Hands-on with my new Asus eee PC

Kevin's hand vs. eee PC

(Credit: Dave Rosenberg)

Being that I am rarely successful as an early-adopter of new hardware, I felt compelled to immediately get one of those cool new Asus eee linux-based laptops and see how quickly I could make myself crazy. (Check out the CNET review here.) I bought mine from Mwave who seem to still have them in stock.

Let me start with this: this thing is small, like s-m-all small. It's smaller than the paper notebook that I carry around with me. And it's light. You can put it in your coat pocket (if you have a big coat obviously--like the ones all the bad kids use to shoplift etc.) with minimal effect. This is exactly the laptop that you want when you go to a trade show or do interviews or meetings or whatever when you don't need all your data with you. It also supports some pretty good resolutions so you could do presentations on it as well.

Setup was minimal--basically you plug it in and it works. We did however run into a pretty miserable snag with our ultra-secure office wifi network where the eee wouldn't authenticate properly. Something about the mad wifi drivers, I think. When I took it home it jumped right on the wireless network and I was off and running.

eee meets big-boy monitor

(Credit: Dave Rosenberg)

The good:
-The keyboard is small but you get used to it surprisingly quickly if you are a touch typer. I find the keys to have good spring and I am typing pretty fast on it already
-The bundled applications pretty much meet any need you have with the exception of syncing a mobile device, which I simply couldn't figure out. Otherwise I am hard pressed to find anything that I *can't* do with the eee.
-Download the Littlefox theme for Firefox and you are golden
-Skype and Pidgin (open source AIM) worked OOTB
-It comes with a surprisingly well-designed UI--separated into Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings and Favorites
-You have shell access should you want to hack some Windows server

The bad:
-The trackpad starts out really spazzy and the mouse clicky thing takes a minute to get used to. I believe there is some advanced functions you can assign but one side is much harder than the other. I assume this is user error.
-The screen real estate is still pretty small and you lose about 2 inches to speakers. I would have settled for less rock and more room.

So far, I think it's fantastic. Go get yourself one before they all sell out again.

Side note: these photos were taken on an iPhone...kinda lame

[royrusso]

"this thing is small, like s-m-all small."

Cannonball Run?

[daverosenberg]

Correct! Nicely done Ray!

[rfhubbard]

I wonder if the Eee PC comes with software that reads PDF files? I like to travel in Japan and have a lot of rail line and train station maps in PDF format.

[weaselman50]

Sir you can do almost everything windows can u just have to know what to do. so, u can definitely read pdf files though the package may not be already installed with Eee. but u can do it easily.

[daverosenberg]

Yep, it reads PDFs. This thing is shockingly good

[brianmv]

This looks to be an amazing PC. Think of all the tech-starved 3rd world countries that'll be clamoring for this inexpensive, small, convenient laptop (not to mention the incredible price tag).

[weaselman50]

This editor seems fairly new to linux.... goes to show that linux isnt as difficult as many beleive

[FVSO]

Did you even read his bio...

"Dave Rosenberg is CEO and Co-founder of MuleSource, a venture-backed company that develops open source integration and infrastructure software. With experience at both large corporations and several startups, technology has long been his best friend and mortal enemy."

That bio doesn't sound like he is fairly new to *nix to me but of course I don't have my rose colored fanboi glasses on.

[b_baggins]

Yep. Which is why his review was filled with all the things he couldn't get his laptop to do. Like sync with his mobile device. Connect to his work network. Handle the trackpad and mouse button correctly.

[mishani]

The price is not really remarkable - maybe for an ultralight, but not for a notebook PC generally, there are quite a few sub-$400 laptops with better specs. The OLPC is $200, and it was considered too high for low income countries.
Looks neat, but the tiny screen is a serious handicap - why not use the full available space for the screen, even if it raises the price another $50 or so?

[Uncle Jung]

Is "typer" a word?

[daverosenberg]

It's probably typist, but that didn't sound right at the time

[Mathemusician]

There's no such thing as a bad kid

[techmaster7b]

Not so much a comment, but more of a question. Why are you using an iPhone?

[jabailo]

I really really want an Asus eee.

However, I think I'll wait until they start handing them out for free like key chains and id card lanyards.

[Schlenker]

For $600 I bought my daughter a Gateway T1616 yesterday from a BB store, 14" WS, DVD burner, 1G, AMDX2, WiFi, card reader, web cam, 160G HD, HDMI port, Vista HP. Only 5.5lbs and a compact size. Really well equipped and made for the price.
At $400 the eee is over priced.

[digitalcoup]

For work, I am really considering bailing my ThinkPad in favor of the Eee PC. By hooking this up to an external keyboard, mouse and monitor, and installing the Citrix ICA client for Linix, this should serve as a complete work laptop.

I just love the idea of this little machine. They have created a think client laptop, which could be just as useful for business purposes as it is for kids and third world countries.

Does this support decent resolutions on an external monitor? Has anyone tried the Citrix ICA client on the Eee PC?

[Conneriscool]

Are you also going to hook up an external HDD? Because you cant really do a whole lot of saving work documents and other application if needed.

Man, that guy has giant hands.