Basically, I want a ultraportable laptop specifically for word processing, spreadsheets, and wireless internet. The cheaper the better and these seem to be the lowest priced around and are pretty well rated. The screen is small, the keyboard is small, but price to functionally wise it looks like a good deal. Does anyone have any personal experience with these?

Another option is waiting a couple of weeks for the new 900 version to come out. Bigger screen, bigger hard drive (well more flash memory anyways), if the cost is right I might buy it.

http://eeepc.asus.com/global/900.htm

5/4/2008 9:45:20 AM

I'd wait if you've got no pressing needs, two more inches of screen real estate makes a huge difference in usability. The better screen and webcam are really the only perks, besides that the 900 has mostly the same internals as a 4G. You could buy a 4G, double the ram and buy a SD card to boost the storages space for less than the $150 price difference, so it really comes down to how bad you want the bigger screen.

Otherwise just get a 4G and manually upgrade the memory and clock the processor up to 900 Mhz. Then later you could sell it and upgrade once they start releasing ultraportables running the atom processor and have better features and have some market competition from the other bigs. Right now ASUS pretty much has the market aside from things like the HP Mini-Note, but it's VIA processor is garbage.

[Edited on May 4, 2008 at 10:28 AM. Reason : oh i forgot 900 also has a bigger trackpad which is much easier to use]

5/4/2008 10:27:32 AM

thanks, i'll probably go down to best buy or circuit city next week and play around with the keyboard to see how tough of a transition it will be. just from screen shots i've seen, i think the two extra inches in the display would make a ton of difference for me. less squinting and more work space. i'm not in a rush, but i want it by fall semester so i'll wait to see how the new one pans out or if any other products come on the market.

how long will it take to incorporate the atom processor into laptops? i'm not necessarily going to wait on it because i'm guessing it'll be pretty pricey but i'd be nice to see how small and light these laptops can get.

5/4/2008 10:42:15 AM

not to mention the newer ones with the Intel Atom processor, which should increase battery life by a good bit. Those should be coming out by the summer though.

5/4/2008 10:51:12 AM

^^good luck finding one in stores anywhere, I doubt there's a Best Buy in the entire state that has any

your best bet is to get one from Newegg, or I think the NCSU Bookstore has about 3 of the 4G surf models, (which lack webcams) but I don't think they're on display to try

5/4/2008 11:00:36 AM

yup, the ncsu book store has some.

5/4/2008 11:06:01 AM

a quick best buy search said one 2G version was available at store but none even close to where i live. circuit city doesn't even carry them. even if i bought it from best buy, it comes preinstalled with XP. part of the reason i want these are because they come with linux, i don't want to pay for an operating system i don't want to use.

5/4/2008 11:09:41 AM

you can get an option for xp or linux. With XP you can install windows based applications, the reason why there was a demand for it. Your best bet, as mentioned before, is to get one from newegg. Go check the 2GB one out at Best Buy and see if you really like it. There are alternatives on the market now as well. I believe ECS has one out as well as another company (forgot the name). HP and Dell are getting into the game soon too.

5/4/2008 11:29:54 AM

Quote :

"HP Mini-Note, but it's VIA processor is garbage."

So it's not worth looking into? I found one the matches up with the 900 price wise:
http://tinyurl.com/62jraw

It has a bigger hard drive (though I probably won't need 120 gigs for what I'm using it for), better resolution, weighs a little more and a different processor. That's all I could tell from a quick overview. No go on this one?

5/5/2008 1:47:19 AM

$550? pretty expensive to me.

5/5/2008 8:55:01 AM

5/5/2008 9:12:16 AM

HAHAHA

5/5/2008 9:47:43 AM

You can order them at any best buy I saw in their ad...

5/5/2008 9:55:19 AM

I recently received the 1.6Ghz Mini-Note

I'm VERY pleased with it running XP.

5/5/2008 12:00:32 PM

BJ's has a shit ton of these in stock.

5/5/2008 12:07:37 PM

Quote :

"$550? pretty expensive to me."

It's the same price as the eee 900 i'm considering

Quote :

"I recently received the 1.6Ghz Mini-Note I'm VERY pleased with it running XP."

Are you using the 2133? How hard is it adjusting to the keyboard and screen size?

Quote :

"BJ's has a shit ton of these in stock."

What's BJ's?

5/5/2008 5:18:01 PM

yes I have the 2133

to me, the keyboard is a non-issue as it's much larger than the eee. It's 92% of full size.

The screen can seem a little small due to the 1280x768 @ 8.9" resolution but I'd rather have that as a problem than having less resolution that couldn't show an entire webpage. It's definitely not to the point that I lower the resolution setting, i just find myself pulling the screen closer to my face at times.

my only complaint is in the processing power. HP wanted to get the 2133 out of the door to compete with the asus eee and as a result, the processing speed had to suffer as new low power chipsets have not yet hit the market. I'm certain that the next model will be a fully capable notebook (running xp that is) for basic tasks.

Even with this slower processor I can do most tasks. The webcam is a really cool feature when used with skype. the small laptop seems kind of like a camcorder as its easy to carry around. Quality isnt the best but I would definitely consider it acceptable. For me, it does exactly what I was looking for.

5/5/2008 7:12:58 PM

they're so neat! Cheap and much much lighter than this brick of an HP i'm toting around now

5/5/2008 7:51:16 PM

BJ's club, its like a Sams Club. Two in Raleigh, one in Cary by crossroads.

5/5/2008 9:15:50 PM

smaller & more portable = better imo. i wouldn't want one that's bigger if i were going for that

5/6/2008 12:09:02 AM

Ok, so i've pretty much decided i'm going to order the 900 when it's available. I just need to choose an OS.

The main difference is with Linux you get 20gb of space and with XP you get 12gb of space. It seems like an easy choice, but before you reply with, "Duh, Linux you idiot", remember that i've never used linux extensively and never had to rely on OpenOffice alone. If I had XP, I could install my old Office 2003 and I'm really comfortable with Windows. Also, for what I'm using it for, mainly word processing and spreadsheet, 12gb is more than enough.

So what's your opinion on the OS situation. Linux with more space or XP familiarity?

5/7/2008 12:17:56 PM

i can't see myself carrying around anything less than 12.1"

my current 14.1" is a bit big...one of the 13.3" would probably be perfect, IMO

5/7/2008 1:30:45 PM

if i didn't have such fat fingers this would be cool

i like a bigger keyboard

i like the fact that people find it so hackable and are installing os x and all sorts of stuff on it but i don't know - i need to get something simple, small, light, portable that just works and has a decent keyboard with decent power

edit:
just read that they're giving these things away with t-mobile broadband package - no way i want one anymore

[Edited on May 8, 2008 at 12:34 PM. Reason : .]

5/8/2008 12:23:55 PM

typing on my 900 that just arrived today. it's even smaller than i imagined. the keyboard is definitely going to take a lot of getting used to, but i really like the light weight and battery life. i definitely recommend it if you're looking for a (relatively) cheap ultraportable.

5/16/2008 5:54:18 PM

yeah I've got a black 4G and I love it, the only thing that really takes some getting used to is the screen size, for me at least. I don't have really fat fingers and after about the first week or so the keyboard practically becomes second nature.

I figure I'll probably wait a few more models before I upgrade, hopefully once they have an atom model I might try to sell this one and move up to that 2" bigger screen.

btw where'd you get your 900?

5/16/2008 7:24:55 PM

there was an article about these guys in USA Today the other day. I'd look for a link but I'm on my phone atm

5/16/2008 8:13:27 PM

^^amazon, i preordered as soon as it was posted which was like the day before it came out. Shipped on Wednesday and on my doorstep Friday. Asus actually has a 901 coming out in June with the Intel Atom processor and Bluetooth so you might want to wait awhile.

5/17/2008 8:04:53 PM

I thought I'd give everyone an update since it's been about a week since the 900 arrived:

Positives:
So light and portable, but then again it is an "ultraportable"...

Screen is just big enough to browse regularly and it fits every program nicely

Mouse pad utilizes two and three finger motions which makes it the first tracking pad I've felt comfortable with

Negatives:
XP is installed on the 4GB C: drive which leaves > 1 gig of space to work with. If you aren't careful, you'll run out of space quickly so be sure to install everything you can on the second drive and delete crap you don't need (old Java updates clear a ton of space)

It gets a little warm when you have the adapter plugged in but it's not uncomfortable by any means

Screen and Fan whines are a little annoying but unless you're in a soundproof room, you won't notice it too much.

Overall:
I love this thing. It's well worth the $550 price tag. I might have bought the linux version if I were more comfortable with the OS, but my needs for this computer leaves me plenty of space. If you're looking for a cheap laptop to take with you everywhere (school, travel), definitely consider this one.

5/25/2008 11:36:50 AM

$550 for a laptop is not so "cheap" nowadays though - they're all relatively in that price range. You could get an R61 from lenovo for that. As long as you don't want to game on it, you can get a really decent light-weight full laptop for that same price. I don't really see much of an advantage unless you're really wanting to put your laptop in your pocket or something.

5/25/2008 1:09:04 PM

http://sleabo.blogspot.com/2008/02/asus-eee-pc-will-kill-your-family-and.html

pretty good read on the asus. he has his a personal computer repair business and he uses his asus often.

he installed tiger on it too.

http://sleabo.blogspot.com/2008/03/mac-osx-104-tiger-on-eee-pc.html

5/25/2008 6:39:33 PM