I have been seeing a lot about This machine and wondered if anybody has one and if they would recommend it.

I know it has come in at about twice the expected price, and has very limited hard drive space, but it seems ideally suited to the sort of travelling I do. Wireless with Skype and messenger built in and a fully compliant web browser.
I am not to worried about the hard drive as I have an external 30gb unit on which I backup my photos.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

TimW

I saw the writeup about the Asus and I am also very interested in the machine for my traveling. There was another favorable writeup in PC Magazine.

Asus Eee - PC Mag

Thanks for the review. I am seriously thinking of getting one. Maybe Father Christmas......... :-)

TimW

Hi Tim,

Thanks for bringing it to my attention!! I am looking for a travel specific laptop as well. This might be a good possibility. I will see if there are any other reviews out there.

All the Best,

Leslie

I use a standard ASUS laptop and it works fine. I'm taking it to Asia with me next week.

I just bought one on Amazon. I think it will be just exactly what I need for travel. I'll keep you posted about how I like it. For $399 it's worth a gamble to me.

Kathy

I bought a ASUS EEE for my son for Christmas. So far he loves it. I think they would be great for traveling, much better than a Blackberry for internet use.

Having moaned about the increased price, and low availability of the Asus EEE, I am now awaiting the new Elonex PC which is half the price. Whether it will be available to the anybody, I don't know.

TimW

FWIW tim.it is now showing a package of the Asus and an USB HSPDA modem for 400 Euros. I think the modem on it's own is 150 Euros or so that makes the Asus about 250 Euros if you could split up the package.

It's not in stock yet so who knows what the final price will be.

I have had my EEEPC for a month and I love it! I'm on a learning curve with Xandros but it hasn't interfered with my doing everything I want to do. It's very fast, small, light and oh so cute!

Kathy

I have been looking at the EEE pc for about 6 weeks and just can't convince myself that it is the one. I am not stuck between the 8gig version when it comes out or the HP 2133 that is due out in a few months.

The HP offers better resolution and an 8.9 inch screen that will help prevent the website horizontal scrolling inherent in the EEE. My problem with the HP is it will be marketed with Windows Vista and I like XP. Microsoft have announced they will only support XP Home for about another year and XP Pro for about 2 more years. Hp's price point is a bit high (about $630). Long story short I will probably spring for the EEE and put XP on it. A good site for anyone interested in the EEE is here

Regards,

Foot Notes

quote:

Originally posted by Footnotes:
Long story short I will probably spring for the EEE and put XP on it. A good site for anyone interested in the EEE is here

Why would you do that? Won't XP just drag? Between the low memory and not exactly blazing processor I couldn't imagine forcing windows onto one of these machines.

Nick z,
You do not force windows onto an EEE. You put a skinny version (using something like nlite). You move the pagefile to a memory card along with a few other tweaks. The EEE user manual comes with instructions on how to install XP plus how to tweak it. If you go to the site I mentioned you will find many happy Windows users and a separate section of their forum devoted to the topic. Many users are getting 20-30 second boot times and report snappy performance. That being said, I do not know lenix and I do know Windows. I choose not to waste any of my few remaining years on learning a new operating system. My intended use for any UMPC is traveling, journal keeping, photo related use, and Ebook reading. None of those would be impacted by a properly tweaked Windows install.

Regards,

Foot Notes

I hate it when I don't spell correctly. Lenix in my previous post should be Linux or some spell it Linex. Sorry about that

Foot Notes

I have been looking at this unit and I'm quite interested in obtaining one. This is exactly the kind of functionality I want when travelling, small sized and light so I don't feel like it's a drag to carry, has all the basics I need like getting on the web with a full browser not some handicapped version like the one on the iPhones, email, editing some word docs, managing contacts etc. More than enough for on the road functionality.

I haven't yet seen the unit but I believe it is the size of a DVD box? That would be pretty amazing.

I couldn't care less if it doesn't run Windows out of the box as long as I can get the functionality I need. Infact not having buggy Windows may be a positive!

K03740,
FYI, Asus announced today that they will start marketing a 9 inch version in mid April. It will have higher resolution so the whole website will fit on the screen and it is only a hair larger than the current model. It will offer a choice of Linux or Windows and sell for about $600. This was announced at the Cebit show in Germany and experience has taught me that all of the above is subject to change until it's actual release.

Regards,

Foot Notes

very cool Footnotes, will be waiting for that release, thanks for the update

now this is pretty cool...



and found a great review here:

http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=13453

K0374O,
Just wanted to point out that the picture you posted is of the new EEE900 series announced yesterday. The review you found is of the original EEE700 series. You can tell the difference when you compare the two pictures by the size of the bezel around the perimeter of the screen. Another picture of the EEE900 can be found here

I think the EEE found a sweet spot and now the others are trying to catch up. Like I said earlier I have been vetting this thing for a while and like it a lot. I have no need for it right now so I will wait to see what the technology parade offers over the next few months. The new EEE900 series has my attention.

Regards,

Foot Notes

Hi Footnotes, yep I noticed that is the version they are going to release soon but I wonder if it will be within end of April. I would like to buy one and take it with me on my trip to Europe in mid May.

I have 2 laptops already, one is a Lenovo T60 from work and the other is an old Dell Inspiron 8000, both of them are just too heavy for me to lug them around on a vacation!

Hi K04730. The general concensus is that it will be released in the US in June or later. I got that from some of the geek type sites. Apparently, a few European countries may get it in April.

Regards,

Foot Notes