Asus EEE

[Darren Wheeler]

On my trip to San Francisco and beyond I took my MacBook with me to use on the way. Looking back, other than email and web it didn't get much use.

To cut down on bulk and weight I'm looking at an EEE instead. I know some here have one. How are they for travelling and can you do things like play films from a USB drive?

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
On my trip to San Francisco and beyond I took my MacBook with me to use on the way. Looking back, other than email and web it didn't get much use.

To cut down on bulk and weight I'm looking at an EEE instead. I know some here have one. How are they for travelling and can you do things like play films from a USB drive?

I've used one and they are good - I've been taking a look at a nubmer of models of Netbooks for a project at work. The new Lenovo looks interesting but isn't out yet. The MSI Wind is very good, but my current choice would be the Acer Aspire One. They have multiple SKU's available - there was a 120Gb 512Mb option kicking around for £230 online, you can up the RAM yourself to 1.5GB - the 1GB DIMM is ~£15.

I love mine. Have taken it to Barbados, Far East and now Dubai and it's worked first time in all hotels, lounges etc. From a size and weight point of view it beats lugging a full laptop around. After my holiday in July it took me almost a month before I used my 'proper' laptop again.

Not sure about films, but I've got a couple of 8 GB SD cards to take stuff off the camcorder and camera memory. And I can play these films back without any problems.

The only problem I've got with it is the battery life (max about 2 hours), but it is an early model and the new ones promise much more.

[Darren Wheeler]

Originally posted by RichardMannion

Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
On my trip to San Francisco and beyond I took my MacBook with me to use on the way. Looking back, other than email and web it didn't get much use.

To cut down on bulk and weight I'm looking at an EEE instead. I know some here have one. How are they for travelling and can you do things like play films from a USB drive?

I've used one and they are good - I've been taking a look at a nubmer of models of Netbooks for a project at work. The new Lenovo looks interesting but isn't out yet. The MSI Wind is very good, but my current choice would be the Acer Aspire One. They have multiple SKU's available - there was a 120Gb 512Mb option kicking around for £230 online, you can up the RAM yourself to 1.5GB - the 1GB DIMM is ~£15.

Thanks Richard.

Looks rather good. John Lewis do them too so may take a little trip to Reading to have a play....

[RichardMannion]

Forgot to mention, the keyboard is much better on the Acer comapred to the Asus too. John Lewis is a good option as they were including a 2nd year warranty.

I've been looking at these for ages, still not taken plunge yet, don't like to rush these things. Have now started to look at Dell Mini, this is about £299 and looks quite good. A friend of mine has just bought an HP 2133, which comes with Vista, looks great, all aluminum, but is still quite heavy compared to the others. My problem is I do too much research then get bogged down in all the detail! Let us know which one you go for!

Lynne

I have the MSI Wind - or rather, I have a rebadged MSI Wind from PC World - aka the Advent 4211. It's great! Plays back movies just fine using VLC. I have an iGo Juice power adaptor that lets you run it from the mains as well as on emPower on board in PE / UC, which was on sale at Maplin for £40 the other week. It's got an 80 gig drive, which is ok for backing up photos from one trip until I get home. (Built in SD card reader) And - seeing as you are a mac user - there are ways to get OS X to run on it, so you dont have to use Windows. ahem.
Again, battery life is a bit low, but I believe there are longer life batteries coming out now that will improve things. It was £279 from PC World.

[Darren Wheeler]

Been out today and bought an Acer Aspire One. Seems pretty near what I want with 120gb hard drive and 512mb of RAM (1gb upgrade ordered (£11.74) for it. Even better, my Targus travel supply works in it with tip S14.

Will have a play and see how it goes.

Another [y] for the Acer Aspire One. I recently took one over to Nairobi for a neice who is in the final years at school. The familiar XP environment means that you get working pretty quickly, and even with 1GB RAM it's still quite decent for most internet uses.

If I didn't have a good working laptop already I'd go for one myself, and will be watching netbook developments closely.

[Nottingham Nick]

Please keep the opinions coming. This market has to be a boom one for the future. There are a lot of people who want something bigger than the iPhone / Blackberry, but smaller than a full size laptop.

I much prefer to hear what V-Flyers think, than reading the official reviews.

Nick

[Darren Wheeler]

So far the Aspire one is doing well. RAM upgraded with a gig but be warned, you have to dismantle it to install.

Not too impressed with Linpus so going to try Ubuntu instead

[Darren Wheeler]

Just an update. Ubuntu installed and after a bit of tinkering got the wifi installed and working. Takes a few seconds longer to load but feels a lot happier and much more features.

OK, this isn't a full laptop and it doesn't pretend to be one. Having said that, if you just want web/email access with a decent GUI, this fits the bill. If you need any more, then a laptop is for you. There is no CD/DVD but you can plug a USB one in if you really need one.

For those in the market, my advice would be:

1. Buy the version with a HDD instead of SSD. Much more storage for later but at the expense of battery power and heat.
2. Unless you are forced to, buy the Linux version rather than XP (sorry Richard). Linux starts quicker and will run much happier.
3. Ditch the Linux lite version (if installed) and replace with Ubuntu or similar to make full use of system.
4. Don't expect a full multimedia extravaganza and just be realistic about it's capabilities.

I'll keep playing and do another report soon.

Great topic Darren, I am on the verge of buying a similar product myself and this has helped enormously.

Keep playing!

[HighFlyer]

Nice one Darren! I'm posting from my Asus Eee (also running Linux) and very keen to hear how you are getting on with your new toy. As you say, they dont pretend to be a full laptop but for the price point and portability, they are a fantastic buy for surfing and email when travelling,

Thanks,
Sarah

Have been using a Sony TX for some time now - expensive but has been worth every penny - could not do without it when travelling.

Interesting that the supermarkets are now getting into this market with low price hi-spec mini netbooks such as this.
Only available in Germany at the moment (E399) but they usually follow with a UK release very soon.

The Medion Akoya is also a rebadged MSI Wind, like the Advent 4211 I mentioned earlier. I think it has a slightly different specification, but either way, the MSI Wind variants frequently get a very good rating when reviewed.

The samsung looks interesting here

Market's getting a bit crowded, hopefully generating price competitiveness.

Just bought an Asus EEE, very happy with it so far.