Asus EEE PC Review · DIGIT-ARC

Asus EEE PC Review

So, finally, after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to go for the EEE PC.
As the black one didn’t appeal much to me, I went for the Pearl White one.
It looks damn cool and sleek.
After getting it, I was waiting to reach home and start some RnD on it.
Got it for 16.7k in Mumbai.

Specs

Model Name- Eee PC 4G
Price (INR)- 16,700.
Memory (RAM) 512 MB (DDR2 SO-DIMM)
Solid-State Drive- 4 GB (soldered
Built-in Webcam-VGA (640×480) @ 30 fps
Battery- 4 Cells: 5200 mAh, 3~3.5hrs*
Storage Expansion- External MMC(plus)/SD(HC) slot
Display- 7”; WVGA (800×480) @ 133.3 PPI
CPU- 900 MHz Intel Celeron M ULV 353 @ 630 MHz
Operating System- Custom Linux OS (Xandros
Wired Networking- 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
Wireless Networking- 802.11b/g Wi-Fi (PCIe)
Internal Modem- External RJ-11 connector present but internal MDC board not populated
USB Ports- 3 external
External Display- VGA D-SUB (up to 1600×1280)
Audio- High Definition Audio with built-in stereo speakers and built-in microphone
Weight- 0.92 kg

First Look

It comes bundled with a customised Xandros distro.
I fiddled with it for quite some time.
It’s very zippy and fast. No lags.
Browsing the web, Playing some mp3s, movies didn’t seem to stress it much.
The TouchPad is quite responsive, again better than many lappy’s I ve used.
The keyboard is also very usable. It’s amazing as to how Asus has crammed a fully functional keyboard in this space.
The sound volume is too good. Better than most lappy’s I ve heard.
The Wi-fi works like a charm, and the Webcam gives a decent FPS of 17-20 when capturing video @ 640*480.
The UI, though babyish, is ideal for beginners to get acquainted with computers.
My Mom, on first seeing it went “Ooooooooooooohh! It’s so cute.” Even though She was never interested in computers, she looked eager to use this one.
The UI is veryyy intuitive (read: N00bish

) .
Finally I got too bored, (never liked Xandros anyways.) and was thinking whether to try out
Full Desktop Mode in Xandros, or install XP on it.
I decided on the latter as I was curious to see If this baby could handle XP as good as it is made out to be.

Installing XPeee

I had my own apprehensions as how will the EEE run XP on just a 630mhz proccy/512mb RAM.
So I trimmed XP PRO SP2 a bit using NLITE to a 331mb Setup size.
Then, as I didn’t have an external IDE/SATA casing, I used a 1GB Kingston DT to install XP on the EEE.
Followed this guide: *www.eeeguides.com/2007/11/installing-windows-xp-from-usb-thumb.html
It’s quite easy, So I won’t elaborate on that.
So after about 40 mins I had XP up and running.
Removed the Pagefile, turned off System Restore, and Removed the Recycle Bin to get some extra space on the measly 4GB SSD.
Installed the drivers from the bundled Asus DVD.
So now I had 3.17GB left with just the OS+Drivers installed. That’s quite decent IMO.
Then I installed some Apps like Opera, Firefox, Trillan, Office XP, VLC, Foxit, Winrar, Klite Codec Pack, Relo with Borland, TC, JDK 1.6, Netbeans 5.5.1, Matlab etc.
After all this I had about 2.24 GB left.
Coming back to the performance part, XP runs like makhhan on this. It is so light and zippy that you ll have to see it to believe it.
You can easily Multitask 3-4 apps without any lags.
The Sound quality is loud and clear and Video (Divx/Xvid) playback is light as well. Though don’t expect it to do 720p.

The 630mhz proccy does exceptionally good, maybe due to the presence of a SSD.
Netbeans and Matlab, very unexpectedly, runs fast enough on it.
Also when you are on AC, You can OC the proccy to 900mhz using EEECtl/EEEClock to get some extra power without losing battery life.
You can use the AstrayPlus utility to get better resolutions. They are working on 1000*600 currently.
Will try eeeXubuntu and eeeDora on it as soon as I get time.
Can’t wait to see Compiz on this.

EDIT: My chip can do 973mhz(107*9) max. BSOD at 108 FSB

Final Thoughts.

The Asus EEE PC is a very viable option for students and regular travellers who need a right mix of portability and power at a cheap price.
It is good for casual usage (Movies,MP3s,Browsing,Office,Downloads).
The small SSD may seem to be a hindrance, but it is very manageable. I still have around 1.5gb space left with all my stuff(Some Apps, Flash games, Songs,) in it.
It might be handy to have a 4/8GB Flash Drive/ SDHC around for extra storage.
Will run a few benchmarks on it soon. (Didn’t want to humiliate it by posting the SuperPi 1M score here

)
PS. Get used to a lot of stares whenever you use it.

PROS:
Very Portable
Cheapest Functional Laptop
Shock-Resistant
Sleek and Sexy

CONS:
4GB SSD Size
630mhz proccy (But you don’t expect a beast at this Price/Size, Do you?)

Images
BTW, Sorry for the Ultra Grainy pics. 1.3MP.

*img149.imageshack.us/img149/3883/eee12ey8.th.jpg
*img206.imageshack.us/img206/7733/eee2qk3.th.jpg
*img149.imageshack.us/img149/2026/eeekm0.th.jpg
*img205.imageshack.us/img205/4118/eee5of7.th.jpg
*img214.imageshack.us/img214/3964/eee4dv4.th.jpg
*img149.imageshack.us/img149/7430/eee3kq6.th.jpg
*img149.imageshack.us/img149/2275/eee8fp3.th.jpg
*img214.imageshack.us/img214/8896/eee9va1.th.jpg
*img149.imageshack.us/img149/6232/eee10zw2.th.jpg
*img206.imageshack.us/img206/8088/eee11sj2.th.jpg
*img214.imageshack.us/img214/2687/eee7gx0.th.jpg
*img149.imageshack.us/img149/2452/eee6kn1.th.jpg

*eeepcindia.blogspot.com/

EOF

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I would prefer buying a SE W960i or Nokia N82 anyday instead of EEE PC anyday. Few days ago I saw the HCL Mileap 201 Ultra Portable in the market. it has a tablet PC like input system & I was flat on it in 2 mins

, but no support for aero is a no go for me. Aero is not just a cool looking UI anymore, it adds to the functionality.

hey Pathik, EEE PC seems really cool and cute

I ws planning to get one soon, and I ws planning just like u did........to install customized XP of my own on it. Pleased to hear XP runs without any trouble on it.....am gonna get a 16GB Corsair Voyager along with this for extra storage.

EDITED :hmm sry Pathik, ur name is corrected from Patik to Pathik

The name is Pathik.

BTW yea go for it.
It runs Dota and CS decently too.

on what chipset is it based on ?? since i wanted to know what IGP is present so low end games will work....

also how did u manage increase the display resolution since the LCDs cant handle more than the resolution it is made for ???

Intel 910 chipset, GMA900 prolly.

I saw it in Croma (Rs17100) and there is a shop of Asus (authroised maybe, may be company itself) in Nehru Place (Rs18000).

Personally I would wat for the EEE PC 900 to come in India. It would take an year or so according to the people in ship in NP, but wud be worth the wait.

Yep It has a GMA 900 IGP with 64mb VRAM.
And you can use the 800*480 and 800*600 using the official Astray and other resos using modded video drivers and Astray plus.

H

Good to read the RE-View how ever still would advocate for Acer 5315 compaq c702tu type lower end mainstream notebook

ohh.. forgot to add, congrats

finally I can literally see a Dream Come true :lol:

as if I remember correctly, you were keep posting, "My dream to own a lappy would never come true unless OLPC / EEEPC comes to india" from the date some one posted a news about the sub USD 199 Notebook

^^ Hehe.. Thanks.

H

Pathik said:
^^ Hehe.. Thanks.

waiting for some better pictures

Nice review
I am worried about that "soldered" word mentioned near hard disk (solid state). Does it mean we can't change it? Or the connectors may be fragile?

Nope you cant change it. Except in the case of the 8G. But you can get a high speed pendrive and permanently connect it to a usb port internally.

T

Nice Review

So Pathik.. you finally got EEEPc eh?

You mebbe interested in this: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82771

T

Thanks for the review

Congarts Pathik, and nice review.

nice review

I 'm waiting for the 9inch one it looks very sexy

_

@prathik... congrats dude, on your new gizmo.

btw. can ya post some screen shots of the native resolution and the enhanced resolution?

how much is the 9"er gonna be?

A

infra_red_dude said:
So Pathik.. you finally got EEEPc eh?

You mebbe interested in this: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82771

LOL, what was that, whole wiki thread seemed to me like Two Fast Two Furious car racing thing, heehe, the guy structured everything , but I am damn sure it would have become a PC and not a real portable after that much of troubleshooting and rebuilding, except for the screensize of the lappy.

Thanks evy1. More Images and screenies coming soon.

Get us a screenie of you browsing this forum.

And try OpenArena on it and see how much you can push that game on the book.
Same For Unreal Torunament Goty, Counter Strike and Urban Terror and FIFA 2005.

Its supposed to manage those games decently.

And yes, congratulations.
Did you try installing another distro on it ?
Does it run Compiz Fusion ?

Yup it does run CF decently.. I ll try eeeXubuntu and EEEDora in a week or so.

Pathik said:
Yup it does run CF decently.. I ll try eeeXubuntu and EEEDora in a week or so.

Xandros must be good enough right ?
Have you tried the full desktop mode ?
What about KDE ?
What about Gaming ?
Any game running tests on your EEE yet ?
You got a PenDrive for that EEE Slogan Contest, didn;t you ?
Did you make good use of it on your Eee PC ?

thx for the review pathik

there may be distros which are optimized for eeepc.try that!also waiting for some decent pics

may be I'll go for this if they ever have a 8GB model available in India.

nice review!

Imo the default Xandros sucked. Even with the full desktop mode.. So i switched to xp on the 1st day itself. Tried dota on it wit a reg hack. Worked good. No other game. Tried many ides on it.. Most worked great.. No lags even at 630mhz. And my eee is stable at max 963mhz.
Yep praka eeexubuntu and eeedora are custom mods of xubuntu 7.10 and fedora 7. Wait 4 the eee900.
Thanx asfaq.

Pathik said:
Imo the default Xandros sucked. Even with the full desktop mode.. So i switched to xp on the 1st day itself. Tried dota on it wit a reg hack. Worked good. No other game. Tried many ides on it.. Most worked great.. No lags even at 630mhz. And my eee is stable at max 963mhz.
Yep praka eeexubuntu and eeedora are custom mods of xubuntu 7.10 and fedora 7. Wait 4 the eee900.
Thanx asfaq.

try hardy alpha(or beta) if you can.
try some mainstream distros like Mandriva and PCLinuxOS if you can.

they will be the main deciding factor for future prospective buyers.

do you think Vista Basic will work on it ?

^

MetalheadGautham said:
try hardy alpha(or beta) if you can.
try some mainstream distros like Mandriva and PCLinuxOS if you can.

they will be the main deciding factor for future prospective buyers.

do you think Vista Basic will work on it ?

All distros work on it quite fine, only thing is that they are not optimized for the small screen.

Even Vista Basic works, rather flies if tweaked properly. The only hitch is that you need to put in a larger flash drive or install it on an external hdd.

w00t!

Nice review

Congrats pathik. Nice review

Ohhhh so finally you did got it!!! Congrats! Nice review too. I won't be surprised if it got featured in Digit as well (in the section where they publish some of the posts on the forum that interest them.)

Thanks pushkaraj, krazy.
BTW krazy, "Agar tum kisi cheez ko dil se chaho, to puri kaynaat tumhe us se milane me lag jaati hai. - OSO"

^ LOL! Still I'd got an N82 though.

congo bhai, nice review also a with xp version is released i guess

Thanks man.
BTW yea the XP version ll be available thru retailers by end april.
From what I ve heard they ll also bundle a 4gb sd card and a mini optical mouse with it. No Idea of the pricing though. Should be 20-21k.

The second generation one you mean?
The one with 9 inch screen. Its coming to india so fast!
Hell Yeah! Bring it on!

^^ That one is coming but there is also version of the 7" with XP that ll come before the eee 900.
BTW Kumar are you gonna get the 9"er?

J

Congrats... nice review!!!!

Thanks.. Did you get your dv6608au?

Thanks pathik for the review

Pathik said:
^^ That one is coming but there is also version of the 7" with XP that ll come before the eee 900.
BTW Kumar are you gonna get the 9"er?

Yep, it is the one I am waiting for!. The 9inch with linux. Considering that I already have a copy of XP to spare. And now that it seems multi touch would be included.
*www.engadget.com/2008/03/26/asus-9-inch-eee-pc-900-hits-the-fcc/

It is much more desirable.

Only thing is- how long before it comes to India!

J

Pathik said:
Thanks.. Did you get your dv6608au?

ya got it with 2gb ram didnt get much time to use it though

Nice review PATHIK and also congrats... Enjoy.. U could've bought compaq pc which costs around 21K. Sorry don't know model.. Saw it in their side.. Just check it out..

Dude you cant compare the eee with any other pc or laptop. Thanks

Pathik said:
Dude you cant compare the eee with any other pc or laptop. Thanks

I am with you there.

while EEE PC can't be callled the people's laptop anymore, its still in a class of its own, just like the way mac users claim their mac to be. No other book, the macbook air, the 20k compaq laptop, the 20k acer laptop and the ACi Ultra Mini included, offer what EEE PC has got - Ultimate Mobility combined with ultimate stability. The perfect thing for executives on the move.

how many execs u think that will use this..the answer is 0....i asked to a local vendor who deals this..he said he sold 12 peices all students..

execs will never use this..poratbility is a issue..byt never eeepc..thers a thing called class..heheheh u cant whip it out in a board room meeting...itll look tacky...but ppl may....i say they wont..they might go for cheap compaq or other alternatives...

for students its a god send...

It might not have been that popular in India, but if you look otherwise, its selling like hot cakes..The main issue according to me is the not-so popular and affordable wifi access in our country and people dont understand quality..Its only quantity that Indians can think of..Example: 'Ooohh..its got only 4 GB storage...that sucks' kindof attitude..

well, india is a different case. And still, its a baaaaad option for students, AFAIK.

Actually it's a very good option IMO.
It's damn good for programming. You can OC the proccy safely to 0.9ghz+ if u need more juice... It is a damn good option for ebook reading.. The portability just rocks..

Well, I gave in to the temptation when a guy in a big store here in Frankfurt said that he just got 1 piece in stock..I took it

Congoratis man..

Thanks buddy!! Tried the new Mandriva Spring ? It supposedly has special support for EEE!

No man.. Exams+Crappy net =No RnD on my beloved EEE.
btw do post a review and some pics. Do u hav a black or white one?

MetalheadGautham said:
well, india is a different case. And still, its a baaaaad option for students, AFAIK.

In appreciating something like EEE PC, common Indian is more like a nut case. As rightly put by Pat, it is the quantity that matters for us Indians!

Correct. BTW Kumar, how r ur eee 900 plans going. And yea it has 1gb ram,12gb ssd but the same celeron m ulv as the normal eee.

I got a white one with a german keyboard layout but thats ok..EEE 900 thats coming out in a couple of months has the same processor as EEE 701, but there will be one more series coming out later this year which will have Intel Atom processors but will have a base price of 599$!

Will post some pics soon

I have the moolah with me, let the 900 come to India. I can purchase it if it is below 25 grand and comes with Xandros. I wont buy the one with Windows preinstalled

go for a normal laptop..why eee pc then..nothing against it....

^^ Because
1. I already have a normal laptop.
2. It weighs 2.2 kg without bag and power brick which makes it a total of 3 KG.
3. The sheer weight makes my shoulder hurt.
4. I dont really require the power of a full fledged laptop as major part of my work involves typing, writing articles for the web.

I am confused between EEE 9000 and the Mileap Y (kohjinsha) becuase of its tablet form factor yet a smaller screen.

oohh my bad....

For all said Asus eeePC 900 caught the attention at CeBit this year.
Lots of of eeePC were sold for christmas gift item last year also.

First its the mobility that it offers and the screen size of 8.9" inch screen which will be very good option as an e-book reader.(eee 701 screen size is rather small for pdf viewing)

Here in India not many are interested in e-book reader (sony prs505,Iliad Irex,Cybook etc:none of them available in India AFSIK)

Asus eeePC 900 is a perfect choice for e-book reader and i will buy if its come to India as i have many pdf books for my studies.

The downside of eeePc :399 Euro (Rs.25,430/-)
low battery life for ultra mobility (3.5 hrs for 701)
Windows pre-installed not linux (cost!!)

I dont care about the other configs as i will need it mainly for pdf viewing.

for ebook reading u would spend 25k...

)

heard abt pda or pda phones.....???? if mobility u want then nothing would beat those...

pda phones are too small for normal pdf viewing and especially for reference.e-book reader is going to gained grounds in the future.Go to this site(good site)

*www.mobileread.com/forums/

hmm.......

dunno wat to say ....... pdf reading is equivalent to book reading and i would have dedicated pdf reader not eee pc..

madjeri said:
hmm.......

dunno wat to say ....... pdf reading is equivalent to book reading and i would have dedicated pdf reader not eee pc..

its your choice bro but right now e-book readers are in the transition stage(still growing:most of them not good for A4 pdf) and in future we will see more better e-book readers. :smile:

@kumar the eee900 atom wala will definitely pawn the mileap y in terms of performance and price. @lognet and madjeri, yea this one is good 4 ebooks.

Resources do not really matter for me. The problem is that atom is getting crappy reviews in comparison to the celeron EEE and the convertible form factor is what is making me swing the decisions. If Asus can declare convertible, tablet EEE with 9inch screen, I would abandon mileap.

*laptoping.com/intel-atom-benchmark.html
Seems like Atom isnt worth it maybe.

J

two things i wanted to add to this thread which may seem a bit offtopic

1.*www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-eeepc-battery,5216.html
Asus has admitted providing differnt batteries to users and reviewers

2. I have seen website devlopment professionals using ultraportable laptop users like HCL mileap and ASUS eepc which shows that they are being used not only by students and professionals also

^^
1. Thats really bad..So the reviews suggesting a backup of 2.5 hrs were on a 5800 mAh battery? If its true, that sucks big time!

2. EEE PC ,although initially designed for kids/students, is actually used worldwide by users in all segments (Home/Business etc.)

What battery life do u get? I get 3hrs + on mine.

Although I havent checked extensively, I am roughly getting around 3 hours on mine!

So how s life after EEEfication?

Aah..its a gem of a device..but havent had much time to work with it..Last week I had gone to a place called black forest where we were kindof lost..I found a wifi hotspot and found out some information from internet via my EEE..The people passing by were looking at the little beauty and giving me smiles! Lol! Thats the true power of the EEE

krazzy said:
Nice review too. I won't be surprised if it got featured in Digit as well (in the section where they publish some of the posts on the forum that interest them.)

Pathik toh famous ho gaya!!

I dunno whether you know this or not, but your EEE PC review got published in Digit mag (April '08 issue), just as I had predicted

. Congrats!

*img215.imageshack.us/img215/3406/dsc00074uh2.th.jpg

Thanks man.

J

congrats pathik

I hope Pathik will again give a brief review after may be 3 months of use!

whether EEEpc is accepted into your "system" or not

Thanks juggy..
@Praka, yea sure. Btw it is an integral part of my system now.
Planning to try out eeeXubuntu 8.04 in a week or so.

D

Thank you bro for writing such a nice review. I have almost made up my mind to buy this gem. But i have one major concern, can we install xp sp2 on a usb harddisk and boot using it on the eee pc. This way, i will leave the pre installed os untouched and have windows on a much bigger size hard disk. I dont want to install xp on the ssd itself. Please help me, it is urgent.

^^I see no reason why it should not be possible, but why not install it on the ssd itself ? an n-lited xp installation can be done inside 600-700 MB and you will still have plenty of room on the SSD!

Yep it is possible. But the best option, as Pat said, would be to install xp on ssd. You can reinstall the default Xandros whenever you want. And it is always better to hav your os in your primary drive.

atleast ssd's around 60GB is needed these days.I hope eeepc will bundle it in a year or so :-|

D

Thanks for the super quick replies. Ok if we install it in the ssd itself, can we use the pagefile?

you CAN, but you should not!

Yep. You shouldnt. It ll take up unnecessary space. And also the ssd is a lot faster than ur normal Hdd

P

praka123 said:
atleast ssd's around 60GB is needed these days.I hope eeepc will bundle it in a year or so

I dont think that gonaa happen!
very soon Its going to lauch its 9" Eee Pc which is bundled with 8gb/12gb/20gb options!
clocked at 1ghz
fairly enough for many of us!
let wait for prices outside india its costing 330 euros
lets hope same prices in india!

what more should we expect at this price tag!!
I think its best deal for lappys in India from ASUS

^^ 330 Euros ? Where did you get that from buddy ? I am in Germany and AFAIK it is not released in Europe yet! If I am not wrong, its only available in Taiwan and the cost of EEE PC 900 is USD 599!

P

got This info from Tech2 !!
watch that video bro
*www.tech2.com/india/videos/tech-talk/eee-pc-9-in/30981

I did not listen to the audio as I am at work right now but I am pretty much sure about the price buddy, its 549 USD and not 599 USD

Edit: Just read somewhere..it is not 330 Euros, its 330 Pounds

Dude, I'm looking at the HCL MiLeap Classmate PC right now. Ditto config except 30GB HDD instead of 4GB SSD.

Need reviews. Fast. Is screen size enough ? You have used it for an year atleast. End results on experience ?

I hardly use mine these days. 7" screen is a bit too small for doing any productive work. Its bloody brilliant when you are traveling and need access to internet or some other stuff. Its nice for fun and to do *keeda kaandi*, but not otherwise. I would recommend getting a 10 incher netbook!

P.S: I am planning to use my sparingly used EEE PC as either a NAS or Media Server for my home. Prolly that will whet my geek appetite for the moment.

D

Good Review. Planning to buy a Netbook.

Pat said:
I hardly use mine these days. 7" screen is a bit too small for doing any productive work. Its bloody brilliant when you are traveling and need access to internet or some other stuff. Its nice for fun and to do *keeda kaandi*, but not otherwise. I would recommend getting a 10 incher netbook!

P.S: I am planning to use my sparingly used EEE PC as either a NAS or Media Server for my home. Prolly that will whet my geek appetite for the moment.

How bad really is 7" ?

Its not bad. But as I said its a bit too small for my liking. You need to get a hands-on on any 7" netbooks to see if it fits your purpose.

Any idea where I can find one of them picobooks ?