ASUS Eee PC: Laptop, UMPC, or Something Else?

Final Thoughts

There has been loads of praise heaped on the Eee PC since its launch. We're not quite so gung ho about running out and buying them - or recommending them to friends or family - but there's still a good market for the device. As an out of box experience, the Eee PC does prove the viability of Linux. Anyone familiar with computers should have no difficulty using the applications that come with the Eee PC. That's not to say that using the Eee PC and Open Office is the same as running Windows XP with Microsoft Office, but it's close enough that users should be able to figure things out.

Getting all of the drivers and applications to work properly on a Linux installation can be a time-consuming affair for the uninitiated, and ASUS removes a lot of the legwork from the process. For example, Flash works within Firefox (so you don't have to miss any advertisements!), and we watched a variety of video formats without difficulty. DivX, Xvid, WMV, and various AVI and MPEG video files all played without difficulty, provided the resolution was reasonable. (High-definition content proved to be too much for the little Celeron M processor.) What didn't work? Apple QuickTime - all of it - MPEG-4, and x264 content failed to work, and Xvid movies experienced difficulties including crashes and the inability to scan/seek within the video files. Generally speaking, if you stick with DivX or MPEG and a resolution of 800x480 or less, you should be able to watch it on the Eee PC.

Audio file support was also good, although as expected support is lacking for certain codecs. Using the Internet radio icon brings up a website that lists a large number of (wait for it…) Internet radio broadcasts. In testing, more than half of these failed to work, due to a missing plug-in as far as we could discern. If you know your way around Linux, you can probably even address any of these missing features.

Accessing Windows networks was possible, but again the results are hit-or-miss. The Eee PC cannot open hidden Windows shares (i.e., \\computername\c$), but it can open explicit shares. However, when accessing shared folders, we encountered situations where we received repeated prompts to enter our login credentials for every file/folder in the directory. We had far less difficulties using an external USB drive to pass data between computers. We have seen reports that suggest the Eee PC USB ports only function in Full-Speed (USB 1.1) mode. We measured transfer rates between external USB storage and the internal flash drive up over 20MBps, so clearly the USB ports can function in Hi-Speed mode with certain devices. We cannot test with every USB device, obviously, but we did test with four different flash memory sticks and one external hard drive enclosure, and all five devices worked properly with 5-20MBps transfer rates.

The Eee PC is an interesting device, and given the low cost and the features it includes there will certainly be plenty of people that are interested in getting one - the fact that most resellers are currently out of stock is a clear indication of this. It's a novel electronics gadget that's cheap enough that you can buy one to play around with and not feel too bad about the expenditure; if it turns out that you don't like it, give it to your kid/parents as a Christmas present! Alternately, you can give it to your significant other as a fashion accessory. If you're looking for something revolutionary, the Eee PC isn't going to set the world on fire, but that was never ASUS' intent.

Of course, we can say that the pricing of the Eee PC isn't that special. Shop at any of the large computer OEMs, and you can frequently find fully functional laptops priced under $500. They come with Windows, they will have far more storage space, and typing on the keyboard isn't going to cause your carpal tunnels to rebel. For example, the Compaq C700T comes with a CPU that's over twice as fast (1.73GHz 1MB cache) as the Celeron M in the Eee PC, 20 times as much mass storage (80GB hard drive), and a DVD/CD-RW optical drive. You get all that for a price of $449 with the current sale. Unfortunately, if what you're after is something smaller, the 15.4" chassis will disappoint.

The ASUS Eee PC can be a fun computer accessory, but we're not surprised to see that user opinions are split between either loving it or hating it - we've felt the same way at times during this review. Depending on what you're after, it can function perfectly or not at all. If what you really want is an inexpensive laptop, you may be best off spending a bit more money and getting a true laptop. If you want something to stick in your pocket, buy a PDA or an iPhone. If you want an ultraportable computer with somewhat limited functionality out of box - but which can be upgraded with more applications and/or memory iif desired - and you don't want to pay a lot of money for it, then the Eee PC is a good match. Children might also find the streamlined interface to be a better introduction to computers. Alternately, if you're not really sure what you want but you like to play around with computer gadgets and the thought of trying to install Windows XP or a hacked version of OS X Leopard on an Eee PC sounds like a good way to spend a weekend, there are far worse ways to spend $400. Now all you need to do is find one in stock.