The Eee PC is one of the greatest pieces of kit I have ever bought, and at the low price of around £230 you cannot go wrong. It's compact form factor was the main selling point for me, as it gives me the ability to work on the train without adding any considerable weight to my bag.
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Advantages: Cheap, very portable, good connectivity, well-organised OS Disadvantages: Some Wifi trouble under Linux, limited internal storage, unrepsonsive spacebar
The Eee PC is one of the greatest pieces of kit I have ever bought, and at the low price of around £230 you cannot go wrong. It's compact form factor was the main selling point for me, as it gives me the ability to work on the train without adding any considerable weight to my bag.
'''The Unit'''
The Eee PC is a few centimetres larger than a DVD case in each dimension in terms of footprint at around 23x17cm. It's around ... ...port, a USB 2.0 port, a microphone socket and a headphone socket, as well as the exhaust fan duct. The right hand side features an SDHC-compatible SD card slot, two USB 2.0 ports, a standard monitor port and a Kensington-style security slot. The back only has the socket for the power cable. When the laptop is opened up it reveals a 7'' screen (resolution of 800x480) stereo speakers flanking the screen, a VGA webcam above the screen, a full QWERTY ... more
The Eee PC is one of the greatest pieces of kit I have ever bought, and at the low price of around £230 you cannot go wrong. It's compact form factor was the main selling point for me, as it gives me the ability to work on the train without adding any considerable weight to my bag.
The Unit
The Eee PC is a few centimetres larger than a DVD case in each dimension in terms of footprint at around 23x17cm. It's around 3cm thick. The left hand side houses an RJ-45 Ethernet port, a USB 2.0 port, a microphone socket and a headphone socket, as well as the exhaust fan duct. The right hand side features an SDHC-compatible SD card slot, two USB 2.0 ports, a standard monitor port and a Kensington-style security slot. The back only has the socket for the power cable. When the laptop is opened up it reveals a 7'' screen (resolution of 800x480) stereo speakers flanking the screen, a VGA webcam above the screen, a full QWERTY keyboard and a mouse touchpad. The bottom right hand corner houses LED indicators for power, charging status, HDD and WiFi. The underside of the laptop features a user-accessible RAM slot, which I have used to replace the included 512MB stick with a 1GB stick.
Operation
Upon switching on the Eee, the user is greeted by an Eee splash screen, after which the operating system loads very quickly. It is organised into tabs for different activities and includes OpenOffice, webbrowsing and games amongst other things. If this interface is too simplified, the user can switch to a normal Linux desktop which enables full customisation of the PC, installing new software etc. Configuring the network settings to connect to my home wireless network was very easy, although at first the laptop seemed reluctant to connect to my router. It eventually worked, but I reckon it was to do with the WPA encryption I use, as after testing on open networks and WEP protected ones I met no problems at all.
I opted to install Windows on my Eee after exploring the default OS in order to provide a more familiar environment. With an external optical drive installation went very smoothly and the PC is now running XP Pro SP2 flawlessly. Generally the Eee runs quite fast; graphicaly it copes fine with running the original Unreal Tournament and the PicLens Firefox extension.
Using the monitor port I have had no problem connecting the Eee to a projector to show videos and is diminutive size has made it perfect for moving around giving presentations.
I have found the spacebar to be a little unresponsive - it needs to be pressed slightly harder than you might normally press it while typing. I'm not sure whether this is a general problem or just with mine.
Storage
The 4G comes with a built-in SSD with a 4GB capacity, hence the model name. This provides a user with ample space for light use such as office documents, but for anything larger (including Windows which takes about half of my SSD) the SD slot is essential. I currently have a 4GB SDHC card with larger files an applications on it, although I would recommend keeping system files or applications which need to run in the background off the removable storage so you are still free to use the slot for other cards!
Battery
The battery life is not exceptional but is more than acceptable - I get around 3 max out of it, although WiFi use reduces this. Considering the fact that the charger is closer in size to a mobile phone charger than a normal laptop power brick (the plug is the whole thing) it's not a chore to carry around for use on the move.
Modifications
A massive Eee PC community has sprung up at sites such as eeeuser.com, where the more adventurous Eee users can find info on upgrading the laptop. It really is a modders dream whether you want to perform a simple RAM upgrade or install a touchscreen!
In short, the Eee PC provides the ideal platform for work on the move while staying connected, or gives users the opportunity to modify to their heart's content. Why pay more than £1000 for an ultraportable PC when, in all honesty, this little beauty can do everything you need for a fraction of the price?
Advantages: Fast boot time, Good connectivity Disadvantages: Small keyboard, horizontal scrolling, poor webcam
The Asus EEE is one of those things that you never knew you needed until you get it. I have been so impressed by this tiny machine that I am planning to get my own once I have to give back this one that I borrowed from work. So what exactly is a sub-notebook anyway?
Well the first thing you notice about the EEE is it's size. It's really small & compact yet has a surprising plastic but tough feel to it. You could be forgiven for thinking that someone ... ...hours when fully charged the Asus EEE is a wonderful mobile companion. I would choose it over devices costing more than double (see some of my other reviews), as its a prime example of the manufacturer being on-the-ball and creating a really usable PC at a bargain basement price. I would love to get my hands on the larger screen version as it can be slightly annoying having to use the horizontal scroll-bar to read some web content but that's down ...
cport80 15.07.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of ASUS Eee PC 4G
Advantages: fast internet connection (inbuilt wireless) Disadvantages: simple games, low memory
Navigation: The lapop runs on a version of Linux and has tabs for internet, work, learn, play, settings and favourites.
Internet: This is a very good laptop for internet browsing, as has mozilla Firefox and a very fast inbuilt wireless capability.The computer holds, on one of its main pages, icons which take you to igoogle, wikipedia, web mail and a world clock, internet usage has been integrated very well into this machine. However if you don't ... ...traveling I don't see the point in getting such a small laptop. Also you will find a messenger and skype (never got the messenger to work), not as easy as msn messenger.
Work:
I found this laptop very good for doing work on, with documents, spreadsheets and presentations on open office software, able to be saved as microsoft word documents. Mail can be used easily to transport work from computer to computer, and an easy navigable document save ...
callumkemp755 24.02.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of ASUS Eee PC 4G
Advantages: Size, robustness, weight, Linux Disadvantages: Screen estate
...experienced at dismantling computers! Hopefully, Asus will add this mod into the next gen of EEE PCs as it really would make it the ultimate machine.
The keyboard is a little difficult to get used to at first, as it is smaller than your average tablet, but it doesn't take long to accustom yourself to the proximity of the keys, and the action is smooth.
The machine does tend to get a little warm on the front left hand side, but as my machine hasn't ... ...have had it, I don't think this is an issue. And in winter, it keeps your hands warm!
I have to mention the wifi connectivity. There are 3 in-built antennas for wireless, and this makes it one of the most impressive machines for finding wi-fi hotspots/connectivity that I have tried. It beats two smartphones - Nokia N95 and HTC Hermes, the Mac Mini and a laptop with external wifi antenna at finding signals round us. This is a major plus in the world ...
cybersavvy22 19.02.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of ASUS Eee PC 4G
Advantages: Price, easy to use, very portable, good features Disadvantages: Size, over-heating battery.
...expert on broadband, email and web surfing. If we'd bought her a Windows PC I doubt any of this would have been possible. So whatever my doubts as an experienced computer user, this Asus has opened up a vast world to my mother for which we are both extremely grateful! ...
lizzielocky 13.04.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of ASUS Eee PC 4G
Advantages: battery life, easy to use, quick to start, alright quality webcam Disadvantages: small hardrive
...have a look at the asus eee wiki (http://wiki.eeeuser.com/) which will help you install new programs etc. Battery life is amazing i have the smaller battery and can get 3 hours or more out of it even with wifi. The only bad thing is the amount of storage. The 4GB harddrive just isnt enough for me but this can be combated by adding a SD/MMC/SDHC card into the slot which works fine for me. As for portability there are no issues there its so small and ...
stevet2207 10.02.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of ASUS Eee PC 4G
Share photos of your travels without waiting till you get home with the netbook ASUS Eee PC notebook. Shop the World Wide Web without attaching any lines or wires. Learn through the latest technology without a technical manual. Play, relax, and entertain on the go with shock-proof design. Connect with friends and family with just a few clicks.
