I’ve haven’t done a very good job of keeping up with the Eee PC news this week. Sorry everyone. It’s been a bit crazy here what with the S37 and OQO reviews and then the Easynote XS turning up (more about that later.) I’ve even got an Archos 605 on the way now. Somebody STOP me!
This evening I’ve had a chance to sit down and read through some of the early Eee PC reviews that are coming out. Is the battery life really 3.5 hours? How bright is the screen? What’s the keyboard like? These are questions I have in my mind. Of course, I’ve bought one to test but its always a worthwhile exercise to see what other people are writing. Especially as I’ve got an estimated 3 weeks wait until it gets here. [If anyone knows of a way to get one quicker, please let me know.]
The 4G is the one that seems to be shipping at the moment in the US (and likely to be the one first to ship in other parts of the world.) and here’s a run-through of significant comments by reviewers. If you know of any other full reviews, please let me know and I’ll add them to the Eeepc link database.
Build quality
- In short, the build quality is quite high despite the low cost. [Notebook review]
- Overall, the Eee PC’s design is fairly solid and incredibly travel-friendly for the price [Laptop Magazine]
- The casing of the Eee PC is built of a fairly rugged plastic composite. We tested a unit built with a pearl white finish that looks great and gives the unit a very “clean presentation and feel”. [Hot Hardware]
Screen:
- …the bright and even backlight helps make for an enjoyable reading experience. We even found the quality of the colors more than sufficient for viewing movies or You Tube videos. [Notebook review]
- The 7″ LCD screen on the Eee PC generates good contrast and color but is a bit short on brightness with minimal backlighting. This again is an obvious trade-off due to power budget constraints. However, for normal indoor use, the display does its job nicely. It’s only in bright outdoor environments, that challenge even most standard notebook panels, that you’ll see some washout. [Hot Hardware]
Applications
- …almost every application on this notebook is both useful and easy to use. [Notebook Review]
Keyboard
- …once I got used to typing on the tiny keyboard the keys felt just fine … but this keyboard isn’t designed to be used as a primary/main computer. [Notebook Review]
Storage
- …the speed of the 4GB SSD, hdparm benchmarks the SSD buffered read speed at 21.78 MB/sec. [notebook review]
Upgrade:
- Theoretically, a 2GB module of RAM should fit in the slot just as easily as a 1GB module did … but we didn’t have a 2GB module available in the office.
Heat/noise
- …the Asus Eee PC produced as much heat as any other notebook in the same price range. The keyboard and bottom of the notebook got quite hot even under normal use, and the fan was always running in an attempt to keep the system cool. Fan noise was among the quietest we’ve heard. [Notebook Review]
Wireless
- The Eee PC uses an Atheros AR5BXB63 wireless module for 802.11b/g wireless Internet access. Reception is quite good for a budget notebook. [Notebook Review]
Battery life
- Under normal use, backlight at 100 percent and using wireless for web browsing and watching a DivX movie at 75 percent volume, the Eee PC managed to deliver three hours and 23 minutes of battery life. [Notebook Review]
- We were able to use the Eee for a little under 3 hours while running a mix of Web browsers, OpenOffice documents, and playing MP3 files. [Cnet]
- As you can see, with roughly 15 Watts draw at idle and 17.5 Watts under load, the design engineers definitely hit that “not much” target square on. Our best efforts to load the system down with Penguin Racer, Open Office Writer and Firefox running all simultaneously, yielded the highest power draw we observed at 18 Watts. [Hot Hardware] [NB. The battery is 37 Wh. I’m not sure how the figures add up in this review. They talk about 3.5 hours battery life which is an average drain of under 10 watts – Chippy]
Performance:
- Turning on and off the Eee PC is shockingly fast. It turns on in about 20-22 seconds [eee pc user]
- Hibernation: 7 seconds return [eee pc user forum] [Note: I think the user was referring to standby – Chippy]
- no hibernation mode. it’s not too convenient but since boot-up is quick [eee pc user forum]
Missing pieces.
I’m still looking for stats on the SD card speed, an indication of how much space is free on the flash drive and whether it’s able to use standby or hibernation. I’m also looking for some comparisons on the screen brightness. Kevin Tofel is getting his Eee PC on Monday though so I know we’ll be getting some more good info next week.
I’m enjoying the reviews. Almost every reviewer has been surprised at the performance of the device and I’m giggling to myself when I hear them surmise that Linux is the reason. Its not. A fresh install of windows XP on a Ghz-class PC is also pretty fast when you compare it to an over-loaded multi-Ghz PC running Vista. Maybe the Eee PC will do a nice job of exposing the myth that consumer need multi-core, multi-Ghz processors for their daily computing tasks!
I’ll be getting my Eee PC in 2-3 weeks (One supplier has just made pre-ordering available in Germany) but in the meantime, I’ll be reviewing the Eee PC competitor, the Packard Bell Easynote XS. (First impressions will follow this post.) At 599 Euros its 300 Euros more than an Eee PC but it includes a hard drive, Windows XP and Bluetooth. Is it going to be 300 Euros better than an Eee PC though? The Easynote is a version of the VIA Nanobook reference design. Everex are expected to release a version of this in the US – the CE260, very soon.
Links to all the EeePC reviews and news in the Eee PC link list.
Thanks to everyone that sent me tips on the Eee PC news.
