Monday, October 13th, 2008
The Asus S101 has only just been launched but it looks like mobilecomputermag are way ahead of the curve with this review. They’ve also got a huge selection of images for Asus fans to drool over.
Here’s some of the highlights from the S101 review:
- Price £449 - or there abouts
- 32GB SSD with the Linux variant and 16Gb with Windows
- At just under 1.1kg, it’s lighter than both the Eee PC 1000 and even the Eee PC 901
- The S101’s keyboard is identical to that on the Eee PC 1000 – same width, same key shape and size, same amount of travel
- A large touchpad, colour-matched to the lid, sitting in the expanse of brushed metal wrist-rest seemed to catch the reviewers eye
- Battery life - 3 hours and forty-five minutes under heavy load, and just over five hours in light-use
All in all, the reviewers over at mobilecomputingmag gave this latest netbook a big thumbs up. Ok, it’s a little pricey for a netbook but you remember that this is a high end device - if you want quality expect to pay for it.
Posted in Asus | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
The have been rumours circulating about a touchscreen Eee PC since early this but so far nothing has surfaced. It looks like the rumour is going into overtime once again with Asus reportedly preparing a touchscreen variant of its netbook range. No specifics yet but a number of sites are suggesting that we’ll see one of these new devices hitting the market sometime in Q1 2009. Other eagerly anticipated extras include the dual core Intel Atom (although I think this could be earlier than next year), 3G capabilities and WiMAX.
Personally, I’d be very interested in seeing a touchscreen version of the forthcoming Asus Eee PC S101 - the so called MacBook Air killer. Adding a touchscreen to this device would surely give Asus a big boost in the netbook market.
And what about Apple? It wouldn’t surprise me to see Apple entering the netbook sector in the near future - missing out on the opportunity to cream some cash out of a highly lucractive area whilst pushing deeper market penetration of OS X is just what Jobs and co need.
Posted in Asus | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
A bit of info Eee PC fans; you can pick up a custom theme for your desktop over at Zinni Design. The current themes allow you to choose from 4 different skins - simply download the .rar or .zip file, unpack and mod your Eee PC to your hearts content. Currently, the themes (BETA 2.0) only allow you change the skin on the Asus Eee PC 701; future releases are scheduled to includes a range of icons you can use to replace the Asus defaults.
The themes come in four colours - red, silver, blue and green, which, I have to admit, are all actually quite attractive. If nothing else, they’ll make nice change to the stock theme that comes with the Eee PC.
Enough talk, here’s the link: Zinni Designs
P.S They’re FREE!
Posted in Asus | No Comments »
Friday, June 20th, 2008
Recently we posted news about the UK launch date of the Asus Eee Box which was initially pegged around early July 2008. The actual date is slightly later - August 2008 with the price expected to be set at £250.
The Eee Box desktop PC will arrive in August at an as-yet-unspecified price, although we expect it to start at around £250.
Buyers will be ablt to get the Asus Eee Box PC running Windows XP Home Edition - as yet, no Linux.
The Eee Box will feature a 1.6Ghz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM plus an 80GB hard drive. But no monitor! Then again, TFT monitors are pretty cheap now.
There’s also no mention of an option to ship the Eee Box with a Solid State Disk. Asus have stated that an SSD option will be available later this along with a pre-installed Linux OS.
Posted in Asus | No Comments »
Monday, June 16th, 2008
Recently, we mentioned the Eee Box as an attempt by Asus to reach into the lucrative super small form factor market.
The device is set to go on sale around early July with a starting price of about £167.
The Eee Box certainly is small. The dimensions are: 8.5-inches high, 1-inch wide, and 7-inches deep.
The device can mounted on a stand in an upright positions. But if you’re limited on space, don’t worry. The Eee Box can also be laid flat which makes it ideal for slotting into a small shelf on your desk.
The Asus Eee Box is crammed full of goodies which should make this a desirable desktop replacement.
Here’s the official specifications:
- OS Linux System/ Hardware Compatible with Windows XP
- Intel 1.6 Ghz Atom CPU
- Memory: 1 GB / 2 GB DDR2
- Hard drive: 80GB / 160GB platter
- Intel GMA 950 Integrated graphics
- 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN, 802.11n WLAN, Bluetooth optional
- SD, SDHC, Mini SD, (Micro SD through adapter) ; MMC, MMC plus, MMC4.x, RS MMC, RSMMC4.x (MMC mobile through adapter);MS,MS PRO
A variey of configurations will be available to users but details specific to the UK haven’t officially been announced yet.
Looking at the specfications, the Eee Book looks pretty impressive.
Based on the pricing and fetures it looks like Asus have fixed their sights on the likes of the Apple Mac mini and Shuttle KPC K-4500. I’m not sure how the market will react to the launch of another SSFF PC but it will almost certainly help to keep prices down, which is always good.
More news as it comes.
Posted in Asus | No Comments »
Friday, June 13th, 2008
The Asus Eee PC 901 will launch in the UK on 1st July. The Eee PC 901 and 1000, which runs on the Intel Atom, feature larger screens, larger storage capacity, 802.11n support, Bluetooth and improved battery life.
Asus are also offering 20Gb of online storage to users who purchase the Eee PC.
According to figures from Asus, the Eee PC range has sold over a million units since the October 2007 launch.
Asus has also announced pricing. The Eee PC 901 will retail for £319. No figures have been released for the Asus Eee PC 1000.
Posted in Asus | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
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.
Posted in Asus | 4 Comments »
