Asus eeepc - main

11 Dec 2007


      A friend has one, which he had got for his wife, and brought it over to me as 
he was having trouble with the wireless settings, so I played with it for a 
half hour or so.  His problem, don't know whether its a usual one, is that he 
was having to enter the wireless pass phrase every time he started up in the 
default configuration.  I showed him the graphical network tool which he had 
not found, and we changed the setting.  There wasn't much guidance about how 
to set it.
It feels solidly made.  Your immediate impression is that its a quality item, 
not cheap feeling or looking at all.  Comes in a small neoprene envelope 
which looks like it will be adequate protection.
Bright very clear screen, though it is small.  I would like to see the screen 
extend to the edges more.  Maybe a later version will. Reasonably fast to 
start up and given the Ars review I was pleasantly surprised by how fast it 
loads OO.  Perfectly usable.  Keyboard is acceptable.  Its not a thinkpad X 
series.  You would not buy one to write your novel at every morning.  But its 
usable, you can touch type on it, though maybe not very fast.  Interface that 
it comes with, a customised version of Ice, is fine for end users.   Its such 
a different kind of machine that people just accept that this is not really a 
PC, so they seem unsurprised that the interface is a bit different.
It really is compact.  I had an old portege.  Its a lot smaller and lighter, 
about the size of and weight of a non-blockbuster hard cover novel.  It won't 
fit in the average handbag, but it will certainly fit in the average slim 
briefcase or portfolio.
Who its perfect for, well maybe someone who does systems admin would find it 
an alternative to a heavy laptop, but in terms of end users, its a perfect 
fit for someone who is mobile and wants mail, web, some writing, calendar, 
that sort of thing as they move around.  I wouldn't get it for someone who is 
going to do any serious writing - the screen size and keyboard will become a 
strain after a half hour, and an X series or equivalent will be better.  But 
for the kind of use described above, its hard to imagine anything better or 
more cost effective.
It may find all sorts of business uses at this price for field crews.  A lot 
of us will have some friend or family member who needs exactly this.  Though 
be a bit careful if they are real writers.
Peter