Last week I bought an Asus Eee PC 900, a 8.9” laptop, being very portable and using a SSD disk, which makes it more durable when moving around. That last part was important to me, so I’m accepting the limited lifespan of SSD disks, which you only can write to a finite amount of times.
I went with the 900 model sold in Sweden, because I wanted a Swedish keyboard so that I can sell it when I want to upgrade to a better machine, which I know I will. Initially I wanted the 901 model, but since delivery times from the UK was too long to fit my needs, I went with the crappy 16 GB version you probably shouldn’t get. It was cheap though, so just the fact that I can work during my current trip pays for it in time well spent. Or it should anyway, we’ll see how well it turns out, as I’ve spent less than an hour on the train so far…
Anyway, I bought the Eee PC 900 for a reason, or several really:
- I’ve wanted a truly portable laptop for quite some time. My MacBook is a good machine, but heavy and cumbersome to actually use on trips.
- I wanted a fairly cheap small laptop that I could throw in my bag, no fuss. So SSD and no media bay or stuff like that, just the bare essentials, lightweight.
- I’m all in the cloud, so why should I bother with big hard drives? In fact, I barely need them at all, with the iPod as my music player, and USB/memory cards should I want to watch movies on my laptop.
- I have found that I write better fiction away from my desk, which I probably associate way too much with work (it is all about fooling the psyche, as you know), so why not make sure I can move my fiction writing to where I want to?
So you could say I’m filling two needs here really. One is that I want to be able to bring a laptop on trips, and actually do some working/whatever on it while traveling, something that I find hard with the MacBook since a lot of trains, airplanes and whatnot are too cramped for a full laptop. The other is that I want to help myself write more fiction, which I do by fooling myself into be more positively attuned to writing, by doing it away from my desk. The portability and simpleness of the Eee PC helps me do that.
The Asus Eee PC 900
I went with the 900 model, as I said, because I do want a screen that can manage web sites well enough. with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels, sites might not look great, but they’ll fit horizontally at least. That means I can use it as a blogging machine, since I’m all in the cloud anyway.
It’ll be interesting to see how this will work out. One initial goal I’ve set for myself is to get a new version of a pen-and-paper role-playing system out to the people using it, possibly releasing it later on as well. I’ll do all of my writing on that using this Eee PC. I also intend to do some fiction writing, of course, including the final edits to the Orn story The Green Knight, as well as the third Stiel Uthrom story.
We’ll see how it works out. Right now, the keyboard is making life hard for me. I’m a touch typist and find that it doesn’t really work that great, and due to the size of my hands, neither does my finger setting – I just can’t fit it in and types with 3-4 fingers per hand instead. I am at a reasonable speed though, getting better, so it might not be an issue.
Netbooks are the future for me, and I doubt I’ll be replacing my MacBook at all when it clocks out for good. One strong desktop computer, and a truly portable netbook, possibly a 10 incher to get room for a better keyboard, that is probably the setup I’ll be looking at in the future.
[...] not ready to trade in my MacBook, nor my desktop workstation, for my recently acquired Eee PC 900 myself. There are issues, most of them solveable, but not all. I do, however, like the concept of [...]
Congrats on your purchase. I read the 16GB version was really slow, compared to the ones with either 4+8 or 4+16GB SSDs (because the 4GB onboard SSDs were faster). But with a bit of tweaking, the difference should be barely noticeable. I do have a Mini Note, which has an excellent keyboard fit for touch-typing, but I usually carry along my EeePC 900 in my bag because it’s lighter, and has longer battery life (3.5 hours + with my setup).
I look forward to reading your works of fiction!
It is perhaps a bit slow, and I was aware of the criticism of the 16 GB version. It is probably correct. However, with Linux it really isn’t much of an issue, so I’m happy with it. The keyboard is the drawback, besides the default Xandros OS of course, it sucks. I have adapted to the keyboard well enough though, so I won’t complain too much. Of course it is cramped, the netbook is small, that’s the whole point.
I got almost 3 hours of it on the train, everything set low, and that’s OK. I will however get a better battery, and then it’ll be a nice traveling companion.
Check out my fiction page for some current work!
i bought one 4 weeks ago to have a light weight machine that i could use for learning bridge and playing bridge on line–bridgebase.com. fantastic site with all hands playedon the server so you can review with partner and try to findout wht was done right and what was done wrong. it works like a charm. I wanted something cheap and this was $450. 12 g with xp. put office on it and it is going strong. i am touch typing with some difficulty but not as much as i had assumed. batter live 2 to3 hours. would like something longer. no doubt will get a new version one day but for now i have what i wanted and more at sorta half price.
Thanks for commenting, Godfrey. You could always get a bigger battery, there are several to choose from that will take you to 4-5 hours at least, without breaking the budget.
I bought a Eee 900 in June, and enjoyed it for two months. One day, I noticed when I hit a key, two characters would come up. Then, I was not able to log in. Suspecting the keyboard had gone malfunctioned, I plugged in a USB keyboard, and sure enough, it worked just fine with an external keyboard. I contacted technical support in ASUS, and was given a cut-and-past text to call a number. I called, once waited for 20 minutes, and the second waited for 30 minutes without any live person on the other end before giving up as I don’t have that kind of time during office hours. Finally got a staff asking “do you just want a keyboard?”, I replied saying “yes, if I can get one with minimal instruction to install”. Did not hear from her again. Emailed again, and got the same cut-and-paste text twice again. All the questions I had in the previous emails were replied by the same cut-and-paste text to call…
I had been using Dell computers and notebooks for probably the last 10 years without any problem, and thought this Eee PC to be a fresh change. That turned out to be a mistake. I am willing to pay for my own part and forget about the warranty replacement. In desperation, I looked into ebay and found a bunch of replacement keyboards available. See for yourself http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&catref=C6&from=R10&sotr=2&satitle=Eee+pc+900+keyboard&sacat=58058%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=90703&sabfmts=1&saobfmts=insif&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&fgtp=
I am buying the keyboard myself, and forget about wasting more time in the dysfunctional company. I would never buy anything from a company that cannot even produce a reliable device as simple as keyboard. Hope you have better luck on your Eee PC than I have with mine…
Funnily enough, my support inquiries (regarding Xandros updating to GTK2) have been promptly answered, and not totally out there either. Too bad you’re having difficulties though, Charles. You really should make some noise about it!
I’m looking at a netbook. My Macbook is great, but my back and shoulders are starting to give up. Years ago I had an HPC that had an integral keyboard, my favorite of them. It was an early Jornada. It was in some ways a netbook.
I write fiction for a living and since I bike round town, I fear if I fall the maccie will die. I also hate to take my maccie on the plane, due to the cost. So readying your reviews is turning me even more into a convert. Linux is not an issue… really, and this does look like that Jornada with a FULL OS.
Nadin
PS good luck with the writing. I really appreciate the review from a working writer
I remember looking at the Jornada, actually!
I most certainly recommend you to get a netbook, if not an Eee PC then I’d go for the new Dell Mini Inspiron 9, packed with Ubuntu Linux for speed. As far as I’ve heard, the Mini Inspiron 9 sports a better keyboard than the Eee PC models, so I expect to upgrade to that one in the future.
Thanks for your comment and kind words!
you bought it for yourself or your child?
i recently bought a white Asus Eee PC and i am very surprised about the size of this machine. it is very small and lightweight compared to my Toshiba laptop.
I bought my eeePC second-hand thru eBay and I too was surprised at how easy it was to type. My main computer is my MacBook and it wasn’t until I got my eeePC that I realized how much space there is between the keyes on a ‘regular’ keyboard. The only size problem is that sometimes I hit Return intsead of Shift.
My space bar is having issues and because I bought the 12g, the space is split between a 4g and an 8g. The problem is that the 4g is the C drive and there isn’t enough room for even Open Office, no matter how hard I defrag. So I’m going back to eBay to resolve both problems and replace the keyboard and up the hard drive size. I use Abyword, which is a free word processing program I found thru the boards at Nanowrimo.org. It works as well as Word and the files are interchangeable. Even thru Office 07.
I debated whether to bother upgrading at all until I thought of replacing the keyboard. I use it mostly to write and the main online uses I make of it are to link up to the backups on Google Docs or Evernote. But like you say, it’s a killer because it’s so portable. I love the fact that I can shove it into almost any bag I own and be Gone.
I did get an external booster for the times when a plug is not available. I got a Duracell Mobile 100 which promises to give me 2 extra hours. I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, but I liked it because I could also charge my iPod from it if I needed to. It has a wall-plug and 2 usb outlets so if I needed to, I could charge my phone from it as well.
All in all, count me as another happeee user.