Loving the Asus EeePC

By Martin ~ June 27th, 2008 @ 9:40 pm

Asus have hit it big in a really small way. Literally. The ultra small and compact and ultra capable laptop is taking the world by storm with no signs of slowing down. The Asus EeePC 701 is a little gem. Why is it getting so much attention though? It is worthy of all this attention? I’ll show you that it most definitely is.

First off, we have incredible boot time. I’m not sure what the boot time is on the latest quad core systems with gigs of RAM and the latest version of Windows, but this “slower” laptop boots up to full glory in about 20 seconds! Most people are probably afraid of shutting down their computers because it takes so long to start up again that they might just use suspend or hibernation mode and hope they don’t need to reboot anytime soon because of a changed setting or adding some new software. You wont get reboot-itis with this little gem. When it does updates and notifies you that it has to reboot, I don’t mind. Because a complete shutdown and start up takes little over 30 seconds. I don’t mind waiting that long to shutdown, start up and return back to the desktop.

Second, it’s very usable. This little device runs Linux. Now, some people might run for the hills when they hear this, because it’s not that other operating system. But you don’t need to worry. No large menus to memorise or needing to make a bunch of short cuts on your desktop just so you can get to your regularly used applications quicker, the wonderfully simple tabbed interface takes care of presenting it’s applications in an intuitive way to you, though you can still add to Favourites if you want.

Easy access to the Firefox web browser, click and play internet access, whether it be wired or wireless, simple two clicks to get to a very capable word processor and media player, and for your leisure, some interesting and relaxing games to while away the time whenever you want.

What about weight you might ask? Go to a library and pick up a random hard back book and feel the weight in your hands. Chances are high that the EeePC is lighter than that book! You might even forget that you’re carrying it. It’s lighter than a majority of notebooks, but feels solid and not at all flimsy. It is estimated to weigh about 0.92Kg. It’s that good.

Be warned, it does come with a small screen, but you don’t need to worry. It’s ultra clear and very usable. I was skeptical when I first heard about it, but using it really is not a problem. The icons and fonts are all exceptionally clear and chances are, you will probably never get eye strain from using it. If you want, you can always plug your regular computer monitor into it and just use that from the external VGA monitor port. Looks absolutely great on a 17 inch or higher LCD screen.

The keyboard is another notable feature. Now, many people might complain about it and I wont say whether it is better or worse than other common laptop keyboards because it’s not. It’s different. That’s all. As with most new hardware, there is a learning curve to be had, but the learning curve in becoming used to and familiar with it’s keyboard is small enough for most people. While out and about, it gets the job done. When you get back home or back to your desk, you can always plug in an external USB keyboard and mouse for that extra bit of convenience. No problems.

This little laptop wont suit everyone, but it’ll suit a lot of people. It’s small, very light weight, comes with every type of standard application that you might need, supports wireless internet out of the box, is so quiet and easy to use that you’ll need to come up with excuses not to take it everywhere you go! Did I forget to mention the sub-$500 price tag?

It’s brilliant. Hats off to Asus for devising such a great product as the EeePC 701. It’s successor is near release and should be another great gem just like it’s predecessor. It’s not a gaming beast (though it handles Quake 3 Arena, Tux Racer plus many other favourites surprisingly well) but for what it was made for (portable web browsing, emailing and word processing machine) it fits the bill perfectly. Try one and see for yourself. Brilliant. Just brilliant.