ASUS Eee PC 900 8.9-Inch Netbook (Intel Mobile Processor, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB Solid State Drive, Linux, 4 Cell Battery) Pearl White
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend The new Eee PC 900 offers you more options for your mobile computing needs. Incorporating a shockproof design and weighing 2.18 pounds, you will find it "Easy to learn, work and play" - making it your best outdoor companion anywhere, anytime. The large 8.9? screen size allows for more screen space - making it more comfortable on the eyes reading and editing documents when viewing a single A4 page without the… Product details and pricing info |
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64 Customer Reviews Posted
- ultra portable pc
- Great little computer with excellent wifi. I am writing this review from Domme France. Ultra-lite. You can carry it around without fatigue. The keyboard is adequate size. I have opted for Linux version which is easy to use. Loaded with useful programs. There are no negatives to mention. I have a Dell XPS M1350 and would take this back to Europe again.
- 2008-06-11, 4 of 4 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Great Ultraportable Device!
- I purchased the Linux version of this incarnation of Eee PC. I can honestly say that it surpassed my expectations in all aspects. I have ordered my Eee PC 900 20G online, without ever actually seeing a demo unit. Needless to say, one of my main concerns while placing the order was the material quality. I was afraid I would receive a lightweight and flimsy-feeling toy and boy was I wrong! The material used in making this device is on par with the material used in manufacturing regular laptop computers, if not superior.
On the software side of things, all the research and development Asus invested in putting together the Eee PC software seems to have paid off well. The simplified front-end they created for Linux works for me on multiple levels, but I think this front-end's success mainly boils down to this: Gone are the bells and whistles of contemporary operating systems that do little more than distract you. By minimizing distractions, they were able to create a much calmer environment so to speak, which makes it easier to concentrate on work and getting things done.
Then again if you are a Microsoft devotee, you could install Windows XP on this device but I understand it takes a little bit of tweaking around. Instructions on how to do this as well as all the Windows drivers needed come with the product. Keep in mind though, once you have Windows XP on there, you will also need to install a firewall and an antivirus. Again, you will need to download updates every so often which will consume your valuable disk space.
In my opinion Windows' requirements may be quite taxing on a device with these hardware specifications and would take away all the fun out of owning a device that was, from its conceptualization, meant to be trouble-free and robust. Relative scarcity of malware written for Linux almost obviates the need to install an obtrusive antivirus. Asus' rolls out whatever updates I may occasionally need via their dedicated update servers. Staying with Linux, at least for the time being, feels safe and makes good practical sense. Therefore, I think I will stick with the Linux that came pre-installed on my Eee PC for quite some time.
I am really impressed with the form factor, though I must say that the smaller keys on the Eee PC takes a little getting used to. This however is a flaw I am willing to easily oversee. After all, this is the first portable computer that I purchased I may actually use as a portable, as opposed to a desktop replacement. - 2008-06-08, 21 of 21 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Everything I expected
- I think many people have unrealistically high expectations of this computer. I was very apprehensive about buying a model I'd never physically tried out but since I couldn't find one in the local stores I bit the bullet and ordered one.
Now I will say that I am somewhat of a Linux geek so I can get around in the OS better than a lot of people (once I disabled "Easy Mode"!) but this little machine is everything I was looking for. I think the WiFi "issues" are a bit overblown; I haven't had any problems yet in finding and connecting to hotspots. One time the network applet seemed to hang while connecting to a network but I simply closed it out, turned wireless off and on, and it worked fine.
The keyboard does definitely take some getting used to; the minuscule right-hand Shift key is right next to the up-arrow which I keep hitting by mistake, and on my unit the "R" key is very touchy so it often gets hit more than I meant to, but once you use it for a while you can learn to work at a productive and relatively error-free (although slower) rate.
And to reiterate what several others have said, this does indeed come with the higher-capacity 5800mAh battery, and although I haven't performed my own "drainage" test, based on my current usage and battery levels I'd expect to get the advertised 2-1/2 hours or so of usage.
If you're not sure yet whether the Eee PC 900 is for you, you may want to hold off a bit since this market segment is very new but expanding very rapidly with new models like the MSI Wind and the Eee 901 coming out fast and furious. I expect by this Christmas, there will be many makes and models to choose from anywhere in the $300-700 range.
But if (like me) you don't want to wait any longer, you certainly can't go wrong with this model. If you're new to Linux, the installed version is very easy to use and there is a great user community at eeeuser.com to help you out with any aspect of the device you could possibly imagine. - 2008-06-05, 20 of 20 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Don't Buy The Hype
- I purchased this gadget with high hopes. I knew it was a toy but hoped for it to be a functional toy. After spending some time with the eee pc 900 I found that there are some serious hardware flaws.
The first hardware flaw is the wifi-card (Atheros 5700) and the on-board support (buggy to say the least). Its a bad thing when entire forums have been created on other sites to attempt and support the connectivity issues. Consider that the chipset it uses is not properly supported by the Open Source community and you will need to modify code on the machine right out of the box to enable proper SSID handling.
The second hardware flaw stems from battery power usage. After charging the battery the first time I was able to use the laptop on battery power for 45 minutes before it died. After the initial charge and drain I found that I was able to use the laptop for 35 minutes on a fresh charge.
On the third day of ownership I charged the battery and then turned the laptop off completely (after disconnecting the power supply). I returned two hours later to find the battery drained and was unable to turn the laptop on without connecting the power supply.
The deal breaker for me and what I consider to be the fatal hardware flaw is the write speed of the SSD. Here are the Stats:
Sequential read: 30.0MB/s
Reading 512KB files: 31.0MB/s
Reading 4KB files: 9.4MB/s
Sequential write: 7.6MB/s
Writing 512KB files: 1.9MB/s
Writing 4KB fiels: 0.03MB/s
As you can see the write speed is horrible.
I recommend not buying this over-hyped mess. - 2008-06-04, 30 of 44 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Great performance, powerful enough for everyday usage
- I don't quite understand what's the point of installing Windows on this kind of mini laptop. Basically the linux version can do anything you need in everyday life, internet surfing, email, word processing, conference presentation, chat with friends, et al. Remember, the beauty of EEE PC is its small size, light weight and super portability.
I saw some people here complaining their problems with installing Windows on the linux version. Why bother? What can you do with Windows that you can't with the EEE PC linux? Don't get me wrong---I'm certainly not a huge fan of linux and open source and I use both windows and linux for my work. Please, don't tell me you want to play some fancy 3-D game on this tiny little thing. - 2008-06-03, 12 of 15 people found this review helpful, Rated:
