Asus Eee PC Initial Hands On and Video Review

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by Jerry Jackson, Kevin O'Brien and Andrew Baxter

The Asus Eee PC 701 4G is the new affordable ultraportable notebook that's bound to be on many consumers' Christmas wishlists this year. Retailing for somewhere between $299 and $399, the Eee PC isn't exactly a workhorse, but it will do just about every basic task you'd need from a laptop. Our initial hands-on actually proves it does more than we expected.

First, the specs for the review unit we have on hand, which is the Eee PC 701 4G:

• Processor: Intel Celeron M ULV 900MHz
• Storage: 4GB of Flash based storage (SSD)
• Memory: 512MB of RAM
• OS: Linux (Asus customized)
• Screen: 7-inch screen with 800 x 480 resolution
• Ports: 3 USB, 1 monitor, headphone jack, microphone input, SD card reader (SDHC compatible), Kensington lock slot, Ethernet 10/100
• Webcam (0.3 MP)
• Battery: 4-cell 5200 mA (rated at 3.5 hours)
• Wireless: 802.11b/g Atheros
• Input: Keyboard and Touchpad

We've only had the Asus Eee PC for a few hours at the time of this writing, but wanted to share a few thoughts and some video before we do a more complete review next week.

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Looks

The Asus Eee PC isn't half bad looking. It's all white, which in the long term might not do so well with showing dirt, but while it's pristine and clean in the first few hours, it sure looks nice:

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Size Comparison

The Asus Eee PC is small, very small. It weighs only 2lbs, if you include the power adapter then it still weighs under 2.5lbs. That's great for travelling. If you're on the go and want a cheap device to take with you but still do some work or have some fun, this could be it:

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Screen:

The screen is 7-inches diagonally and has a resolution of 800 x 480. For the sake of a reference, here's what you can see when you pull up the homepage of the site you are on right now:

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As you'll see from some of the videos in this article, it's no Sony XBrite display that offers jump off the screen contrast, but for your web surfing (Firefox is pre-loaded) and Open Office (also pre-installed) work needs you won't really care. We even found the colors serviceable for You Tube video watching needs (more on that soon).

Below is a screenshot we took on the Asus Eee PC of the YouTube.com homepage, this is a good example of what you'll see using the Eee PC screen resolution and size:

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Keyboard and Input:

Okay, so the keyboard is far from being a ThinkPad keyboard, but it's not (quite) the worst keyboard we've ever experienced on a notebook. That said, we have to be honest and say it's a real challenge to get used to this keyboard if what you want to do is fast touch type input. Some of the keys are a little wobbly, most of them are undersized and your fingers will most definitely strike the wrong keys as you get used to the weird size and positioning of the keys.

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The Asus Eee PC likes the Apple iPod

Pleasant surprise number one. We plugged in an iPod to the Eee PC and braced ourselves for nothing to happen. But it did. Upon plugging in the iPod the Eee PC launched the built-in music playing application. It took about a minute for this to happen, but once the application was open we could see all of our playlists on the iPod and could play them through the Eee PC. That called for playing some AC DC &quot;Back in Black&quot; to celebrate:

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The Asus Eee PC works with USB devices flawlessly

We were concerned that all of the normal devices we use with Windows would flake out and not work on the Eee PC. We were wrong again. We plugged in a Logitech wireless mouse and it right away worked with the Eee PC. Even the scroll wheel worked without issue, scrolling through FireFox was a breeze. An external keyboard worked along with any thumb drive we plugged in. Now don't go expecting your USB based TV card tuner to work out of the box with the Asus Eee PC, but it seems that most common peripherals will instantly have a happy relationship.

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Voice prompt capability

One little fun thing about the Eee PC is that it has a built-in microphone and basic voice recognition software. A built-in application that you can enable makes it so you call out to the Eee PC to open applications. For instance, say &quot;Computer Web&quot; and it will chirp back &quot;Web&quot; and open FireFox. Or say &quot;Computer Clock&quot; and it repeats back &quot;Clock&quot; and then pops up the time. While neat, we found that after a while it started being a bit too good. Jerry said &quot;Sony&quot; out loud in the room and the Asus Eee PC decided to open the &quot;Movie&quot; player. Well, here's an example of when it works how it should:

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Outputting to a larger monitor

We tested outputting to a monitor at 1280 x 1024 resolution. The output was fine, but for video playback things began to choke a bit. When opening up other applications at the same time as playing a video the sound and audio went out of synch and things got choppy. The good news is that the built-in game PlanetPenguin Racer (based on Tux Racer) worked at a whopping 5 frames per second on the large monitor at max resolution. It worked at 15 fps on the regular old 7-inch screen.

Video playback

Again we were pleasantly surprised. It seems that any MPEG4 based video will play back on the Eee PC. DivX and xVid videos play without issue. And yes, if you want to watch You Tube within your Fire Fox browser on the Eee PC that's completely doable. In fact, here's a You Tube video of a You Tube video playing on the Eee PC to prove it (that
hurts to think about):

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Web cam

The Asus Eee PC comes with a built-in 0.3 megapixel web camera that works quite well. Once you enable it that is. For whatever reason the camera was by default turned off in the BIOS and we had to go in and enable it for the camera to work. For something that dubs itself as &quot;Easy to work, Easy to play, Easy to learn&quot; that's not exactly something you'd expect. We don't think grandma will figure that part out on her own.

Below is an example shot we took using the Eee PC webcam, it's a picture of the box it came in. Not the greatest, but certainly not bad.

Updating the OS and Software

It turns out that all updates are done internally, including everything from Skype to the BIOS. All you have to do is click on &quot;Add Remove Programs&quot; in the Settings area and it will check to see if any updates are needed to the system. It will download any updates, apply them and restart itself. So far this has worked flawlessly in our testing.

So far, so good

While this is in no way a comprehensive review, we just wanted to get some of this video out there and some first real hands on thoughts. We'll have a more honest and in depth formal review in the days ahead once the Asus Eee PC has stood the test of time for more than just a few hours with us.

A note on Availability

The caveat we have to throw out there is that we know the Eee PC is going to be hard to get for some time. Supplies are short at the moment (for various reasons) and because of the price and expected high demand the Asus Eee PC is going to be another one of those gadgets that gets sold for a much higher price on eBay than it does at Best Buy. Asus tells us the Eee PC should hit U.S. store shelves within weeks. Keep your eyes open, because even if you blink it might be gone not long after it has touched those shelves.

 

What operating system does it use?

 

All reports indicate a customised Xandros install. But you can always install what you like on there. Should run any Linux distro without a hitch.

 

wonder if Windows XP or 2000 could be loaded.

 

It was originally advertised as XP compatible...so I'd guess so.

 

hows the battery life? I was expecting a little more then 3.5hrs.

 

Yes, it can run Windows XP perfectly.

 

This isn't the full review, we'll include that when we do the full review. We just got this thing like 7 hours ago.

 

This is better than I thought.

Most people complain that Eee is too expensive; however there is no laptop around $300 that offers such portability. After all, the UMPCs cost about $1000-2000 and you don't even have a keyboard!

 

I heard that Asus is going to release Eee PC with Windows OS by the end of this year,

Will it be more expensive with a Windows OS????

 

I think the price would increase by $30 if installed with XP.

 

...with how much bloatware?

 

Theres going to be a refresh of it in april. With a merom processor and no fan for better battery life.

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=639

 

That's the one I'm waiting for! I will definitely buy it when it comes out.

 

Hate to be an oddball here... but this first-look is written like none of the authors have ever used a good, modern Linux distro. Nothing was really surprising if you've used Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS before. Most things will work just fine, right out of the box.

 

In part, that is indeed because none of us are as familiar with Linux compared to Windows or MacOS ... but it's also written that way in part because we have a large number of entry-level computer users visiting our website.

When the "average joe" (your Mom or a small business owner) visits NBR and reads about the Eee PC one of the first things they say is "That's nice ... but it doesn't run Windows." Sometimes even educated readers say stuff like "It's Linux ... so does that mean I can't use FireFox or use my USB accessories?"

You might think the "average" consumer is smarter than that, but we're the ones who receive a dozen emails every day from people asking us to solve their computer problems or asking us to explain what "WLAN" means.

This initial hands on review was written to address the REALLY basic/idiotic questions. The editorial staff here realizes that a LARGE number of consumers interested in this low-priced notebook have no idea what it really is (or isn't) capable of doing.

On another note, one of the other review websites posted a first thoughts review of the Eee PC today and they mentioned that it COULDN'T do some of the things we showed are possible in the videos. We wanted to make this hands on "review" as simple as possible.

A more detailed review is coming soon.

PS: This post was written on the Eee PC. Man, this keyboard is small.

 

So hows the build? Does it feel flimsy?

 

sweet, i'll be replacing my 10" sony T140P workhorse that I carry around with this!

It's lighter and more shockproof.

It's a bargain, given some portable DVD players are over $200.

Checking out some of the demo's on youtube, the SSD is fast... it opens up openoffice faster than my P4 3.0 desktop! haha.

LOL

 

Actually, it feels both solid and flimsy ... if that makes any sense.

Seriously ... the keyboard has almost no flex (solid) but the keys themselves feel too small and cheap with an unusual degree if "wiggle" when you press them (which makes it feel a little flimsy).

Likewise, the case feels solid, but the plastics look very cheap.

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised by this Eee PC. There's nothing directly competing with it in the same price range. The new Fujitsu ultraportable or the Sony TZ come close, but those are MUCH more expensive ... and with good reason. A $400 bargain notebook from Gateway, Acer, or another manufacturer might be a better choice for many consumers, but if you just need a portable computer and don't "need" a huge hard drive or Windows then the Eee PC makes a lot of sense.

If Asus makes one of these in black (like the image on the box) then I'll buy one instantly. I just can't get over the white case ... but that's just me.

 

Well Jerry seems to be typing well enough using the Eee, I can tell he hit the I instead of the O by accident on the keyboard in one of those those words above though

 

What you can't see is the number of times I have to stop and correct the MANY typos I'm making.

I guess a few are still slipping by as the evening continues.

 

im gonna use this to play bioshock, CS:S, and crysis!

 

The white is nice, but it's overused these days . Plus a bigger screen option (for which I'll glady pay another $100) would be nice too

I remember when the Dell 700m first came out and the keyboard was very cramped and the "." is micro-sized to squeeze in the "/". It was a pain typing on that laptop.

My current 10" sony was much better, but maybe i've goten used to it, but the keys are not unevenly resized like the dell 700m.

How does the size of keyboard compare to a regular 12" laptop?

 

http://dietcokefiend.homeip.net/dogbag/index.php

This is my system at home, and one of the key trends at least throughout the distros I have used is things not really working out of the box. Tweaks needed to get things working "just right", especially for non-standard hardware, or things as simple as connecting to a wireless network. I still cant get Ubuntu's latest livecd's working flawless across each system that I work with, yet some work perfectly.

I personally cant wait till I can get some other flavors running on this machine and actually play with the inner workings a bit. The distro on the eee pc seems to lock you out of everything.

P.S. That thing is god compared to my old world beige g3 mac running gentoo. THAT system is a PITA to do anything on.

 

Man I want to grab one ASAP. Who would be potentially getting it? It kinda sucks that I don't have a car and hence can't run over to a Best Buy (eww, BB) and get me one. I'll be pissed if I get there and I find that the last one was gone not too long ago...

I plan on installing Gutsy Gibbon on that. BTW, does it come with any recovery disks (lol!) or anything?

 

There is gonna be a black version. I thought the black was going to be the higher end model.

 

Interesting. I think i'll wait for the potential of a slightly bigger/highres screen. Nice to see it can work with some aftermarket stuff out of the box. It's hard to tell how small it is even from the videos. Probably won't 'hit' most people until they see one in Best Buy. The 'wait...what the.....WOW' moment.

And not to be weird, but....Is that how everyone says Asus? Maybe I say it wrong, but I have always said it like Ace-us. You guys say it more like A-sooos. Guess I just never heard anyone say it before?

 

Will the Eee PC 2 coming out around april of next year have bigger screen size and better cpu???

Wouldnt the price increase quite a bit, if this is so???

 

I prefere Ace-us over Asoos hav, sounds much better.

 

this thing is cheap. The 4 gigs SD memory is almost eought to merit the prize, you can watch dvd's, read pdf and stuff on the go with it. better than buying a dvd player alone. But i have 2 questons
1-Is there anyway to take out the 4gig SD and maybe use it as readyboost, or an auxilary drive and run Windows from it?
2-does it have car charger.?

 

Saw this in the store the other day! Was very impressed with the looks. Looks better than any pictures online. Also, just wanted to post some images of the EEE PC in other colors as well as add some additional information that I have gathered.

1) the Video Output resolution has been tested @ 1600x1280. That is the max external resolution.

2) Asus' website suggests that the specifications may have been raised. The 8GB version is now listed as having 1GB of RAM, 4GB still has 512MB's and 2GB still has 256MB's.

3) The warranty is 2 years according to several online retailers.

4) Some actual pictures of other colors of the EEE PC's.

 

OH MY GOD!! The pink one is like so fabulous!

Nice find, thought there was only gonna be black and white.

 

WOW! These look really nice, especially the black one!

Will these colors be available in US once they come out in November???

 

OOohhhh....Looks like a giant DS Lite

 

I want a green one now...

 

Same here. Wow, that voice recognition -- kinda corny but it's pretty cool. That feature alone might just tip me over into getting one of these eventually.

Computer! Activate self-destruct sequence. ^_^ *Count down blips up*

 

I use to say it like Ace-us - but then people would get confused with Acer. So I now i say A-soos, although I like the osund of Ace-us btter. According to Wiki, they got their name from Pegasus, but dopped the Peg, so it would be higher in alphabetical rankings. So I suppose the Ace-us pronounciation is right

 

Would be so much better if it had a full size LED screen
even at 500$ .

But right now for 3??$ the Eee lost part of its charm .

At any rate this will really shake the low end laptop market , with any luck we'll see price drops/spec bumps affecting higher end models as well .

 

How upgradeable is this thing? Whats in this compartment?


If i could add a larger hard drive, this thing would be GREAT. 8gigs, or even 16gigs isnt enough for me. If you can squeeze 120+ gigs into this thing, it would be an awesome portable media player with web browsing capability... Kinda like the ipod touch, but with an open OS that can run real applications.

 

I'm partial to the green one as well. That compartment is RAM plus mini-PCIe slot. In the disassembled versions I've seen online (not retail versions) the flash memory was soldered to the motherboard. So it doesn't have a real SSD. Or they didn't.

 

4g is silly small. The screen looks poorly designed because it doesn't fill the width of the frame and it looks grainy and cheap. I know they made room speakers, but still. Instead of an ultra light notebook, it looks more like a ultra heavy PDA. Finally, I don't care for white computers since our human greasy fingers don't ever erase easily.

 

Alert, long post ahead.

If you're hoping to watch movies on this, invest in a high-capacity SD card and get familiar with ripping DVDs to a more compressed format.

To answer the questions:
1. No, the solid state memory is soldered to the motherboard. I suppose you could remove it if you were dedicated enough ... but getting it working again would be a challenge.

2. I haven't heard of a car charger existing at this point, but given the Eee's low power draw, you should be OK with even the cheapest cigarette-lighter plug mobile inverter.

Can we, as a collective, please either:
- Confirm that a monitor that does 1600x 1280 actually exists outside the world of typographical errors
- Stop adding another 80 pixels to 1600x1200 for no good reason

Thanks.

I don't see anything different from before. Introduction of the 2G/8G models aside, the Eee's specs haven't changed. The price points perhaps, but not the specs.

I wonder if ASUS will give it the free year of accidental damage coverage like they've been doing with other units? (Or I'm confused and thinking of the wrong manufacturer.)

It's nice to have choice, if nothing else.

Now you're thinking with Portals.

 

Well, the Eee PC "technically" supports 1600x1200 resolution because when you plug it into a large external monitor which supports that resolution the Eee PC lists that resolution as a possible output. However, when you actually select that resolution the Eee PC doesn't play nice.

Attached is a photo of what the "Settings" desktop tab looks like when the screen is output to an external monitor at 1600x1200:

 

Actually, I'm just obsessing over the fact that Jason's post shows 1600x 1280 and the actual resolution is 1600x 1200. I don't know who started that, but there's no such resolution as the former.

Regarding the Eee's output woes, that looks like a refresh rate problem to me. Try setting it to 31.5H/60V and see if that clears it up, or if you have a high-res CRT display, try hooking the Eee up to that. (Edit - That certainly isn't something you'd expect the Average Joe user to be doing though.)

 

Folks, as far as the different colours go, according to Wikipedia, the four different versions of the EEE to be eventually released (2G surf, 4G surf, 4G and 8G) will have a different array of colours. The 2G surf will come in white, black, green, blue and pink, The 4G surf will come in the same 5 colours, while the 4G (reviewed) and 8G will ONLY come in white.

Damn, I was really hoping for a 4G in black.

 

So until I actually met with a couple of guys from Asus I wasn't totally sure on the pronunciation, but that's how people at the company pronounce it so, yup, it's correct.

 

That's also how they pronounced it in the Asus U1f commercial.

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It's always been 'Ah-Soos', or 'Ah-Seuss' like Dr. Seuss

But yea, alot of people call it 'Aye-sus'.

 

Calm down there buddy. It's just a typo. I saw the 1600x1280 on eeeuser.com I do apologize for not being perfect.

The specs of the 8GB EEE PC have changed. Previously it was listed as having 512MB's of DDR2 RAM, now it is listed as having 1GB of DDR2. Link

Also, there will not be any accidental warranty on the eee pc.

 

What are the prices there anyways?

And yea, the 8gb had 512mb before, I recall it was 256mb/256mb/512mb/512mb. 1gb should be MORE then enough, it's not like we're running Vista