Laptop Asus Eee PC 900
Argue that asus created something special, few could when it launched the eee pc last year. Of making a truly mobile the idea, yet welcomed by the press and consumers in equal measure, very affordable mobile computer was. Although great machine, the eee pc 4g 701 that andy reviewed back in october 2007 was, couple of issues that took away some of the shine, there were. Now however, the laptop ASUS eee pc 900 to play with, I have, and got everything just about perfect this time, it looks as though asus may have.
Their belt anyone who’s got a few years under, like myself, well aware that the concept of a basic, will be, nothing new, portable computer with solid state storage and no moving parts is. About ten years ago, a significant amount of my writing on a psion series 5, did I, which to as a pda was laughably referred. In the series 5, psion created a device so usable, able to write entire features on it while sitting on the train, that I was. The company then pushed the boundaries even further when it launched the series 7 and eventually the netbook.
Balance of essential functionality, what psion got right with its machines was, small form factor and great battery life. As time moved on, though, to run feature rich (read bloated) operating systems on their mobile computers fully fledged notebooks became smaller and lighter and end users wanted. For psion hardware (although it did spin off its epoc os as symbian) all this spelled the end, and for a long time we simply did see machines like the series 7 and netbook not. Room in the market for a basic, thankfully asus realised that there was, need to run the latest version of windows affordable machine that did not – born, thus the eee pc was.
For you been hiding, anyone who hasn’t heard of the eee pc before (where have, hmm?) , me give you the low down let. Very small machine measuring 225 x 165 x 35mm (wxdxh) and weighing around 1kg, the asus eee pc is. That puts it well and truly into the ultra-portable sector, being lighter than even a sony tz31mn, and smaller too. Machine built to be used on the move, this is, without to make much space for it in your bag the need. The eee pc comes in two colours, pearlescent white, like the one, reviewing here and black, am I – yes, sound very similar to apple’s macbook range, that does, but most definitely where the similarities end, that is.
Although pretty much identical to the 701 that andy reviewed last year, the chassis that houses the eee pc 900 is, to open the lid to see the first major difference between the two, you only have. Huge improvement and one that makes this new eee pc even more attractive than its predecessor, the screen on the 900 is. Hampered by the 800 pixel wide resolution, the 7in screen on the original eee pc was, which meant that, to scroll sideways on the vast majority of web pages, you had. This issue by sporting a 1,024 pixel wide resolution the 8.9in screen on the new model rectifies, which to display the vast majority of web pages perfectly allows it, without for sideways scrolling the need.
1,024 x 600, the full screen resolution is, which means, got a widescreen aspect ratio, you have, of fully featured notebooks on the market just like the majority. Superb, it should also be said that the quality of the screen in the eee pc 900 is. Ok, so gloriously bright and vivid like the screen in a sony tz it is not, but evenly lit, is it, this sample at least has a wide viewing angle and, suffered from no dead pixels. The 8.9in screen actually fills the lid properly too, whereas the 7in display in the 701 just looked tiny, by speakers and surrounded by a large black bezel, flanked as it was. As as offering much improved functionality well, the new screen of the acer laptop also improves the eee pc aesthetically.
Of the eee pc considering the overall size, quite small, it comes as no surprise that the keyboard is. Anyone who struggles with a reduced size keyboard on a traditional ultra-portable notebook is going to have much joy with an eee pc not, that simple, it really is. However, if too big your hands are not, you should have any problem typing not – say that I am typing much slower than if I was using a full size keyboard on a notebook or desktop, I am currently writing this review on the eee pc 900 and I cannot.
The amount of travel that each key has, also surprising is, and solid break at the end of each keystroke, the fact that there is, for the next attack ensuring that your finger bounces back up ready. If one small annoyance, there is, the reduced size return key, is it, which resembles the flat enter style key seen on us keyboards. This is anything that you will not get used to after a short time not, but still rather have seen a larger return, I would, than a laptop acer, for example.