7. The Asus Eee: An Owner/User's Perspective

by Barry Gerber

When I first heard about the Eee, I was fascinated by the small size and low weight of this little bit of computing from Asus. Being an Windows person, that the Eee ran Linux cooled that fascination more than a little bit. When I found out the Eee could run Windows XP, my interest warmed again and I started looking for a way to get a decent evaluation of the little box.

I didn’t have to wait too long. Mary Branscombe wrote from the UK that she had gotten her hands on one and would be happy to do a review for us. That review appears on the first six pages above.

After reading the review and a few others, I decided to pop for my own Eee. At the time, with last year’s holidays approaching, the little devils were in extremely short supply. I finally found what I was looking for in stock at mWave’s website. I ordered it and had an Eee in my hands the next day; mWave and I both happen to reside in Southern California.

As I searched that site and others, I discovered that there were at least three Eees available. One sold for $299 and had a 4200 mAh battery and 2GB of solid state disk (SSD). Another sold for $349 and came with the same battery and a 4GB SSD. The third model, which sold for $399, had a 5200 mAh battery and a 4GB SSD. I went for that version of the Eee. Around the time of my purchase I heard rumors of an Eee with the higher powered battery and an 8GB SSD. It seems to be on the market more or less. I’ve seen it for $499 - $599. Do I have GB envy? I did at first, but that melted away when I started using the Eee.

It would have been great to have that extra 4GB of SSD...., If I had steadfastly remained loyal to MS Windows and installed XP on my little Eee. But, after using it for a few days under Linux, I never considered MS Windows again. I continually and absolutely dumbfounded at the speed my Eee boots up and runs applications. My Eee connects flawlessly to WiFi access points at home and away. I’ve never even felt the need to use the wired Ethernet port on the device. I have found the keyboard to be quite adequate for typing with my large fingers and the display can be turned up to very good brightness levels. Oh, and I love the small and lightweight direct-plug power supply/battery charger. At six ounces, I never hesitate to carry it with me everywhere I go.

The implementation of a windows environment in Linux is easy to use. Keeping multiple apps open doesn’t seem to affect performance. And, the applications provided meet my every need. My Eee has office apps that are all MS Office compatible. It runs Mozilla’s Firefox flawlessly. There is a simple POP mail client that supports popular email services from Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft. But I use the IMAP mail service available in the excellent implementation of Mozilla Thunderbird that also comes with the Eee to access my Exchange server-based email. It works perfectly with Outlook 2007 on my desktop PC and the IMAP service on my iPhone. Whatever I do on the PC, Eee or iPhone syncs back to my Exchange server and the view of my Inbox or many folders is that same an any of the three.

I stuck an 8GB SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) card in my Eee’s SD slot. And, wow, I now have what amounts to a second "SSD" that holds twice what the real built-in SSD does. I wish I could store programs and OS data on the SDHC card, but it’s just fine for holding photos, videos and business documents.

Also on my wish list is a second battery, because the 2.5 to 3 hours I get out of the battery that comes with the Eee just doesn’t hack it on long flights and other times when I’m away from a power outlet. I haven’t been able to find any backup batteries yet. I did have great fun with my Eee on a recent Amtrak trip from Los Angeles to San Diego. The train car I was in had standard 120 volt power receptacles. So I was able to plug the Eee into the wall as it were and work on and off during the trip.

My final wish for the Eee is that it had a wide area networking card. What fun it would be to use the small, lightweight device anywhere without worrying about finding a WiFi access point. But, I fear that may be more pipe dream than wish. The power draw might be more than the battery could bear. Battery life might drop to monster gaming notebook levels of an hour or so. But, hope springs eternal. New battery technologies on the horizon could make WANing an Eee a reality in a year or so.