Asus Eee PC 900 review.
The Asus Eee PC 701 is iconic. Yes, there were many pretenders to the UMPC throne but the EEE PC launch will be seen as the defining point when we look back on the history of sub-notebook. Many manufacturers are now trying to emulate the EEE PC 701 but the jury is still out. Whilst other manufacturers play catch up Asus forges on with the next release in the EEE PC family: the 900.
The Asus Eee PC 900 brings a range of improvements including: a high-resolution 8.9-inch screen, more storage and memory, a multi-touch mouse trackpad and a webcam upgrade (up from a pathetic 0.3 to 1.3 megapixesl). Looking good!
Design
The Eee PC 900 looks pretty much like the 701; it’s still white but slightly larger (6mm longer) and about 100g heavier. Remember those hideous speakers on either side of the screen? Gone. They’ve been moved to below the wrist rest. This has been done in order to allow a larger screen to be fitted. The real bonus here is the screen quality. Watching movies is an absolute pleasure.
The Eee PC 900 keyboard is still a little too small for our liking. You can still touch type but it will take some getting used to.
The mouse trackpad has seen a massive improvement. It now features a wide aspect ratio that matches that of the screen i.e. your input now more closely mirrors what’s possible with the on-screen cursor. Do you like the MacBook Air and iPhone? Well, read on. The trackpad supports multi-finger input (multi-touch). This means you can scroll horizontally and vertically through documents by swiping two fingers over the trackpad. Pinching your fingers together or opening them lets you zoom in or zoom out of pictures. Remember the clunky left and right selector buttons? They’re now far easier to press.
Storage was a bit of a sore point for us: buy the Linux variant the 900 ships with 20Gb (SSD) but the Windows XP model only features 12Gb (SSD). The reason for these variations is simple. Asus wants to maintain uniform prices. Factor in the licesing cost of Windows and you understand the difference. It’s not a big problem, you can always buy and additional 32Gb SDHC card.
The Linux variant of the Eee PC 900 uses the same Linux-based OS as the Eee PC 701. Factor in the some 40 pre-installed apps and you should be very happy. Of course, you can install more applications but the base installation features just about all you need to start working out of the box: OpenOffice, Firefox web browser, media player and more. The applications are grouped in tabs:”Internet”, “work”, “learn”, “play”, “settings” and “favourites”. This makes it easy to locate the applicatoin you want to use.r tabs. The application performance was noticeably faster than the 701 version mainly due to the extra memory which also made running multiple apps a far more realistic option (the 701 was sooo slow).
The battery should last about 3 hours - according to Asus. This about 30 minutes less than the 701. During testing we found that the 900 variant lasted between 1 hour 30 mins to 2 hours 20 mins - entirely dependent on how many apps and which hardware you run i.e turning off the wireless card does improve battery life.
Conclusion
It’s good but not amazing. Don’t think that the Asus Eee PC will replace your desktop; it won’t. The device is ideal for roaming wether going to friends house or browsing from your local library. That said, there are some massive improvements over the 701 which make it serious candidate if you’re looking for a sub-notebook and, at around £329, won’t break the bank.
Specfications
CPU Intel Celeron 900Mhz
Memory 1Gb DDR 400
Display 8.9-inch (1,024×600 pixels).
Input/Output Left side: Ethernet port, a single USB port, mic and headphone jacks. Right side: D-Sub VGA video output, two additional USB ports and an SD card reader (will accommodate third-party SDHC cards - up to 32GB of additional disk space).
Networking 802.11b/g Wi-Fi,
Downside
Location of the speakers makes sound quality poor. Keyboard is still the same fiddly model found on the 701. Not great for gaming due mainly to the limited disk space. Also, most games are designed for Windows which means the Linux variant is probably not for you. Battery life is less than 701 due to additional hardware specification.
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