Asus eee is a rip off!

Ive just given myself a slap, I was so close to buying the over hyped asus eee. Heres my reasons for the above statement.

in the uk for the 4gb version it is on average £249.00 for a pc thats ok small but has a free OS and a rubbish spec what are you really getting for your money.

For £20 more for example you can get a laptop with a 1.8ghz celeron 1 gb of ram , 80gb hard drive, dvdrw and a screen you can see a whole web page on without scrolling. Also it has the same average battery life

Why do we all get sucked in by small gadgits?

And probably a battery life of 30 minutes, and probably weighs 8 pounds.

The appeal of the Asus eee isn't in it's performance, but in it's portability (weight, battery life). If you want an inexpensive laptop that you can use for web-surfing, word-processing, e-mails, etc. wherever you go, the Asus eee pc can be really nice, from what I've read (I don't actually own it :) ).

Just don't make the same mistake I did: I bought a fairly high-powered (at the time) laptop which looked nice in specs and price, but I later found almost useless as a laptop - it just sat on my desk because it was simply too much of a pain to lug around for the battery life I got out of it.

It's horses for courses. If you need portability, the Eee wins, big time.

I'd be interested in a PC with a similar form factor that had perhaps 32GB SSD and 512MB RAM. I'd slap Xubuntu (or perhaps Kubuntu but wth KDE4) on it, plus a load of dev tools. I'd stick it in my backpack, cycle off someplace quiet and do some quality coding.

Yes its portable but if you can only use it for 2 hours of average use (test results from review) you may as well buy a pda with a mini qwerty keyboard.


for 2 hours before its tiny battery runs out.


same quoted battery life for both, 3 hours, which they both only do if idle.


Me too, although storage space isn't the real problem for me, it would need at least a intel gma x3500 or you can forget open gl.

Mind you ive just had a look at what Sony's compact notebook costs £1399.

now this is what you need


1.08 lb Sony Vaio UX series features a 1.2ghz Core 2 Solo, 1GB RAM, and optional 64gb solid state or 100gb HDD. 1024x600 glossy TFT.

nice

or this little monster



The OQO Model 2 weighs less than 1 lb. and now features a 1.6 GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 120gb HDD, and a host of great features.
Now with optional 64GB solid state HD and Sunlight Optimized Display!


I know the Asus eee is for kids! I just don't get the hype Pc format in the uk called it the best laptop in the world :O)

Try typing several pages of code / text on those things and then see how you feel about them :). Those specs are pretty impressive though, considering the size (though not considering the price).


Ok, but 3 hours for idle doesn't mean much. I always try to find a DVD movie playback battery life or some other meaningful value.


I think it's a little better than that (more like 2.5 - 3 hours during normal usage [not idle]).


True, but it still looks like a good laptop to me. Small, light, portable, fairly good battery life (compared to my laptop at least). If I really wanted an ultra-portable class laptop, I'd probably get a higher-end one (super light, super long battery life, although super expensive), but for a lot of people the Asus EEE pc is absolutely perfect.

Having tried all three of the above I can honestly say I much prefer typing on the Asus.

The other two are to be quite honest terrible for anything apart from the odd email or web browsing (and cost a hell of a lot more).

The asus isn't perfect, but for the price I think it's a pretty strong machine.

what about that one laptop per child?
that (in the donated to africa et al version) has a wind up motor
so slap a dynamo on your bike and power it to your secluded coding spot

i too thought it looked 'nice' but having seen normal laptops for not much more i was a bit ?!?

but the writer part of me would love something cheap portable and preferably only housing what ever i was writing (should it get stolen) for typing in pubs in stead of reams of a4 5mm squared paper
(thank fek most use SD or similar so that can be in pocket till needed)

All we need now is something in the middle of the asus eee and a top end compact sony.

what id like is about a 10in screen that can do 1024x768 a 2ghz+ single core processor, 1gb ram and a intel gma x3500 or above graphics card, no optical drive. with a large battery. little bit bigger than the eee to hold the extra battery cells. for about £350

Why not just use your main computer instead of faffing around with gadgets which are tiny and slower to use.

At home I have the pc. If i am outside I'm driving around or shopping....

Yeah, laptops will never take off. Crazy concept.

Considering it costs approx $199 (supposedly) in other parts of the world, i guess it IS a rip off.

Wait for the Asus ee G8 or the lenovo machine thats currently available to china using the new VIA 1.6Ghz CPU (at 1W power consumption)

And yeah as european you are ripped of quite often as US companies consider europa as a good place to raise prices by 10-50% normally thanks to ignoring how much weaker the USD is since the day their company started ...

LOL when i first read about that (100 winds=10 minutes or something) i had this amusing vision of all these schoolkids with one normal arm and one huge muscular arm from all the yoyo pulling :D

the pricing of laptops is really odd because theres no middle ground with performance its no graphics power or a geforce 8800 with a price jump of £500 at least. theres not any mid range to speak of?

someone modded or olpc sell a cycle-esque charger
that would do me fine

i remember wanting an amstrad nc200? circa 1990's
a4 sized propper keyboard with semi big screen (better than its predecessor) and iir £199
used pcmcia ram cards but could rs232 with laplink
ok save for the keyboard most mobile phones are 10x better that that was now

Ive been looking for the best laptop for developing on so good open gl performance is a must. both for 3d graphics apps and running the games. this is the lowest price i can find with an ok graphics card

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136303

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 - 1.5GHz (x2),
RAM: 2GB DDR2 (2 x 1GB, Max Memory 4GB)
Hard Drive: 240GB (2 x 120GB)
Screen: 17" Widescreen TFT (1440x900) with CrystalBrite Technology
Optical Drive: DVD±RW Super Multi Double Layer
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS 256MB

£579.98 inc vat

can anyone find anything better/cheaper

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/systems.aspx?sysid=134432

eclipse custom build

£624
2ghz core 2 duo
geforce 8600 graphics card
2 gb ram
80gb harddrive
no OS

any better or is this the best

Similar spec from PC Specialist for £622 (includes VAT & delivery)

Display	
15.4 INCH WIDESCREEN DISPLAY (1440 X 900) + ANTI-GLARE

Processor (CPU)	
INTEL® Core 2 Duo T7250 (2 X 2.00GHz) 800MHz FSB/2MB L2 Cache

Memory (RAM)	
2GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)

Operating System	
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

USB Options	
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS

Bluetooth & Infrared Options	
NONE

Memory - Hard Disk	
80GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5400rpm)

CD/DVD Drive	
8x DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Graphics Card	
512MB GEFORCE 8600GT + D-SUB + TV-OUT

Sound Card	
Realtek ALC268 2 Channel High Definition Audio + SPIDIF OUT

Modem	
INTEGRATED 56KBPS V92 MODEM

Network Facilities	
Onboard Gigabit LAN & WIRELESS 802.11G NETWORK CARD

Floppy Disk Drive	
NONE

Memory Card Reader	
INTERNAL 3 IN 1 MEMORY CARD READER (SD, MMC, MS, MS PRO)

Firewire & Video Editing	
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT

TV Card	
NONE

Stand-Alone Monitor	
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse	
INTEGRATED 87 KEY KEYBOARD + 2 HOTKEYS

Mouse	
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Speakers	
INTEGRATED 1.5W STEREO SPEAKERS

Printer	
NONE

Surge Protection	
NONE

Webcam & VoIP	
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

Media Center Kit	
NONE

Anti-Virus	
NONE

Office Software	
NONE

Port Replicator	
NONE

Laptop Stand	
NONE

Battery	
9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - Up to 6 Hours Battery Life

Power Lead & Adaptor	
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor

Dimensions & Weight	
W x D x H: 355mm x 257mm x 35.2mm | Weight: 2.7KG

Additional Features	
Biometric Fingertip Reader & 1 x Express Card Slot

Carry Case	
NONE

Warranty	
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

Delivery	
Standard Insured Delivery to UK Mainland (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm)

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The eee reminds me of the ZX81 era. A small, attractive, low-priced device which appeared on the market. The ZX81 had mass appeal. The eee has pretty much got the same appeal. Its the iPod of laptops at the moment.

Personally, I'd probably get the Dell XPS m1330, which after some upgrades (LED lit LCD screen, 3 GB RAM, 250 GB hard drive, 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 batteries [6-cell & 9-cell], bluetooth, etc.) costs about $1500. It's light, portable, sturdy (built with brushed aluminum and magnesium alloy), fast, and has a good battery life (technically "up to 8 hours", but realistically you'll get ~4 hours of constant DVD playback).

Jim Brown: For £622 ($914) those specs are ok, but the cheap n' powerful laptops often have at least one or more of these issues: Bad battery life, noisy fans, heavy weight, poor build quality, overheating tendency. The weight of that laptop seems ok, the battery life mediocre, and I don't know about build quality or overheating.

The only reason I mention this is because I was "lured" into the same trap with my current (several year old) laptop; the specs looked good, and so did the price. Unfortunately it had all of the above mentioned issues (bad battery life, etc.)

When I buy my next laptop I'm going to be absolutely sure that it's exactly what I want, even if it is considerably more expensive. I'd rather pay $1500 for a sturdy, potable, quality laptop I can actually take with me and use than a $1000 one that's more trouble than it's worth as a portable computer.

Im in two minds about it really, Ive got a toshiba Satalite pro, thats seperates from its base station, and is then not much bigger than the ee, but has a good size screen, and is faster. Which I bought from one of those "Garenteed" reserviced places that sell to studnts. And that only cost me £99.

OK, so its second hand, but it works (and has worked for the three years Ive had it)

However, the asus ee looks cool

Jim Brown thanks thats a good price it is the smaller screen thats saving the money though. it does have the GT version of the graphics card as a plus point.

John J. : the m1330 has a poor spec really, small screen, 8400 gs graphics and you have to have vista. Not great for the money. fingerprint reader as standard like i want one? 1984 anyone

If i had £1500 id get a Macbook pro there £1299 now with 8600 gt graphics and i love the simple design. plus no vista!

Poor specs? Compared to the laptop you posted above, it has the same processor (2.0 ghz, although for $75 more you can upgrade to 2.2 ghz), 150% as much RAM, over 3x as much hard drive space, and a LED LCD display (brighter, clearer, more power efficient). Regarding the "smallness" of the 13-inch screen, I personally like small laptops, as long as the keyboard isn't cramped. Oh, and the finger print reader is optional, although since it doesn't cost anything extra, I don't know why you wouldn't want it (it seems pretty convenient to simply slide your finger over the reader and have Windows automatically recognize and log you in, without having to click or enter any passwords).

The only possible "poor" thing about the specs is obviously the 8400 video card, but for most people who don't do hardcore gaming on their laptops, this is more than enough.

There's almost no way you can combine high-end graphics on a laptop with great battery life and portability, so obviously you're focusing on power and not portability.

Obviously it comes down to your preference. Personally, I judge a laptop's "specs" in the following order:

1. Size / weight - If it's too big/heavy to carry around with you, you may as well get a desktop, because that's just what your heavy/large laptop will become when you find it's more trouble than it's worth as a portable computer.

2. Battery life - Without a good battery life, portability means nothing, if you're constantly having to recharge.

3. Power - As nice as portability and battery life is, it's not very enjoyable to use a laptop where everything takes forever to load.


I also considered a MacBook Pro, but a macbook pro with the specs of the dell 1330 configuration above is about twice as expensive (about $3000 or £2050).

Regarding Vista, I'd rather use Windows than Max OSX not because it's any better or worse, but simply because that's where I do all my programming work.

P.S. The XPS m1330 I was referring to wasn't £1500, it was $1500 (roughly £1020).

Edit: Interesting... Dell.com just lowered the price of the m1330 by about $100 and upgraded it's processor from [2.0 GHz, 2MB L2] to [2.2 GHz, 4MB L2] for free :) (only on the high end configurations though).

not as far as i can see

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-7034.aspx

Check out Asus's F8SV laptops (A1 or B1) if you want a nice low-price comparison to the MB Pro that isn't as fat and ugly as Dell's :)

The screen isn't quite as nice as Apple's, but the cooling is miles ahead, leading to far better performance. The B1's screen should be a bit nicer than the A1's, too.

I think they even still have the extra 1-year accidental damage warranty...


As far as very portable laptops are concerned, I think the regular Macbook fits that bill pretty well. It could also be worth considering that isn't a full-blown Windows-running computer, like Nokia's N-series tablets. They do almost everything such a UMPC would do (collect information, live for a long time on one charge, browse the web, do magical things via Bluetooth devices...), yet they cost far less money and are not afraid to admit the fact that a full-blown Windows PC can't be crammed into a pocket-sized device.

That has way less hard drive capacity (160 GB < 250 GB), less ram (2 GB < 3 GB), same processor, less batteries (1 < 2), AND is about $420 more expensive (although it clearly has a superior video card, twice as powerful as the Dell laptop's).

The battery life is extremely good though, for a 15 inch laptop (~3:39 of DVD playback, compared to the XPS m1330's ~3:47). If I wanted to spend the extra $420, and wanted a larger, heavier, graphically more powerful laptop, I'd probably get it. As appealing as the superior 8600M GT video card is, I just can't justify it because I know I'm not going to need a video card that fast, in which case RAM and HD space is much more important (not to mention the fact that I'm really aiming for something a little smaller and lighter).

I still haven't decided yet, though, so suggestions are always helpful :)

fair point, I could justify it because id use it for 3d modeling and open gl performance makes a big difference when modeling anything detailed, also if it has full open gl 2.0 support the real time rendering has real time shadows, bump/normal mapping and shaders which really help when setting up a scene.

Im always going to plug it in (even on the train) so battery life doesnt bother me. Size on the other hand does so I take your point.