Asus' Atom-powered Eee PC spied on web Asus may be promoting the new Eee PC 900 hard, but some potential buyers are waiting for the promised Intel Atom-based version. Well they might: in addition to a snappier CPU, it'll sport a swish new look. So photos published by French-language fansite Blogee.net show. The shots sho a machine dubbed the Eee PC 901, and it's a …
The current 900 is being supplied to the UK with a 4400mAh battery - smaller than that supplied with the less power hungry 701 and 30% smaller than the 5800 being supplied with 900s in Taiwan and the US! UK buyers are complaining to Asus in droves, but have so far only received a holding message. It would be nice if you could ask Asus to comment on this.
PS The 900 seems to have a new "friend" - see uk.asus.com front page. I presume she's seriously underweight to match the new battery.
or have Asus managed to just about ruin the good EEE name?
I mean, the 7" series were good. Flawed, but everybody loved it because they were cheap and small and the limitations were only mildly annoying. Then the 90x Series comes out, and Asus manage to give up all that good will by
a: Making the price so ridiculous that a decent laptop is cheaper
b: Shafting early adopters of each series by releasing newer ones so often
Sure the 90x series is better, but seriously, talk about gouging their customers!
I had a 7" model and sold it when i heard about the larger one, but now I see how they are shafting their (so far loyal) userbase, I cant bring myself to buy the newer ones. So It'll either be a Wind or a "real" lappy for me next.......
That L-word company that took over the thinkbooks is also putting bulky pads on all of their models.
I had to go buy a trackpoint keyboard for my Dell so I didn't have to touch the bloody pad (how long can I keep this sick metaphor up...), also it lets me keep the laptop up on a shelf for better ergonomics while sitting at my desk. (Great display though, so I don't bother with a monitor. And all for $800)
Laptops with trackpoints instead of touchpads could either be smaller or have more room for say full size function keys.
It's very cheap, portable, hackable, quiet and functional. The screen is very pokey but it's amazing to have such a teeny tiny laptop which is so versatile and easy to carry around. I used it on a long train trip today with a 3G modem. The laptop, modem fit easily onto the train's seat tray with enough room for a little mouse.
If I had to fault it, it would be the screen size, and also the way that the Linux OS is set up. They've split the 4Gb storage into a read only and read / write half and use something called unionfs to make them appear like a single filing system. This works fine, but it is horribly space inefficient especially as patches appear. I would prefer a single partition and proper system CD to restore if necessary.
My biggest fear for the 900 models is they're getting too expensive. A 701 with a larger screen and perhaps 8gb SSD should be all that needs changing in my opinion. The current 900 spec is too expensive. I hope they see the light with the 901 because the market is getting very crowded and they might lose the lead they got from the 701 model.
I love my 900 it's great ( with eeeXubuntu) but I too was shafted with a useless 4400 battery. I have complained to Asus who are reviewing the possibility of replacing them. Come on Register get behind this and make them do the right thing and give me a laptop that lasts longer than a Xmas episode of Eastenders!!!!!
We did point the lower-than-Eee PC 701 spec battery out in our review of the 900 - where we also noted that we got not very much less battery life than we did with a 701, despite the 900's less capacious battery and faster CPU.
We've asked Asus to comment, but they have declined to do so. The company's under no obligation, of course, to supply the same spec here as it does elsewhere. And potential customers are under no obligation to buy until Asus sorts this out.
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