how good are they?

$500 bux for a pc that is perfect for surfing the web (and other cool computar type stuff)

http://www.cnet.com.au/laptops/laptops/0,239035649,339283970,00.htm

one of the guys from work bought his into work the other day and i was very impressed;

upgraded it already with additional ram, and an 8gig sd card

runs some unix desktop, comes with a webcam, various usb ports, network (and wifi)

people are customizing the crap out of them and no doubt there will be some really cool things coming down the track!

was just reading people are installing xp on them now too

will be interesting to see where this style of computer goes

ok, this is probably a better review

sold! where to buy?

yeh, we have been talking about them a bit here; I am pretty keen to check one out - local retravision was sposed to get one in yesterday so I might wander down and check them out.

I think its a great idea; nice, small, portable - exactly what I want in a laptop. I have a dell m1210 which is really nice and small, although I'd be happy to have something smaller.

myer were exclusively selling them, but their deal has run out and now you can get one at various places . .. .

officeworks/jbhifi apparenlty are selling them

Nats was saying there's a version coming out with a full-sized screen (ie, atm the models they have, the screen doesn't take up the full size of the screen part of the monitor, but they're making a version which does). No idea on timing/price diff/weight difference though.

runs some unix desktop, comes with a webcam, various usb ports, network (and wifi)

It runs Linux; I think its a modified version of some popular distro. As you would expect source code is available. This is probably one of the best things to happen to Linux for ages. I hope people don't go around wasting it and installing XP over the top of it; Asus providing support for a massive Linux user base would be awesome.

wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_PC

The specs don't seem that great actually :/

I'm itching to get one of these, would be so handy to cart around with me but I really don't like the 7" screens. There is bigger screened versions coming in April. They have an 8", 8.9" and a 10" in works. Would love to get the 10" when it comes out but might have to settle for 8.9 as I need one before i go overseas at the end of May.

There's also a rival on the horizon called the Cloudbook which has better specs but not sure when it'd be due to hit Aus.

Doesn't come with CD ROM?

whats the point of these seriously?? after the novelty wears off, you'll probably wish you didn't get one. I go to work, I have a computer waiting there for me, I go home after work and I have a computer there too! I think that's enough computer use for me :/

I go on a holiday, sif take a laptop etc etc

to small I rekon

imagine trying to type on the keyboard, it'd be worse then sending a text, because at least sending a test you only use one or two fingers, this you'd try to type like on a normal keyboard and s*** would get everywhere.

And yeah the specs don't seem that crash hot, stil to a 12" laptop.

wouldn't be a problem if you didn't have fat fingers

whats the point of these seriously?? after the novelty wears off, you'll probably wish you didn't get one. I go to work, I have a computer waiting there for me, I go home after work and I have a computer there too! I think that's enough computer use for me :/

For me personally being on call 24/7 I pretty much take a laptop everywhere I go but on holiday would make a great little media player / photo viewer. Though these units have SFA hdd space they can take a flash card and I noticed 32Gb and 64Gb are on the verge of coming out. 64Gb will probably way out of my price range but hopefully 32's will be around the $200 price range the 16Gb's are at now.

So basically this is an ipod touch, but without the touch, bigger and more expensive.

whats the point of these seriously?? after the novelty wears off, you'll probably wish you didn't get one.

They were designed for children to learn and use a computer.

Eee = Easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play...or some rot.

The specs don't seem that great actually :/

They're not supposed to be. You're missing the point of it. It is not a laptop replacement.

whats the point of these seriously?? after the novelty wears off, you'll probably wish you didn't get one. I go to work, I have a computer waiting there for me, I go home after work and I have a computer there too! I think that's enough computer use for me :/

I go on a holiday, sif take a laptop etc etc

The point of them is a small, neat, cheap, free portable PC. They're not for people who have a computer at home and at work and don't need one in between.

Also, Lots of people take laptops on holidays now; they're extremely useful tools for many reasons - internet connectivity, a place to store/backup photos, something to do while you're on a plane or train, etc.

imagine trying to type on the keyboard, it'd be worse then sending a text, because at least sending a test you only use one or two fingers, this you'd try to type like on a normal keyboard and s*** would get everywhere.

I haven't seen one, but I bet its about 1029301293023 time better than trying to write on a mobile phone or any other mobile device. I've used one of the small keyboards that plug into a windows mobile device and it turns it from being near-useless for mass input into something that you can almost actually write on.

So basically this is an ipod touch, but without the touch, bigger and more expensive.

It's nothing like an ipod touch at all.

They're not supposed to be. You're missing the point of it. It is not a laptop replacement.

Yeah, best way to describe it would probably be the laptop equivalent of a Mini-ITX PC.


last edited by Nailbomb at 12:23:45 15/Jan/08

They are alright cept they dont come with windows and you have to install it, which takes up 4gig of the hard drive.

They are alright cept they dont come with windows and you have to install it, which takes up 4gig of the hard drive.

4GB? Use nLite and cut it down to less than 1GB.

You can always download a copy of TinyXP via P2P. Sure there are [il]legalities involved, but I reckon if you already have an unused, legitimate Windows license lying around, there's no problem downloading another version and using it instead (as long as it matches the license type).

Oh for those interested, it looks like future EeePc's could be release running Splashtop. It'll be interesting to see how much faster they boot over the current OS on them, I rebooted one of the eeepc's whilst I was in Myer the other day and it took about 20secs from pressing the power button to having a usable OS.

They are alright cept they dont come with windows and you have to install it, which takes up 4gig of the hard drive.

YOU DONT NEED TO INSTALL WINDOWS, IT ALREADY HAS AN OPERATING SYSTEM.

It doesn't NEED Windows. Anything that you NEED Windows for (like playing games) you're not going to want to do on this thing (or won't be able to do). If your first step after buying this is to install Windows, you shouldn't have bought it - for a couple hundred extra you can buy a "real" laptop with Windows pre-installed.

Why waste the money on a copy of Windows (or pirate it)?

last edited by trog at 13:19:42 15/Jan/08

I hope people don't go around wasting it and installing XP over the top of it

Exactly, I find that for browsing the net, media and multi tasking Linux s***s all over XP. Damn noobs have been primed to use Windows XP and are scared to try anything else.

They're not supposed to be. You're missing the point of it. It is not a laptop replacement.

Well I don't currently have a laptop. My view of a potential laptop that it is a device to chat and read emails on while my actual computer is thinking too hard for me to do anything with. I guess you've unsold it for me, asus can thank you for presenting this product as a device for the 3rd world with deliberate design flaws to discourage the typical person from purchasing it, I will save up and buy an Apple Mac Book as a second machine.

They're not supposed to be. You're missing the point of it. It is not a laptop replacement.

Though for the most part, average everyday users (big assumption) would have all the functionality they ever needed with this thing. Pretty much everyone I know not in the IT field only use a computer to check mail, surf the net, watch movies and play with office?

It was designed for children! It just so happens that other people have found them useful for their tasks too, that's a plus as far as Asus is concerned.

Does it have an rdp client, or can you install one?

Does it have an rdp client, or can you install one?

It might not have one built in, but Linux has an RDP client so I suspect it'd be trivial to get it working.

Apparently rdesktop is on there by default.

my brother bought one, its fantastic.

yup - thumbs up.

the only downside I could see what the volume wasn't nearly loud enough, especially when talking to mates on Skype. I had to plug in the earphones from my mp3 player, but that was good enough. the cam and the mic worked flawlessly though!

thew wireless reception of this this is awesome.. no probs anywhere @ work or at home. the media player built in kinda sucked (used to Winamp here).. that'd have to be changed to vlc or something :/

the FF based browser did the job fine (though I'd ditch it for Opera) - though it had some issues with youtube when I was playing with it.. and I didn't have enough time to smooth out the flash upgrade required.

it needs more ram... *lots* more ram

it'd be nice if it came with an old copy of quake, just for s***s n giggles

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btw - it sucks that CA got one of the first in the country and they didn't decide to sell them. Dad walked in to buy a few the other day and no one knew what he was talking about :/ The big boss had to redirect him to Myer for them. Poor form 'Mr Powerful CA guy'.. poor form

last edited by koopz at 19:10:38 15/Jan/08

hope people don't go around wasting it and installing XP over the top of it

Pfft, XP was on it the second day I had it. 2gig RAM and waiting for 8 gig SDHC card. Runs perfect. Can always go back, might try Ubuntu next. Xandros is ok but nothing special.

Everyone who is saying it's fantastic... would you still think it was fantastic if it was $1500 ? Or is it really that fantastic...

It's fantastic cause of the size,weight,features. It's so portable and it's $498. There is no better laptop for that price, so much <3.

Asus Eee: Tata Nano of Laptops

I've got one of these babies, got an 8Gb SD that dual boots between the original Xandros and Ubuntu. Upgraded it to 1Gb RAM ( borrowed out of my XPS ). It's pretty RAD for an ultraportable PC.

Trog, I could probably lend it to you for a few days to see how you like them.

would you still think it was fantastic if it was $1500 ?

if it had louder speakers and accepted a simcard to run as a mobile phone then... erm.. no - I would still only pay ~$500 for that. If Intel made one and beefed it up Intel corp style then yeah I'd pay a grand.

on the upside though, as soon as the novelty wears off - these things will be all over eBay for sfa

The speakers are pretty good I reckon, been times where I've had to turn them down, well in XP anyway. Get a little BT module and a USb 3g and it's the best laptop around. Or if you want, mod it internally.

I want one :(

The speakers are pretty good I reckon, been times where I've had to turn them down

wtf really?

I would have bought the demo unit there and then for ~$200 if it could just play a video without having to put my ear to the speakers@#$%

Xandros is ok but nothing special.

Xandros is a lot like most linux distros.. it's a solid base to work from - that's it. like most *nix distros: if there's something we don't like we're pretty much expected to get off our dumb asses and write something we'd prefer to see Skitza.

marketing wise:

a linux personal computer is a dumb machine that will only do what we tell it to do. we get some hints to get us started

a MSWin personal computer is a dumb machine that will only do what we tell it to do, though we obligate ourselves to do everything in a way that MS allows, and are forced to allow others to come in and be paid by us to fill the blanks as we require them to.. whether they actually fill those blanks or not.

last edited by koopz at 22:43:03 15/Jan/08

so it's not meant to replace your home computer, your work computer or your laptop

so you need another computer in between using your laptop and another computer?

I gave up on laptops.. it's been over 10 years and I'm sick of carrying them around now.. I like pdas... though they are grossly underpowered. mobile phones aren't nearly good ebough yet....

here we are.. =)

btw - don't take this as a poersonal attack or anything... anything good enough to have an oldskool quake lan at the bus-stop or on the way to school/work is fine by me :P

last edited by koopz at 23:10:40 15/Jan/08

Everyone who is saying it's fantastic... would you still think it was fantastic if it was $1500 ? Or is it really that fantastic...

Of course not, but that's the whole point. You're getting a really tiny, effective PC and you don't have to break the bank to get it.

I think this would be a great treat to myself 2nd semester of uni. It would make a great portable SSH companion, web surfer and text editor.

On top of the screen size increase, they are apparently looking to ditch the fan to. This would mean no moving parts.

Also, screen pic:

http://clumpc.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/1199542373.jpg

More importantly:

hmm..

I'd pay $50 more if it came with Q3a preloaded :P

btw - love the vga-out port :P

so you need another computer in between using your laptop and another computer?

As mentioned above, I already have a small laptop - at the time it was the smallest I could buy with the bang I needed. Since buying it though I realise that it was overkill for what I wanted it for - at the time I was travelling to Sydney a lot for meetings and not having an easy-to-carry laptop was killing me (I wanted to take notes, check email, etc).

An eeePC would have been muchmuchmuch more suitable for me - even though I ended up w/ a really small laptop I would have preferred an even SMALLER one because it would have made traveling around that much easier.

edit: That said, I could definitely use my real laptop and an eeePC, and I think there's lots of other people that could too - they're just tools, and you pick the right tool for the job - sometimes ultra-portability is going to be important and sometimes you're going to need more processing power. Just depends what you're doing and whether your job (or hobbies) justify having two devices.

last edited by trog at 10:56:13 16/Jan/08