We pick up (literally) Asus tiny new ultraportable laptop, available now for less than $400. Will bargain hunters buy these in bulk? Check out our hands-on impressions.
We'd been hearing about Asus spanking new EEE PC for some time, and were happy to finally see one up close at the Digital Focus event in New York City. The EEE stands for Easy to learn, easy to work and easy to play, and we can also add that it's easy to pick up. With the battery installed, the laptop weighs about two pounds, though perhaps leg-top would be more appropriate, as you could easily fit one on each leg of an average-sized lap.
The display is very small, and takes up little of the laptop's upper half. Still, it looks nice, and comes in at a WVGA resolution, so widescreen movies should look good on the machine. The specs on the inside were much more impressive. The laptop, which comes in four increasingly capable flavors, features 802.11g Wi-Fi networking, between two and four gigabiytes of solid-state storage, up to a gig of RAM, and a Web camera, even on the cheapest model.
The device runs a variant of Linux, specially compiled for the EEE PC, and we found it very easy to use in our brief hands-on test. Though it may be Linux underneath, the graphical interface is all simple icons and tabbed folder, so it wasn't difficult to jump right in and start browsing the Web, or typing an Office document. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi connection at the event was poor, so we couldn't test the performance. The interface seemed very polished, with plenty of 3D icons and cool shading effects.
Typing on the keypad was quite comfortable. Of course, we're used to typing on our Palm Treo and our Dell D420 subnotebooks, so small keys don't bother us much
As easy as it was to pick up, Asus also claims a level of shock-resistance, so this could be a nice tool for carrying around in a backpack, though we wouldn't take it kayaking. For connectivity, the device is loaded with ports. We found a phone modem, ethernet port, three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA connector and an SD card slot.
Asus has recently added support for Windows XP, but we think this defeats the purpose of such a cheap, open device. Purchasing an XP license could almost double the price of the low-end EEE PC, and we found the Linux interface to be polished and easy to use, even for non-Linux users like ourselves.
Asus has already begun shipping the 4GB configuration of the EEE PC for $400. A 2GB version will bottom out the range, and an 8GB version will also be available at the high-end. Rumor has it the 8GB version also might sport a larger screen, but only time will tell.
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Pros:
Cute, small and light. Quick and capable, with a simple interface. Plenty of ports and connectivity options.
Cons:
Tiny keyboard, tiny trackpad. Screen looks even smaller than it is. Low resolution makes browsing and multi-tasking difficult. | | |
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