Anyways, PC Corner's website said that the ASUS EeePC will be released on the 5th of November. But when I called them at their Gilmore store, they said that it will commercially be available on the 8th at 6pm instead. Considering the distance of the store from my place and the time, I opted to call the next day. And was very excited to know that it's already available. But having stuff to do on that friday, I opted to go the first thing in the morning on the 10th that's a Saturday. On my way to the store, I was praying that there will still be a unit for me. Good enough I was able to get one. Actually, it is available from the PC Corner website, for delivery, which will take two days, but I'm the hands on person, I want to experience holding the unit right away (I know pretty geeky hehehe).
Just like a kid with a new toy, I was so excited to use it. And just like what I've expected, the booting up is fast, and I was able to use it (surfing) out of the box (of course, that was after I connected to my wireless network at home).
At of the moment, only the 4G Surf is available locally and in white. With the following configurations to follow suit.
| | Intel® Celeron® M (256Mb) / 02Gb Media Flash Drive | |
 | Intel® Celeron® M (512Mb) / 02Gb Media Flash Drive | |
| Intel® Celeron® M (512Mb) / 04Gb Media Flash Drive -- 4G Surf | |
| Intel® Celeron® M (1.0Gb) / 04Gb Media Flash Drive | |
| Intel® Pentium® M (512Mb) / 04Gb Media Flash Drive | |
| Intel® Pentium® M (512Mb) / 08Gb Media Flash Drive | |
| Intel® Pentium® M (512Mb) / 16Gb Media Flash Drive | |
| Intel® Pentium® M (1.0Gb) / 16Gb Media Flash Drive | |
This is the simplified specifications of what I got
| Model Name | Eee PC 8G | Eee PC 4G | Eee PC 4G Surf | Eee PC 2G Surf |
| Display | 7" | 7" | 7" | 7" |
| Intel CPU & Chipset | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Operating System | Linux Windows XP compatible | Linux Windows XP compatible | Linux Windows XP compatible | Linux Windows XP compatible |
| Ethernet Communication | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| WLAN | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Memory | 1G (DDR2) | 512 MB (DDR2) | 512 MB (DDR2) | 256 MB (DDR2) |
| S.S.D. Storage (Solid-State Disk) | 8G | 4G | 4G | 2G |
| Camera | ● | ● | - | - |
| Audio | Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone | Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone | Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone | Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone |
| Battery | 4 Cells: 5200 mAh, 3.5hrs* | 4 Cells: 5200 mAh, 3.5hrs* | 4 Cells: 4400 mAh, 2.8hrs* | 4 Cells: 4400 mAh, 2.8hrs* |
| Weight | 0.92 kg | 0.92 kg | 0.92 kg | 0.92 kg |
| Launch Date | End of November | 10/16 Global Launch | Mid of November | End of November |
| * Specificatioin changes are subject to different models * Actual battery life will depend on actual operations and other settings. * Product contains software under GPL license agreement | ||||
A little review of the unit after a few days of usage:
IN THE BOX:
- the unit (pearly white)
- charger (a little bigger than an ordinary mobile phone charger, smaller than my iBook power adapter)
- Printed user's guide
- DVD of Windows Drivers
- battery 5200 mAh
- soft case/sleeve (black)
THE UNIT
It has a 7 inch screen. At first I thought, based on what I've read, is small and now resolution at 800 pixels only, but I was wrong, when I pulled up images, it came up as crisp and clear, colors are vivid and comes out much better than the larger LCD screens, this is perhaps to the compressed pixels.
The body is quite sturdy, with the buttons firm on the touch and push. This is much better from the buttons I saw on those NEO laptops. I did not hear any squeaking sounds when I slightly twisted the unit. The latch that attaches the monitor to the body is not flimsy. No latch that will lock the lid when close (pretty much like the other notebook pc's out there). The design is well, not like what I've expected. Personally, I have never been a fan of ASUS laptop designs, but this one is nice.
There is a removable panel at the bottom, from what I've read, when opened, it will expose another RAM slot for upgrades, but unusually, there is a warranty sticker that is blocking one of the screws. ASUS made it clear that they are not positioning this as a laptop replacement (yeah!), so if one wants an upgrade, he/she has to purchase another unit with a higher hardware specs (as if that will stop us right?).
The back is bare, because it's occupied mostly by the battery pack. The left side contains an RJ45 port (LAN), supposedly there's an RJ11 port beside it (modem port), but in my unit, it's blocked by a rubber stopper. From what I've read, there is a port and connections, but the modem or one of it's component is missing. One USB 2.0 port and jacks for headphones and mic. There are four LED indicator lights in front. Power, Charging, SSD and WLAN indicators. On the right side, there is a VGA port, two USB 2.0 ports and a card reader that can handle SD, MMC, SDMC.
The keyboard is the catch. Well, I don't think it is. It's small. But I was able to write this article from it, so I guess I don't have a problem with it. Maybe those peeps with humongous fingers will. The response is good and tactile feedback is impressive. The touchpad is responsive as well, though I'm used to the a single button touchpad (because the iBook has only one button), it's on the hard to press side. The layout of the keyboard is the standard layout albeit the small size.
THE OPERATING SYSTEM and SOFTWARE
It's running an ASUS tweaked XANDROS distro of Linux. Others might be turned off upon hearing that it's running on Linux, but believe me, even a 5 year old kid could use this computer. Using it is a no brainer. The applications are arranged into tabs (much like the cellphone that you're using) and in each tab, there are lots of large icons, that even people with Presbyopia will appreciate.
I'm not too familiar with Linux applications, but I will mention those that, I think, people will be using the most.
- Firefox - web browsing
- OpenOffice - counterpart of the usual Microsoft Office suit (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) and the good thing is, it's compatible vice versa
- Pidgin - it's a unified instant messenger where the user can enroll all his/her IM accounts from Yahoo! Messenger, AOL, MSN, Google Talk
- Thunderbird - for those who would rather use an email client in the computer than use the web counterparts
- Acrobat Reader
- Skype
It also has a PIM application, a counterpart for Microsoft Outlook. On the FUN tab, it has a photo viewer, media player (which can detect and iPod), voice recorder and a video recorder from the on-board webcam.
Most of the icons are just shortcuts to websites. There are icons for popular webmails such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail and AOL. You will see a lot of Google-ish here, as there is a dedicated icon for iGoogle (which will just open up Firefox and bring you to Google.com/ig.
It's not unusual too that they thought of kids when developing this product. As there are lots of kid-ish applications and links available.
OVERALL
I like the product because of it's size, it's functionality and the price. I got it for almost Php18T. Hey, my mobile phone is more expensive than this hehehehe. It's so portable that you don't need to buy a laptop bag and virtually telling the world, go ahead and mug me because I'm carrying a laptop. Also, it's not that heavy. Laptop users (especially windows laptops) will have the power adapters to add to the weight of the whole thing. With this one, it's just like having a communicator in your bag.
I have an iBook, and (i know I'll get flack from Mac users), I only use it for surfing the web, and making my lectures and presentations. I like my iBook because of it's instant on, but now, the EeePC is challenging that.
I think the sub-20K price is the sweet price point. Because for me, once you cross the 20K mark, better get a full-fledged notebook computer instead. Besides, for less than 20K, it's easy to get another one after a year. Hehehehe I guess I've exposed my intentions.
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