dont expect it. ill probably just get a new budget laptop, meh.

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: clandren
lol its funny how when these were first announced they were 'supposedly' going to be 199...

ASUS Eee PC 900 Coming May 12 With $549 Price Tag =/

Somebody should probably change the thread title already, lol.

A lot of similar laptops have been announced at around the same price point. $550 for a 9" notebook is very reasonable, the HP that just recently came out (or is coming out soon?) is in that price range for the lower-end models. Of course it has a better screen, but overall they're comparable, the 2133 has its downsides as well.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

Originally posted by: clandren
lol its funny how when these were first announced they were 'supposedly' going to be 199...

ASUS Eee PC 900 Coming May 12 With $549 Price Tag =/

Somebody should probably change the thread title already, lol.

A lot of similar laptops have been announced at around the same price point. $550 for a 9" notebook is very reasonable, the HP that just recently came out (or is coming out soon?) is in that price range for the lower-end models. Of course it has a better screen, but overall they're comparable, the 2133 has its downsides as well.

like an even lousier cpu

honestly, im starting to rethink my plans to get a subnotebook. thing is....i want a 14" t60, but i cant afford it

 

[Dizzymon]

I got my 4G about 2 months ago and it's been great for me. It took some doing to get XP loaded on there but once you are done it runs quite smooth. The keyboard is still my biggest gripe but once you get use to it then it is fine.

 

[Parasitic]

Testing out something new with mine...if it works then it's going to double as my router at home!

Edit: btw does anyone have a kill-a-watt? Can somebody measure what wattage a typical home wireless router uses?

 

[TerryMathews]

Easy to figure out, without a Kill-a-Watt.

Take the voltage and amperage req. from the back of the router (eg 9V 0.5A)

watts = voltage * current (in amps)

So for our example, the router is rated to use no more than 4.5W. Routers typically have a static load, and with no mechanical storage, their power usage is not likely to significantly increase or decrease unless you turn off the WiFi.

Note that this does not take into account inefficiency added in by the AC-DC wart. I think doubling your wattage calculation would give you a good draw from the plug.