Asus EEE PC

Instead of writing an overall review of the Laptop I thought I would be more intesting if I wrote you more of a diary in which every other day I say how I feel about it, and what is anoying and what is great. So here it is…

Day 1 and 2

I have had the Asus EEE PC for just over a day now, and I have found you can adjust very quickly to the keyboard. The only difficulty that i have experienced is that the numbers are slightly more to the left than my MBP. If you have large fingers you may struggle to type at your normal speed, but it is not that hard to get used to. The screen has a poor brightness and can be hard to see sometimes, but I am outside in Egypt which also could explain it. The Speed of the laptop is OK, the laptop slows when running multiple programs are down to the low initial RAM. One thing I dislike but have not heard complaints about, is the tiny trackpad it is so small that it is extremely hard to navigate and would suggest having an external mouse if you intend to use it for a long time.

Days 3-4

I am getting more accustom to the tiny trackpad but it can still be annoying. I have finally worked out how to use it’s really annoying wireless networking app. The brightness is not as bad as I originally thought. I now have two new complaints and a third that ties in to the other two. The first is that when playing a video it stutters and is anything but smooth. If you want to watch anything more than a 3 minute clip forget it. Now this ties into the fact that the built in media player sucks. It does not even play .m4v’s and this is really annoying. This ties because there are no apps out there that don’t require a command line install! like VLC, well I have yet to find any if they do exist. On the flip side the size is really nift and the keyboard is easy to type on and because it has a link in the home screen to Google Docs and other great sites. It make it feeel like they are just bult right into the laptop!

Days 6-7

Now I am getting used to using it and I love how small it is. It is just perfect for a trip away into a different country. I have still being having problems and one of them is not Asus fault but it lies with Firefox and Flash. Each time I get a video on say viddler ect.. I usually click play on the center play button, but I have found that is just crashes Firefox however you are able to click on the lower play button. The battery life is not good if you are out and about. It lasts in my experience about 2 hours, maybe less if you have the wireless on and screen on bright. As I write this they have just launched the XP model in the US and I am sure that this would be a better choice over the Linux model because it has more apps that can be installed and it might be less of a clunky interface. On the other hand if you go to a meeting you don’t want to carry a 15″ laptop this would be perfect. It is small light weight and very portable, i may not be the most feature set laptop but it is great for basic work and because there are few disctraction it is really good at getting you to focus.

Days 8-9

The stuttering video only happens on Vimeo, but it is hard to watch Youtube ect because the browser window is to small to still have the controls in it. It is not until you put it next to a full sized 15″ laptop that you realize how small it actually is. Now I am back home I find myself choosing to go to my laptop instead of it. The newer model, the 900, solves some of my main complaints such as the trackpad, a bigger screen ect..

Days 11-13

I have not used the Asus a lot these last few days. I think this comes down to what the Asus is made for an ultra small portable laptop from when you don’t want anything big, such as a holiday or even taking notes in a business meeting or if you just need a laptop to do email and basic web surfing. The linux version is fine but i suspect that most people would be like “what happened to Windows”, so I think the new windows version will be more popular.