I have had the EEE PC for a bit over a week now, and I thought it was time to type up my thoughts. Let me start by saying that I bought the EEE PC for two primary reasons:
- I wanted a PC that I could carry with me everywhere in a small bag.
- I didn’t want to spend more than $500 for the computer.
How is the EEE PC filling this roll? This is a really nice computer. It is very portable, and fits easily in both my Eagle Creek Milano and Timbuk2 Metro day bags. I will have spent about 420.00 all told getting the computer setup the way I want. I added 2GB of RAM, and 16GB SDHC card, and a small bluetooth adapter. The EEE PC fulfills both of my original requirements very well.
I did remove the pre-installed Linux OS and am now running Windows XP SP2. It is working very well, and having access to a familiar OS and familiar applications is very nice. Setting up the EEE has given me a chance to look at applications that I do not normally add to a PC. This is due to the form factor of the EEE PC, and a desire to keep the OS small, fast, and limit some disk writes to the SSD. I used the nLite software to get the size of my installation down. I started off with the entire machine and my default install of software being under 1 GB. After I ran Windows updates, and installed .NET the install no sits at just a little over 1.5 GB. I am happy with that.
I use a Dell 1420 as a laptop at home, that is my primary machine. It weighs about 6 pounds. I have a Dell Precision 6300 at work, it weighs around 9 pounds. The EEE PC is just really, really small in comparison.
All devices have downsides of course, and the EEE is no exception. The keyboard is small, and it can be difficult to type effectively. I find that it is almost easier to type thumb board style. I am getting used to it though, I am sure in a few more weeks this will not be as big of an issue. The battery life on the 4G Surf I got is not as long as I would like. I did purchase this model knowing that it had a smaller battery, but I am really only getting about 2 hours of life on the battery. I have always intended to replace this battery with a 6 cell when it is released, so again this is a temporary issue. I seem to have an EEE PC with a noisy fan. Some people have really quite fans, and others like me have a noisy one. My fan also seems to come on quite a lot. Not a huge deal, but I am actively looking for some software to help me either reduce the fan speed or toggle the fan on and off.
This is a fun machine to own. I am very glad I bought one, and would recommend it to anyone interested in the same sort of things I list above. I would not recommend this as someone’s only computer, but I think it would be ok if it were your only laptop.