The interesting point before I start is that the subheading states “ASUS brilliantly marketed the Eee PC as a revolution in portability and price, and it’s selling like crazy. But, if you want a cheap notebook rather than a highly portable one, there are much better deals.” Ah, so I get it now, we are comparing full sized entry-level laptops to the Eee PC.

Reading the article, it appeared to me that it may be a “paid advertorial” however one or two truths regarding the Eee PC managed to make it into the article, all in the name of fairness of course. Here are just five quotes from the article that I will use to show how bizarre this article actually is:

“… we took one (Eee Pc) home to work with … it became obvious that the device has strengths but also plenty of weaknesses. Ironically, chief among its weaknesses was its price. Feature for feature, the Eee PC is not a good deal when compared to the cheapest entry-level notebooks on the market. The Eee PC’s outstanding quality is its portability. With inbuilt Wi-Fi and weighing only 0.92kg, it’s great for travelling and staying connected through wireless hotspots, bettering any PDA or exorbitantly expensive UMPC’s.”

OK. So we are comparing the Eee PC to the entry-level notebooks available, but one of the biggest advantages of the Eee PC has been mentioned – it beats using a PDA.

“… enthusiastically promoted by ASUS as ideal for people wanting a bargain notebook for themselves or their kids. And this is where the Eee PC doesn’t hack it. With it’s tiny screen, cramped keyboard, insignificant storage and poor battery life, it’s up against proper notebooks costing just $100 more. But this was probably far from the minds of those who rushed out to buy one with that sub-$500 price flashing in their eyes.”

Ah no. I’m pretty sure most people bought an Eee PC because they were tired of using PDAs, especially when most PDAs cost more than the Eee PC. Some people may have bought one because they were tired of carrying a heavy notebook to write documents, read ebooks and surf the web. Sure, the Eee PC has only a 4GB SSD drive on board and the keyboard is kinda small, but you get used to it. It seems though that this article writer/s have never heard of using the SD card slot or a ‘new technology’ called external USB storage to expand storage capacity or add on an external CD/DVD drive? How about the fact that the usage of the SSD removes all of the consistant ‘whine’ that is made when hard drives spin? But, I detect the ‘paid Eee bashing’ starting.

“Henry Lee is Acer senior product manager for retail notebooks. His $749 Acer Aspire 5315 notebooks costs just $100 more than the Eee PC thanks to Acer’s $149 cash back scheme. The Acer notebook recently won an APC Editor’s Choice Award for being a great-value entry-level notebook. For $100 more than the Eee PC, it’s a full notebook with Vista, a hard drive and DVD burner.”

Well, well. What a generous offer – and fancy this laptop winning an editors choice award and then featuring all through this article. Do I trust these editors choice awards anymore? And please, do not use Vista as an arguement to get something – Windows XP sales are going nuts since Vista was released.

“Screen size. The Eee PC’s screen is Lilliputian, just 7in a native resolution of 800×480. It comes as a disappointment when you realize the 7in screen doesn’t fill the 10in space that’s available on the machine. The 7in screen is surrounded by a black bezel that takes up the spare space.”

This quote made me laugh out loud. The first quote I provided from this article stated that “it’s outstanding quality is it’s portablity”, yet it bashes it’s screen size? I am also starting to wonder if the writer/s even used an Eee PC before writing this – the ‘bezel around the screen’ actually contains a pair of stereo speakers, a backlight and an inbuilt 0.3 MP webcam. Plus, for everyone who has used a PDA and Windows Mobile knows that screen widths of 360/480 pixels wide is far more ‘Lilliputian’ than 800 pixels wide.

“Battery Life. Given it’s small size and flash drive, we really expected the Eee PC’s battery to last several hours. So we were disappointed when the little machine ran out of puff after three hours, putting it on par with the big Acer Aspire 5315, which powers a massively bigger screen, hard disk and a Vista OS.”

OK. Let compare lemons with oranges shall we? Seriously, let’s compare the number of cells, amp ratings and battery life times of these two machines using the publically available battery specs of the Acer Aspire 5315 and the Eee PC.

• Acer Aspire 5315 – 6-cell, Li-Ion, 4000mAh: up to 3 hours battery life*


• Eee PC – 4-cell, Li-Ion, 5200 mAh: 3 h 30 min battery life

Well, the Eee PC has less cells, and therefore will recharge faster and be lighter. The published battery life of the Asus is UP TO 3 Hours with an asterix clause – meaning under certain conditions only. Storm in a teacup?

I have a subscription to APC and I am afraid if these kind of “cover features” continue I will be reviewing whether the subscription continues.

Anyway, onto the task at hand – upgrading the RAM. Previously, ASUS did not “approve” of someone upgrading the RAM in the Eee PC, which is something I personally find a bit bizarre. The Eee PC ships with a yellow sticker stating the warranty will be void if the sticker is broken or removed.

Thankfully, after much fanfare, ASUS released a statement to the public saying they were retracting this and that owners of the Eee PC were free to upgrade the RAM if they wished. However, ASUS states that they will not be held “responsible for the damage caused by improper hardware change.” The terms of the warranty were also change to reflect this. Please see the press release here: http://usa.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=9223

OK. To replace the existing RAM, I purchased a Corsair “ValueSelect” 2GB SO-DIMM DDR2 667 200-pin RAM module. There are some articles out there stating that 1GB is the “sweetspot” and that 2GB is wasted. In my opinion, if I was only going to run Xandros or another Linux distro, 1GB would suit just nicely. However, as I plan to run Windows XP on the Eee PC, and remembering that the video card uses Shared Memory, I feel that the 2GB module is a far smarter option, and is only $20 more expensive for me at my local retailer.

Installing the RAM is quite simple. With the Eee PC turned off, unscrew the screws holding the access panel in place and pop out the existing RAM module by pulling the side clips apart. Then, ensuring the pins are the correct way, push in the new RAM module and slightly push down until the side clips click and then rescrew in the access panel. Turn on your Eee PC and enter the BIOS by pressing F2 on startup. Your system should now report 2GB RAM if it has been installed correctly. If your system does not boot, your will need to check that you have correctly inserted the RAM module.

Have fun upgrading your Eee!

Well, I finally decided to get one more ‘little toy’ – but I use the term toy very lightly. This PC is so great, it is a wonder why someone never made one like this previously.

I’m referring to the Asus Eee PC 701 4G. It is an ultra-light small form-factor notebook (subnotebook) computer, that weighs less than 1KG. There have been literally thousands of blog and website reviews for this machine stating various opinions – and of course I will add to this list – but many people seem to miss the point of why someone would enjoy using the Eee PC more than using a larger notebook, such as my own 15.4″ Sony VAIO.

I will list the hardware specs here to start:

• Intel 910GML Chipset Architecture


• 900 MHz Intel Celeron-M (512 kB L2 cache) running at 630 MHz as factory standard


• 512 MB DDR2-667 RAM (Upgradable to 2GB RAM via only one socket)
  
• Internal 4GB Solid-state drive (SSD)


• 7″ LCD Display with backlight – 800×480 Native Resolution


• Intel GMA 900 graphics processor – with VGA out


• 4-cell, Li-Ion Battery rated at 5200 mAh, 7.4 volts


• Built-in Web Cam – 0.3 megapixel (640×480 – max 30 fps)


• Small form-factor keyboard with FN key combinations


• Touchpad pointing device with a dual-mode click bar


• 10/100 Mbit Ethernet (Attansic L2)


• 802.11b/g wireless mini PCI-E card (Atheros-based)


• Realtek ALC6628 Hi-Definition Audio


• Built-in stereo speakers


• Built-in microphone


• 3 USB 2.0 ports


• MMC/SD (HC) card reader


• External Microphone and Headphone jacks


• Kensington lock slot

When I first turned the machine on, the machine booted up into the user interface in approximately 20 seconds, which is not too shabby at all. After filling out a few details in a ‘first run’ type form, I proceeded to explore what the PC had out of the box.

The Eee PC comes pre-installed with Xandros Linux and many other applications that make the machine instantly usable such as Firefox, OpenOffice and Skype. I am personally comfortable with Linux and while “Tux” may scare the pants of many people, Asus have done a great job packaging this distribution so it is instantly usable to anyone who has experienced any GUI before.

It literally took me 20 seconds to configure the wireless access to my router (the longest time was taken typing in the WEP Key) and I was surfing in no time. My initial findings about the system were:

• The system was very responsive, and in fact, faster than my VAIO. I did wonder how the processor and 512MB RAM would perform and I was very pleased with the results.


• The screen was very clear and easy to read, and, especially if you are used to Blackberry type devices, much easier on the eyes.


• The Eee PC does not get very hot at all – after using it for 20 minutes, it was much cooler than my VAIO after the same period of time


• The layout of the keyboard is good, but some keys are in an annoying-to-me position, especially the right shift key. The number of times I pressed the “up arrow” by mistake was more than I would have liked.. perhaps it just takes some getting used to.


• The click bar is better than I thought. I have not had any issues triggering left or right clicks after I was initially worried that it may falsely-trigger any of these instances.

But why would anyone want to use a PC this small when they have access to a full-size VAIO? Let me list my reasons:

• Portability – Finally a useful device that doesn’t break my back or knees on long train trips


• Battery life – I’m getting around 3.5 hours with the Eee PC with WIFI on


• Closer to a ‘real computer’ than a Blackberry or Palm – While the Eee PC is a real computer in it’s own right, it is so much nicer to have something truly portable where you can type emails rather than single finger button pushing or graffiti commands and view websites on a screen bigger than 480 pixels wide.

I’m going to have a lot of fun with this Eee PC and I plan to commit the ‘cardinal sin’ with it – I’m going to upgrade the RAM to 2GB and install Windows XP!