The Eee PC is a consuming experience in many ways...

Asus' Eee PC 900 has left me disillusioned, to say the least.  I've moaned and whined on here about it and I've done the same offline too.  I still get as many people commenting on the diminutive laptop lil'-laptop-that-could whenever I'm able to use it in public.  I say 'able' as the bloody thing lasts less than an hour on full charge!

Word-of-mouth marketing is all well and good, but it works both ways.  I paid for my Eee PC 900.  It's mine, not a review unit, nor a trial unit, nor a loaner.  I was replacing a lost Eee PC 701 and it seemed like a good choice.  I was happy with the original Eee, read the reviews for the 900 and decided to go for it.  Seemed like a no-brainer.  Now I feel like a no-brainer for buying it.  The only thing that delights me now is venting my spleen* to those people asking me questions about it.  I tell them to avoid the Eee PCs at all costs and that there are plenty of other mini laptops (or subnotebooks, or UMPCs, or whatever-you-want-to-call-them) on the market now, with many offering far better value for money and a battery that'll last longer than typing this post out.

How much goodwill have Asus lost from the likes of me?  How many people have been put off buying one after hearing about the problems?  Looking at how easy it is to now find an Eee in stock might be an indicator.  Or, perhaps, they're just churning out more?

Such a shame as I loved my 701 - it was probably my single most favourite gadget ever.  Sure it took work to get it to do what you wanted - but the battery, although still not that great, lasted at least the length of an average movie.

Oh crap, I didn't mean to type this much - I was really just going to summarise my thoughts and provide a link to Improbulus' post about it on her blog - A Consuming Experience.  The post is here.  If you were considering buying one, I recommend you go read that before stumping up the readies.

My battery devouring Eee PC 900

*interesting fact about me... I don't actually have a spleen, so what I'm venting I don't know!