Asus EEE PC701 – Review
July 13th, 2007
The guys over at NotebookReview have managed to get their hand on Asus’s EEE PC701, Im not jealous honest.
Heres the Scoop.
‘The Asus EEE PC 701 notebook was officially announced at the beginning of June at Computex Taipei. Today I met with Asus to get a close-up look at this new device and talk more about the company’s goals with it. If Asus really can pull off selling this device for $250, it could be a very tempting companion PC for on the go.
First of all, here’s a quick look at the specs the Asus EEE offers:
* Display: 7″
* Processor: Intel mobile CPU (Intel 910 chipset, 900MHz Dothan Pentium M)
* Memory: 512MB RAM
* OS: Linux (Asus customized flavor)
* Storage: 8GB or 16GB flash hard drive
* Webcam: 300K pixel video camera
* Battery life: 3 hours using 4-cell battery
* Weight: 2lbs
* Dimensions: 8.9 in x 6.5 in x 0.82 in – 1.37 in (width x depth x thickness)
* Ports: 3 USB ports, 1 VGA out, SD card reader, modem, Ethernet, headphone out, microphone in.
The startup time for the EEE is about 10 seconds, and that’s when it’s being slow. Shutdown is performed with the simple one click of an “off” icon in the lower right hand of the screen (this “off” graphic is always present) and the total shutdown time is a whopping 5 seconds. We’ve all been ruined by slow hard drives and a bloated Windows OS I know, but I felt kind of giddy with glee seeing such fast startup and shutdown.
The Asus EEE uses a Linux based OS that Asus has customized themselves. Combine a small Linux footprint OS with a flash based hard drive and what results is this speedy startup that the device has. Just because the OS is light doesn’t mean it doesn’t do much. There’s a ton of software features on board that will most definitely serve all of your basic needs. You can browse the web using FireFox, use Skype with the built-in web cam and microphone, open Word and Excel docs and edit them, view photos, listen to music files, use AOL IM, MSN messenger or just about any other major chat client via Kopete. In other words, all the basic functions you perform on a PC you can do on the EEE PC.’
The Asus EEE was rumoured to be retailing about $199 (about £100), but it looks like it is going to be more like $250 (About £125) for the 8GB version, and a bit more for the 16GB version.
Asus are hoping to start selling this bargain laptop next month, I cant wait to get my hands on one, it seems like a perfect solution when you don’t want to carry a full sized laptop with you, and you can’t beat the price, I am sure the EEE PC is going to be a massive hit.
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Where can I buy or who will be the first to sell it?
Where is going to be sold?
Hi
Unfortunately they haven’t released any details yet of when it will be sold, hoepfully they wil soon
This could be huge. It seems that most laptop sales are for people that have basic needs like web browsing, and this seems to tick all boxes.
I know there are people in my organisation that have £2000 machines and use them for nothing but editing Word docs, watching movies and surfing the web, all of which are possible on this machine.
I’d have to give this 8/10 from the reports, Now, increase that battery life some and then you are firmly in 9-10 land!
Price is good, but there are very significant benefits in size,weight, and FREEDOM FROM WINDOWS.
The ONLY other feature I would appreciate, as Matt posted, would be substantially increased battery life.
As soon as these hit the market, I will place an order.
Hi Larry
I agree, for the price you can’t go wrong, I will be ordering one next month when they hit the UK.
http://www.gadgettastic.com/2007/10/10/asus-eee-pc701-to-be-launched-in-the-uk-by-rm/
I want one but the majority of sites in the UK are selling the 4Gig version at nearly £230 which is double the quoted prices here.
Are vendors being greedy and ripping people off? IF so then ASUS need to step in and enforce an RRP because its not fair that a retailer can pull this kind of cr@p on people, I would be able to afford one to go out and use on public access portal for what I need but I do not see why I should pay twice the asking price that the manufacturer has stated its aiming for.
IMHO Greed by retailers and vendors is pushing the price up, a £100 machine should be sold for £100 and not £230.
Hi Mark
RM are selling the 2GB model for £169
Here is the link
http://www.rm.com/FE/Products/Product.asp?cref=PD1024415
This is the cheapest I have found so far, let me know if you find a better deal, I am looking to get one as well.
Thanks for the link but on further inspection…
Quote: “The RM Asus miniBook is available to purchase from RM for use by anyone in the UK in full-time or part-time education.”
Which I am not in further or full time education, I merely want one for my personal use, surfing where I can get and use my BT Openzone minutes of which I have paid for but cant use because my existing laptop is too heavy and has no wifi port.
The cheapest I have found is £213 + postage which makes it £230.
Oh I didnt realise that
Kind of sucks that there are no 2GB ones any cheaper.
Found that “Play.com” are selling this for £219 with free delivery and the machine is the “4Gigabyte” machine and not the 2 Gig that everywhere else seems to be selling for the same price.