13 posts tagged “eee pc 900”

Err PC

As much as I like my new Eee PC and that bigger screen it has, I'm beginning to tire of its flaws:

• That pesky (or those pesky) dead/stuck white pixels(s)
  
• That useless battery combined with a charging issue
• The keyboard continually not registering key presses
• The screen whines (really noticeably when in quiet surroundings)

Swapping the unit with another 900 might "fix" one or two of those problems but not all.

PIXELS  The pixel thing I'd live with if I didn't use the Eee for videos.  It's not really noticeable when browsing, for instance, as pages tend to have white backgrounds.  Videos, on the other hand, have a lot of dark colours and that's when it becomes a distraction.

BATTERY  When I bought the 900 I had no idea that it came with a smaller battery than my old Eee 701.  My two biggest gripes with the original Eee was the small screen and the battery life.  Had I known I'd get a smaller battery with the obviously more power-hungry 900, I wouldn't have bothered with it.  On top of that, when my 900 has finished charging it starts using battery power - that's a huge design flaw in my opinion!  Just yesterday, I unplugged it after it had charged and immediately the battery level showed 70% full!

KEYBOARD  The first week of use I had issues with the keyboard not registering all my key presses.  I put this down simply to me needing to get reacquainted with the Eee style of keyboard again.  The fact that it's still like this after six weeks seems to suggest that the user, moi, isn't at fault!

HUM  And, finally... the screen whines!  Not a problem when there's a room full of background noise but in quieter surroundings it's really noticeable and irritating.  My 701 never had this problem.

So, do I go for the newly released 901 or do I avoid ASUS's Eee altogether and go for either the MSI Wind or Acer's Aspire One?

The Eee PC 900 is now better value for money in the UK than it was when I bought mine little nearly two months ago.  Seeing as it had only just come out then, am I annoyed?  You betcha!  Everyone expects prices of computers to continuously drop, but not that much, that quick!

The price drop is just the icing on the cake though.  My Eee has a stuck pixel and that rubbish battery (buyers now are more likely to be aware of this).  I won't even go into ASUS's treatment of their UK customers!

Oh well, it's still a nice little number and those extra inches really do make a difference.

ASUS are bringing out a games controller for the Eee PC that they've dubbed the Eee Stick - despite there being two of them (surely it should be Eee Sticks?)

These sticks look a hell of a lot like Nintendo's Wii-mote and nunchuk and I'm not entirely convinced they're a good idea (there's not a whole bunch of gaming available for the Linux variant of the Eee PCs for a start).

Eee PC News / Eee-PC.de / GoNintendo

My own Eee/Wii mashup

Pocket-lint have a 'Can HP MiniNote rival ASUS Eee PC?' review on their site.  It's a lot like comparing apples and oranges and they admit that.  It doesn't help that there are a variety of flaours of both sub-notebooks.

I'm generally happy with my Eee PC 900 but I'm a bit miffed about the battery situation* (I didn't find out about this until after I'd bought mine) and that pesky stuck pixel (it's bright white FWIW).  Can't wait to try out the MiniNote but I've been told I'm in for a long wait.

In the meantime I'm doing my "homework" thanks to the ever increasing articles on the tech sites and blogosphere.

*Read the following for more:

Engadget: ASUS replacing Eee PC 900 batteries with longer lasting versions
jkkmobile: It's official: Asus will replace Eee PC 900 batteries
Gizmodo: Asus Gives Reviewers Different Batteries Than Consumers, Considers Free Upgrade

and the ever vocal forum members over at EeeUser's forums on the UK situation: UK 900 owners getting the 5800 battery exchange?

According to DigiTimes the latest Eee PC, the 901, will be coming out on the 3rd of June.  It'll be priced at $650 (£325) or below - but where?  I seriously doubt it'll be that price in the UK.  With the added features/benefits (including Atom processor and Bluetooth) I'd imagine a premium on the 900 (which retails at around £330 in the UK)

The DigiTimes article also mentions that the Linux version will have more software applications added to it.  Hopefully the likes of Miro and Google Earth as they are two of my favourites and really showcase how competent the previous Eees are.

Previously on Fresh Plastic... Anthony had an Eee PC 701, a USB digital TV receiver and posted an article showing the two working together.  Meanwhile the Eee PC decided to split, the USB dongle lay dorment and ultra tiny laptop TV seemed a long forgotten memory.

Well, those days are long gone and I now have an Eee PC 900 and she ain't going anywhere (fingers crossed).  She has a much bigger screen but housed in almost the same sized case (although she's a tad bit heavier, psst - don't tell her that!)  So I introduced her to the digital TV dongle and, after a lot of matchmaking, they got it together!

Getting them working together really was a hard task.  ASUS has made it even more difficult than before.  A lot of head scratching, a lot of Googling, a lot of reading and re-reading of the forum posts on eeeuser.com and a hell of a lot of trial and error.  Got there in the end though - check out the pics below...