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  • Computing Device Opinions/Advice

    Hey there CSers. (Road warriors especially.)

    My wife is starting to travel quite a bit more in her job and I'm looking to get her a VERY portable computer. The venerable Thinkpad is just too much to lug around.

    The primary criteria is a good size to usability ratio. Secondary is ease of use. Tertiary is battery life and connectivity.

    Email, light note taking, browsing, and then diversions (games/videos) are the most significant apps, in that order.

    I'd especially like Gravekeeper (Or anyone else who has one - it's on the shortlist.) to weigh in on how his Eee has held up, (Especially what shortcomings he's discovered.) and ask Pedersen what he eventually purchased. (From this thread.)

    Thanks in advance all!
    Last edited by sms001; 02-19-2009, 08:19 AM. Reason: Punctuation is our friend.

  • #2
    Moved to Tech Help...
    A PSA, if I may, as well as another.

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    • #3
      The EEE 901 is a fantastic little device. I'd also not buy it right now, but not for technical or comfort reasons. Asus has said that the 9" model is dead, and future will only include the 10" running XP (which puts me out of their target market).

      That said, I absolutely love it. So much so that I'm writing a program especially made to use the small screen (it can run on bigger, but it won't be hampered by being run on small). It's extremely light, able to be used anywhere I've tried to use it (including in the car), and lets me take notes on the go very easily. Wonderful tool.

      The single biggest problem is the keyboard size. Of course, I have big hands. To give an idea of their size, I just touched my thumbs together, spread the fingers wide, and found myself able to touch (with my little finger) the key at the farthest left and farthest right of my full sized keyboard at my desk. If I lay my fingertip flat on a key, it completely covers the key cap. The 901 is small enough that I'm almost able to cover the keyboard with one hand, and a laid flat fingertip will cover one key and be touching the keys on either side of it.

      The only other problem comes if you want the Linux version. Asus ships Xandros Linux which, simply put, sucks. The difficulty associated with using it and upgrading it makes me want to go beat somebody at Asus senseless with their own arm. So, if you go Linux, just be ready to install something different. It's easy enough, go and get Ubuntu EEE, and you'll be off to the races.

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      • #4
        Quoth crazylegs View Post
        Moved to Tech Help...
        What! nineeleventy. How could you know to move it if I didn't say 'please feel free to move' at the top?

        (Think I've taken Ree to heart a bit too much?)

        Seriously, just threw it in OT 'cause that's where GK and P. originally discussed the Eee. Thanks crazylegs.

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        • #5
          Thanks Pedersen.

          So you DID get one. Which model?

          The keyboard shouldn't be much of a hassle - the wife has dainty hands.
          I'd already seen the info on dropping the 9 inchers on eeepc.net, where I've been doing much of my reading up. Might even be a plus if they start really discounting them. I was going to change the OS anyway - but to a slipped XP. I'll look over the netbook Ubuntu; I ran a few of their other flavors on my suse machine back around the "dapper" days and liked it well enough.

          Couple of quick specifics if you don't mind - is the ssd worth the additional cost? How's real world battery life? How was the connectivity? Are there any MUST HAVE accessories/add ons that I should just buy/order along with it?

          Thanks in advance for all your help.

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          • #6
            I got the EEE 901. Sorry I didn't make that clear.

            Real world battery life: I get four hours out of it. That's with wifi on, bluetooth, on, screen brightness up high, etc. In short, it provides amazing battery life.

            SSD: I'm pretty sure the SSD is the main reason for the battery life, so that alone is worth it. Even without that, though, the thing boots up quickly, and I'm able to get to work. And that is because of the SSD. So, yes, for me, the SSD is worth it.

            Connectivity: The default setup had some issues with WPA/WPA2. Using the latest Ubuntu worked just fine, though.

            The only two accessories I find really nice are an extra SD card to store data to, and a car charger (still don't have this one, though I wish I did). Outside of that, it's all self-contained, and does the job marvelously.

            So much so that I don't leave the house without it anymore

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            • #7
              You know, a full-sized USB keyboard and mouse can be plugged into most laptops now. If she doesn't mind a little extra to cart around with her. Or you could go with this little number, to save space. Then all you have to worry with is the size of the laptop itself.
              The Rich keep getting richer because they keep doing what it was that made them rich. Ditto the Poor.
              "Hy kan tell dey is schmot qvestions, dey is makink my head hurt."
              Hoc spatio locantur.

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              • #8
                For gaming part you probably want one of the beefier netbooks that;
                a) Handle Windows XP
                b) Have enough RAM to handle it and the game (probably 1-1.5Gb)

                If you're a dab hand with a screwdriver then (b) is probably less of an issue as after market is cheaper, best to check online first though
                Lady, people aren't chocolates. D'you know what they are mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling. Dr Cox - Scrubs

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