Eee PC: Bigger isn't better
People clamouring for an Eee PC with bigger screens and keyboards are ignoring the bleeding obvious. Alex Kidman once more has a bold opinion.
The recently announced Eee PC 900 has a number of definite advantages over the 700 series model; you'd have to be mad not to realise that. For the record, though, I'm an existing 700 series owner, and I'm not looking to jump ship to the 900 (although I do know some tech journalists making that move); for me, the 700 still does what I need it to do.
If I didn't own a 700, the 900 would definitely be on my radar, although I might consider a 700 if I could pick it up at fire sale kind of prices. If I did buy a 900, it'd be Linux version, for what that's worth. The XP model isn't a bad machine (unlike what my colleagues here think), but I think the memory difference plus the extra software I'd have to run (firewalls, anti-virus, registry cleaners and the like) make it less compelling than the Linux version. Works doesn't thrill me; for the vast majority of users OpenOffice will make the same kind of documents just as well.
There's been a slow but constant clamouring since the original Eee release -- even, in fact, before it came out, that people would buy an Eee in a heartbeat "if only it came with a bigger keyboard and screen". The 900 series does address one of those problems -- and for the record, if the Atom-based 900, with greatly improved battery life, does ship out this year I'll give it some definite thought, as that's something that would make the jump worthwhile.
The thing is, those clamouring for every bell and whistle under the sun are, in my not so humble opinion, missing the point of the Eee entirely. If you want a bigger screen or a bigger keyboard, we have those kind of systems already. They're called notebooks. You may be familiar with them.
They're also surprisingly cheap; I've seen retail models not that far north of the Eee 900's asking price, and if you can score a good deal (or a vendor rebate) it shouldn't be impossible to get a full-sized notebook for basically the same price.
An aside on price, if I may. Elsewhere on the planet, the Eee 900 Linux and XP models sell through the same channels, at exactly the same price. In other words, you either take a memory hit and take XP (if the application compatibility is important to you), or take the Linux version with more memory but a different application set.
Here in Australia, we not only have a price difference, but the Linux model won't even be as widely available, being sold only through specialist IT retailers, while the XP model takes the 700's current shelf space in Myer and other big retail stores.
The official explanation for this is that Asus has no "worldwide" RRP for the Eee, and each territory sets its own price. My brain wonders if it wouldn't be worthwhile importing a model from the US (list price US$549) -- especially with the near parity in the dollar -- and just taking the warranty hit that implies. If the warranty is global -- they often are for notebooks -- there might not even be that penalty.
Now, back to the notebook thing. There's plenty of complaints about the keyboard too, and this is something that hasn't changed with the 900 model. The thing here is again one of mis-applying what the current Eee brand actually is.
To me, the Eee (whether it's the 700 or the 900) is an appliance, and the keyboard works well enough for the applications I need to run on it. There's a good reason why I don't use my toaster to make coffee -- it may do a semi-passable job roasting the beans, but it's just shocking when it comes to boiling the water.
My Eee is great (as the recent comparison notes) for jotting down quick notes, although I'm now more than comfortable typing up whole articles on it as well. Good for mail, good for web -- and that's the extent of my application need for it.
Likewise, hoping and wishing for an Eee with a big keyboard, every bell and whistle under the sun and Windows Vista besides is simply trying to do too much with a simple use appliance. I wouldn't recommend anyone use the Eee as their sole and only notebook all the time, because it's not built (or priced) in that fashion.
Sure, Asus could take the Eee branding into the notebook sphere, but I don't know why they'd want to. Likewise, over time, everyone expects the specifications to improve -- and it's somewhat annoying that they've done so while prices rise, in direct opposition to the way this normally happens in the PC world.
Other Blog Entries written by Alex Kidman:
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