I Finally got around to purchasing an Asus Eee PC a week ago.  I waited until I got to Canada as they were still in short supply in the UK before we left.

It’s been working quite well, my daughter loves it, she’s sort of ok with computers, and after a bit of cajoling her to click on icon’s and tabs she’s finding her way around without to much of a problem. Mind you she’s really only using Firefox for Facebook, web email and web browsing, and Thunderbird for other email acounts.

She will get to use it a bit more, ie, Office Writer and transferring data to/from a USB memory stick.

The only problem we’ve had so far is the wireless connection, it appears to need to be around 6 to 10 feet away from my HP notebook and her mobile/cell, otherwise we’ve needed to frequently  disconnect and re-connect again to get web access.

Harris Chester

www.Network2Computers.com

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

This is getting close to my ideal for portability, the 1001 is around 450 grammes heavier, although it has a bigger keyboard, screen and hard disk.  I believe the 901 is now available with the bigger battery in the UK, that the 900 wasn’t supplied with.

All the main applications on the Linux version I already use on a PC, well Open Office actually, Firefox, Thunderbird, Skype.  What else does the average person who doesn’t play games want?

Maybe I should mention networking as that’s really what this site’s really all about. As it definitely has Ethernet and WiFi 802.11x, WiMax is supposed to be available but haven’t found one in the UK yet. I personally would like one with Wimax even if it doesn’t take off for a while, would save having to acquire a USB stick for it later and keep it self contained most of the time, which is why I really like it

As for the keyboard complaints, I’ve got small fingers and my females will probably be using it and lugging it around anyway.

Others whine about the disk size?, 20GB stores a lot of data for Jo average, and with online storage free or very cheap and with the large USB memory sticks now available, I personally don’t see to much of a problem.

I think it has a great market for Jo average to surf, write notes and emails, communicate using Skype, Skype In and Skype Out, etc. And if the battery lasts at least 5 hours (seen quotes for up to 8 hours), there probably won’t be to many times that you can’t use it without being able to get the charger plugged in.  In extreme cases a car charger or a portable solar charger might be usefull.  Oh lets not stop there, how about a versatile portable wind powered charger with some solar panels, so that hikers, back packers, explorers, etc, can use it in the wilds, carry it in/on the backpack.

I have to chuckle at some of the blogs that get a load of rubbish on them, when it comes to discussing products. They all have idea’s on what the ideal portable notebook would be for them?, and reckon Asus’s marketing department hasn’t a clue.  One does wonder what these people actually do in the real world.

Anyway if anyone wants to post some really good worthwhile constructive opinions on this blog about the Asus Eee Pc’s, please feel free to submit it.  Please Note: it doesn’t get posted until I’ve perused it.

Harris Chester

www.Network2Computers.com

The battery in the PC900 has been upgraded to 5800mAH from 4400Mah in the USA, but in the UK supplied  ones are fitted with the 4400mAH batteries. Apparently Asus has offered a free update to those that had a 4400mAH battery in some countries.

I’ve also seen 6600mAH batteries being advertised in the US, should you travel a lot and need a spare?

Also there is going to be a processor update soon to the Intel Atom, I’ve read reports saying the end of June, I personally would wait until it’s been reviewed with the new processor, as I’ve also seen comments that were unfavourable for the new processor.

Harris Chester

www.Network2Computers.com

I’d ordered the 700 for my daughter to take on her travels, so she could keep in touch. But demand appeared to be making it difficult to get supplies even for major companies in th UK. After waiting about a month, I read about the 900 supposedly available early May. I hope it isn’t delayed as I’ve now cancelled the 700 order, which was to late for my daughters trip abroad anyway. And hope to acquire a 900 soon? for me to play with test out until my daughter is of on her travels again.

With the 900 having the ram doubled to 1Mb, the disk more than doubled to 20Gb (12GB if you insist on XP), the web cam up from 300k to 1.3Mega pixels, and an increase in screen size to 9" screen, I am really interested in it as a travelling computer. Especially as airlines are trimming baggage allowance, probably so than can squeeze more money out of you if you are over the allowance.

The slight increase in weight, and reduced battery time appear to be the only negatives over the 700. Oh and with the cost around 50% higher it’s now in the cheap laptop range. So you’ve got to trade it off on all the extra’s, the weight and small keyboard against a laptop/notebook which weighs about 2.5 times more, probably needs extra memory, especially if it’s got Vista loaded, and is unlikely to have a webcam, and possibly doesn’t have WiFi either.

Harris Chester

www.Network2computers.com