Just a month after Asus first released the Eee PC 4G in the US, it looks like the company is ready to start pumping out some new variations, including a black model and the higher end 8G.
The 8G is pretty much identical to the 4G, except it has 8GB of solid state memory instead of 4GB, and 1GB of RAM instead of 512MB. Oh yeah, and it costs $100 more. If you're willing to void your warranty, you could upgrade your RAM pretty easily on your own for less money. But increasing the storage capacity would take a bit more work, so this seems like a reasonable price. Still, somehow a $500 Eee PC just doesn't seem as appealing as a $400 model.
In other news, at least one retailer seems to be selling the 4G for $299. I've never heard of this company, I've never bought anything from them, and I wouldn't recommend you do so either unless you know someone who has dealt with them in the past. At $299, I can't imagine anyone is making any money on this deal, so it sort of feels like a scam. If you have reason to believe otherwise, please let me know in the comments.
[via Gizmodo and Asus Eee Hacks]
So it turns out that not only can you use that little VGA port on the Eee PC to display an 800 x 480 desktop on an external monitor, you can go all the way up to 1280 x 1024, and possibly beyond. Since my monitor won't support resolutions higher than that, I can't promise anything.
When you plug in an external monitor you can choose to view the display just on your Eee PC, just on your external monitor, or on both screens. Then you can choose whether to display 800 x 480 pixels on both screens, or manually set your resolution. If you choose anything higher than 800 x 480, only a portion of your desktop will actually be displayed on your Eee PC. Here's a shot of Google Reader in Firefox showing how much more screen real estate you get with an external monitor:
And here's a game:
Although you could probably buy a more powerful laptop or desktop PC for $400, I'm starting to think that you really could use the Eee PC as primary computer. Just plug in a mouse, monitor, and external keyboard and you're good to go.
Oh yeah, and while support for external monitors is cool, it's also very useful. Because of the Eee PC's cramped display, some applications just don't fit very well. I've run across several programs that make it nearly impossible to edit your preferences, because several check boxes (including the "ok" or "apply" buttons) fall below the screen where you can't access them without an external display.
When Asus announced plans to launch a $199 PC earlier this year, I was skeptical but optimistic. I wasn't particularly surprised when the company announced that the low price would only be available to governments that ordered in bulk (and perhaps waved taxes). But $299 still seemed like a pretty good price.
Now that the EEE PC is set to go on sale in the US this week, it looks like the cheapest model available will be $399. The unit includes a 900MHz celeron processor, a 3.5 hour battery, 4GB of flash memory, an SD expansion slot, 3 USB ports, a VGA port, a 7-inch 800 x 480 pixel screen, and a custom version of Xandros Linux with OpenOffice, Firefox, and other goodies.
It's a bit more pricey than I'd hoped, but I'm still sorely tempted to drop the money and pick up the 2 pound mini-laptop. You wouldn't think that there's that much difference between a 2 pound laptop and a 6 pound laptop until you've tried lugging the 6 pounder around a few places.
And it's not like the little PC isn't worth $400. Sure, you could find a more powerful machine on sale for a similar price, but there's no way you're going to find an ultra-portable laptop that comes anywhere close.
Since the EEE PC is a full fledged computer, you can install alternate operating systems. The folks at ZDNet UK have already managed to get Ubuntu up and running, although it's doubtful whether Ubuntu is actually more useful than the Xandros OS that ships with the computer. And while you could install Windows on the EEE PC, odds are the operating system would eat up most of your internal memory.
But Asus plans to release another version of the EEE PC later this year/early next year with Windows XP preloaded. Again, I had a feeling that would drive up the price, but I had no idea how much. InfoWorld is reporting that machines running Windows XP will sell for as much as $1000. That's a far cry from $199.
Now, I know that Microsoft charges a lot of money for its operating systems. And I know that the price includes Microsoft Office. But I'm hoping you get a hardware bump for that extra $600. Because you can get a pretty nice laptop or UMPC for $1000.
I still haven't decided whether I'm going to drop $400 on an EEE PC. But I can tell you one thing. I won't be paying $1000 for one.
Update: It looks like there's a good chance the XP version of the EEE PC will not cost $1000. Yahoo! News seems to have done a poor job of condensing Dan Nystedt's IDG article. InfoWorld has what looks like it may be the original article, where Nystedt states that the difference between the Linux and XP versions of the EEE PC is expected to be about NT$1000.
That's a far cry from saying the XP version will cost $1000 US. In fact, it could mean the XP version will sell for just about $40-$50 more than the Linux PC.
Asus president of sales and marketing Jonathon Tsang says the company will start shipping the Eee PC in Taiwan next week. That's the good news.
The meh news is that while the original $199 price tag still exists, the laptop will only be available at that price for "contract orders." While we've been hearing for a while now that the actual price for US customers will be closer to $259, it's starting to look like even that might not be true. Tsang said Asus will be announcing the price of the Eee PC on Tuesday.
While I'm hoping for a $259 consumer model, there's no guarantee that Asus will be shipping such a unit. Tsang says the company has received orders for over a million Eee PCs, but those units will be going to customers in developing nations where it makes more sense to sell a budget unit in bulk. US and European customers can afford to pay a higher price for a laptop, and we might have to.
Still, I'm hoping that the final price is lower than the $400 you'll have to pay to get an OLPC. While I agree with Nicholas Negroponte's sentiment (buy one for yourself, and one for a child in a developing nation), I'd rather just pay an extra $50 or $100 to help encourage Asus to continue making low-cost PCs available throughout the world.
[via Engadget]
Rumor has it that the Asus Eee PC will be released on November 1st. I'm taking this with a grain of salt. First we heard that the tiny Linux-based laptop from Asus would be available in September. Then we heard mid-October. Now that it's nearly mid-October it's not too surprising to hear the date's been pushed back again.
The price keeps going up too. I first got excited about the Eee PC because it sported a $199 price tag. It's not clear whether a $199 version will be available or if the cheapest model will be $259, with pricier models going for up to $399.
That said, the Eee PC is still one of the two bits of hardware coming out in November that I can't wait to get my hands on. Sony is set to release the PCM-D50 digital audio recorder next month, which will satisfy the audio geek in me. The Eee PC should take care of my mobile computing geek side.
What's so cool about the Eee PC? First up, it's a low-cost laptop for under $300. Second, it's tiny, weighing in at just about 2 pounds. That means you also only get a 7-inch screen on the basic model (the pricier models will have 10-inch screens). But this isn't a desktop replacement. Rather, it's a mobile computer that you can throw in a bag and take anywhere.
You don't get a powerhouse for your money. The Eee PC packs a 900 MHz celeron processor, from 256 to 512MB RAM, and from 2GB to 4GB of internal flash memory last we heard. The specs are subject to change. Early on we'd heard that the units would not be upgradeable, but it turns out upgrading the RAM is pretty easy.
One of the first things I did when I bought my Toshiba A135-4527 laptop was to create a partition for Linux. But after having tried several varieties of Ubuntu, Mandriva, and Fedora, I've come to the conclusion that there's not much Linux support for some of the hardware in this PC.
And while a true Linux wiz could probably hack together a solution, I'd rather just buy a system where the hardware and software are meant to work together. The Eee PC runs a custom version of Xandros. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do any sort of audio editing on it, but for $259, it would make a great mobile companion for the times I don't feel like lugging around my 6 pound laptop, power supply and other gear. For example, the Eee PC would be great for blogging from a coffee shop. It's got 802.11b/g and a 4 cell battery that should be good for about 3 hours.
Now I just have to see if my budget will let me buy a $600 professional audio recorder and a $259 laptop in the same month. Might be time to hit up eBay and sell some older equipment.