ASUS EEE (701) Laptop

[stogie bear]

A review...

I wanted a truly portable laptop to do some routine tasks like emails, updating the websites and annoying the forum readers, so I did what I normally do... search the internet!

I also wanted a 'proper' computer that did everything... NOT a mobile phone or PDA or a full sized laptop...

Along came the Asus EEE 701!

Mine came pre-installed with a 'copy' of Windows XP. After clearing out the crap I didn't need and installing the programs that I do need I have about half a gigabyte left of the tiny 4 gig hard drive that this unit came with.

It comes with wireless, camera, mic, 3 USB ports, VGA out, card slot and network socket.

It does NOT come with an optical drive for playing discs and there's no Bluetooth either.

It recognized all my USB extras like a mouse, memory sticks and external drives.

If you are a lightwieght computer user and want a lightwieght compuetr then this amazingly cheap device should be seriously high on your list.

Mine cost under 13,000 Baht.

It's fast and it's stylish...

Any questions?

[stogie bear]

Some extra notes...

The mains cord looks more like a phone charger and NOT a black brick! Very nice!

The speakers are the best I've ever heard on a laptop and you can always plug in headphones or external speakers if you need to.

The resolution is 800 X 480 (or something like that.)

The keyboard takes some getting used to!

It wieghs almost nothing! Great for carrying about.

[mardhi]

Sounds interesting - where did you buy it? pantip? Fortune? somewhere else?

Cheers
Mardhi

[rxpharm]

Looks interesting, I am looking for a travel laptop, lugging around my IBM, and other toys is getting heavy!

Here is a review from Laptop Magazine:

Asus Eee PC 701
Pound for pound, the best value-priced notebook on the planet.

Price: $399

by Mark Spoonauer
Date Posted: 10/25/2007


This past weekend a circular advertised a Vista-powered laptop equipped with a Celeron processor, 14.1-inch display, an 80GB hard drive, and a DVD drive for only $399. For the same price, the Asus Eee PC (see the photo gallery) offers the same amount of RAM and Celeron processor but a smaller seven-inch display, a measly 4GB of storage space, and no DVD drive. And yet there's no way we would give up this two-pound wonder for a "regular" notebook. The Eee PC may be designed to appeal to children and older customers, but it should also tempt anyone looking for a lightweight budget PC that weighs next to nothing and connects to the Internet easily. It's ten times simpler to use than any Windows machine, starts up twice as fast (no crapware!), and is only about a fifth of the cost of other systems in its weight class. It's a little rough around the edges, but the Eee PC is a remarkably versatile machine for the price.

Refreshing Interface
The reason why the Eee PC should appeal to kids and grandparents alike is the streamlined, tab-based interface that offers only six easy-to-understand options: Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings, and Favorites. In some cases the Asus-designed menu (which runs on top of Linux) merely offers links to sites that Web-savvy users have already bookmarked, like Yahoo e-mail or Google Docs, but these choices are welcome for a target audience that may not be able to find these resources easily. We also appreciated the option of using these quick shortcuts, as opposed to opening the browser first. Users will love having a clutter-free desktop for day-to-day use and will likely find navigating the various options refreshingly simple compared with XP or Vista, as well as with Mac OS X.

Small, But Not Too Small
We found the small seven-inch, 800 x 480-pixel display pretty easy on the eyes, especially when compared with Ultra-Mobile PCs like the OQO model 02 (5 inches) and FlipStart 1.0 (5.6 inches), but most users don't have that point of reference. A three-year-old accustomed to a 14-inch LCD didn't mind the screen while she was having fun with Mickey and friends on Playhousedisney.com. On the other hand, we don't see many people above the age of 50 using this device as their primary computer unless they hook it up to a bigger external LCD, which start at about $170.

Overall, the Eee PC's design is fairly solid and incredibly travel-friendly for the price. Our white model (black and other colors will come later) features an SD Card slot, two USB ports, and a VGA port on the right. An extra USB port, Ethernet and modem connections, and headphone and mic jacks line the left side. The keyboard is cramped but is just big enough to touch-type on; the biggest annoyance is the proximity of the Up arrow key and right Shift key; we accidentally moved up a line on several occasions while trying to capitalize a letter. And although we didn't mind the unified, slightly chintzy-feeling touchpad button that you can left- or right-click on, our kid tester found it confusing at first.

Chock-full of Useful Apps
So what can you do with this mini notebook? Practically anything you would do with a Windows-powered one. Teens and adults will likely spend the most time in the Internet area, where you can launch the Firefox browser, Wikipedia, Skype (for making cheap calls), and the instant messaging program (which includes clients for AOL, Google Talk, MSN, and Yahoo).

In fact, the Eee PC is the perfect device for households that fight over the primary PC (and its Internet connection). Why waste money on a two-trick pony like the ZipIt 2 Communicator (which offers only IMing and MP3 playback) when you can get a featherlight PC that does those things and surfs the whole Web, too? And that's not all the Eee PC can do. Under Learn, for example, you can launch word games like Hangman and math games like Tux of Math Command (starring the Linux penguin), which gives flash-card-style math questions the space-shooter treatment.

Under the Work menu you'll find quick links to OpenOffice.org 2.0's various Microsoft Office-compatible apps, including Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations. These programs took more than ten seconds to load the first time but only eight seconds after that, and we had no problem composing a Word document on the Eee PC, saving our work to a memory key and then continuing to work on that file on a Windows laptop. Asus also includes a file-manager utility, a PDF reader, the Thunderbird e-mail client, and a Notes app.

No, the Eee PC doesn't do iTunes, but the preloaded Media Player and decent-sounding speakers get the job done. The device played MP3s and WMAs stored on a memory card while we surfed the Web, and the built-in mic performed admirably when making Skype calls. The Eee PC also did a nice job handling MPEG-4 videos captured by a 720p Sanyo Xacti camcorder and stored on an SD Card; the video looked surprisingly smooth on the seven-inch display. The Photo Manager took its sweet time loading large image files, however. Overall, the Media Player app looks positively crude compared to Windows Media Center and Apple's Front Row, so a makeover is certainly in order.

Good Performance and Peripheral Support
Getting online with the Eee PC 701 via Wi-Fi was pretty painless; once you set up a profile and enter the encryption key, the notebook will automatically connect to that network the next time you boot up. Although surfing wasn't quite as zippy as it is on our ThinkPad, it was still plenty fast. The device had no problems handling Web 2.0 sites powered by Ajax technology (like Netvibes) or Flash (YouTube). We encountered a screen-resolution issue with the new Yahoo Mail, but we still got it to work.

Overall performance was pretty snappy, even though this machine uses a Celeron processor. Most apps loaded quickly, and the 512MB of RAM is more than sufficient for an operating system with such little overhead. A mere 4GB of storage space tells you that the Eee PC isn't going to be your primary digital media vault out of the box, but you can easily augment that capacity with an external drive. Plus, that 4GB solid state drive can withstand being dropped by Junior.

Speaking of external devices, the Eee PC did an excellent job recognizing all sorts of peripherals, from a Kingston USB drive to a USB dongle for a Logitech wireless mouse. When we plugged in a Casio Exilim camera, the Eee PC asked us if we wanted to open the images in the File Manager or Photo Manager. Not surprisingly, the device wouldn't load music from our iPhone, but the Eee PC did charge it.

Eee PC owners will be pleasantly surprised with how well this tiny machine can double as a desktop replacement. We connected the device to a 20-inch ViewSonic monitor and used the built-in utility to scale the resolution up to 1024 x 768 pixels, and the resulting picture was nice and sharp. The Eee PC also instantly recognized a full-sized Dell USB keyboard and a wired Logitech USB mouse.

This notebook lasted the rated 3.5 hours of battery life on our tests. That's not nearly as good as the five-plus hours of endurance offered by the best ultraportable notebooks. Those machines tend to cost $2,000, however. Bonus: The Eee PC's power adapter is even smaller than what most notebooks in this weight class ship with; it's not much bigger than a cell phone charger.

Room for Improvement
Although there's a lot to like about the Eee PC, there are some telltale signs here that the device may have been rushed to market. Take the webcam, which is launched under the Play menu. We were able to record footage from within the webcam app, but couldn't get it to work with either the preloaded Skype program or Pidgin instant messaging program, and with good reason: Asus is still working on drivers for the webcam, which it says will be released early next year.

Finding and adding applications could also be more intuitive. When we attempted to update Skype after being asked if we wanted to do just that from within the app, the Skype icon ceased to work from the main menu. Turns out you're supposed to update software from within the dedicated Add/Remove Software utility, located under Settings. Also, we didn't see any new applications we could add, although Asus promises to certify applications as they become available and make them available to users via software updates. The intrepid can install applications themselves, but you'll have to dig into the File Manager and launch them manually each time.

We have one other major complaint. Menu screens dipped below the taskbar occasionally, making it difficult to click Next or OK. This happened when we were attempting to set up an e-mail account from within the PIM application. We couldn't move the window in question up high enough or shrink it down enough to move to the next screen, which was quite frustrating. You're supposed to click the Alt button while moving the window with the mouse.

We'd also like to see Asus make the Eee PC mobile-broadband friendly--so you can surf beyond hotspot range--either by adding Bluetooth support (using a 3G cell phone as a modem) or by adding support for USB-powered modems.

Is the Eee PC for You?
Asus is forging a new class of device with the Eee PC. Yes, you can get a laptop with a bigger screen and better specs for the same amount of money, but this machine wasn't designed to go toe-to-toe with bargain-basement Windows laptops. It's an excellent secondary computer for households with children, and it's a very good primary computer for novice PC users who never had the time or patience to master an operating system.

In many ways, too, the Eee PC is a new-and-improved version of the Internet appliance concept, as its easy-to-tote, easy-to-use design makes it simple for anyone to get online.

When it comes to road warriors, the Eee PC runs circles around UMPCs powered by Vista and XP in terms of performance, price, and ease of use, but not application support. Despite a few issues, such as a webcam not yet optimized for online video chats, the Eee PC is also a worthy alternative to devices like the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. The Nokia is more pocket-friendly, is Bluetooth-enabled for using a cell phone as a modem, and has a built-in GPS receiver, but the Asus sports a better keyboard, can be connected to a big-screen monitor, and is $80 cheaper.

As for that other famous low-cost notebook: The $188 OLPC XO laptop is a far more ambitious product in that its purpose is to educate children in developing nations. But that doesn't mean the Eee PC isn't a breakthrough in its own right. It brings affordable computing to everyone else, and without a learning curve.

It was launched around July of this year. SB, I find it interesting that they have WinXP installed as the reviews are saying it was shipping with Linux. How do you find the performance with WinXP? Is it slow, and how does it handle displaying web pages? With only 512 MB of RAM, that seems a bit low for WinXP.

[Monkey]

lol you copy/paste quicker than me....

(stogie bear @ Nov. 16 2007,17:04) It's fast and it's stylish...

Any questions?

yeas, I had a few so Googled for them.

Processor: Intel mobile CPU (Intel 910 chipset, 900MHz Dothan Pentium M)
Memory: 512MB (max), DDR2
Display: 7" Screen Display
3G 3 hrs (4 cells)
Size: 22.5 x 16.4 x 2.15~3.5 cm, less than 1kg

Everything runs fast when it's new, but once you start loading it up with crap then things soon get a wee bit slower, looking at these specs that won't take much.

However, I can see it being good to look at porn on the beach (if you can get Wi-Fi) or send an e-mail/browse the forum from Starbucks....

...NOT a mobile phone or PDA...

Looks pretty much like a combination of those to me, except of course you can't call your bf from the train

Not a replacement for a real laptop or PC imo but a decent web-browsing device/word processor.

Let us know in 6 weeks how you're liking it...

[Snick]

Nice to hear you got one. I've been thinking about it too
Have you plugged an external 2.5" HD into it ?, how does that work out ?

and some guy hacked it to run Mac OSX

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11...osx_on_eee_pc/

[stogie bear]

 Yes - I have attatched a 120 Gigabyte external hard drive. No problem. I also have a 16 Gig card permanently housed in the card slot and I have a very small 4 gig stick which carries my kidney doner card!

It runs Windows extremely capably. It renders all webpages and graphcs that I have asked it to so far.

The memory is easily upgradable to 1 or 2 Gigs. I'll probably void my warranty by upgrading to a gig later today.

I bought it at IT Center in Seacon Square, but that was the last of three that they had. Panthip may have some but they are very hard to find.

The copy of Windows is NOT a legit one, but later this year there will be a stripped out version of Windows for this laptop. But for now the copy I have boots, works and plays just fine.

It's important to either have a tech do the Windows install for you (Unless you are Bam, Snick or Monkey) There are some useful things in the manual that will help run Windows faster if you follow them.

The wireless works fine at the swimming pool which is about 100 feet!

The price is good... the portability is fantastic.

This wasn't meant to be anyones primary computer, and for carting around and keeping up to date and for ease of use it can't be beat.

[BAM]

[EyeMahk]

On Wednesday, there was only one shop in Pantip that had one of these units. I didn't buy it, I should have. On Tuesday, there was in a shop in the tech center in Pattaya (Pattaya Tai) for 13,900 baht. Not sure if they still have them, if they do I will pick one up today.

[stogie bear]

Mine was 12,733 baht. Thanks for that tip on Panthip... I nearly waltzed down there to see if there were some down there.

If you are interested in these then grab them while the stock lasts.

I was just lucky I got mine as I had dithered about for two days knowing they had three in stock.

In fact they dodn't want to sell it to me. I had to fight for it and make a big fuss. (TTChang was there - he'll confirm what a stubborn pain in the ass I can be when I want something!)

First they said it was the last one so it wasn't for sale. THai logc for you!) Then they said that it was reserved for a customer... then I started getting REALLY fucking pissy and they eventually had a bit of a chat and let me have it!

All the time I wouldn't let it out of my site. Even when they took it to the back to be checked (whatever that means) I refused to let it out of my site.

I scarpered pretty fucking quickly when I got it back, I can tell you.

When I got it home I could see from all the additional software installed that it had been custom built for some one else! Eitehr that or a technophobe had been experimenting with it!

It's mine now and I'll never give it back!!!!

[Snick]

Just saw one at Fortune Town on Ratchada, 11,900 Baht for 4GB model ( interestingly they had the price printed only in Thai Numerals ).
The laptop comes with Linux, but the store said they would install Windows XP for free (they would not install Mac Os X when I asked )

[katoeylover]

£200 on ebay in the UK

[EyeMahk]

13,900 baht at Wattana Computer shop, 3rd floor Tukcom Mall Pattaya South Rd.

[Snick]

So far I'm the winner !!!

BTW There is a 4gb and a 8gb model, so its important to know if we are comparing the same model.
( Doesn't surprise me that Pattaya is 2000B more than Bangkok )

[stogie bear]

Mine is the 4 gig model. But I have a 4 gig SD card permanently inserted (great word, thanks DD007) in the slot.

With some tinkering and loading some prgrams onto the 'D' drive (SD card) I have managed to get back about 1 Gig of the C drive.

Programs install sloooowly onto an SD card!

Snick - let me know if you want to play with it and I'll bring it intp the Guess Bar...