Justifications for buying an Eee PC

[Guest petec500]

Hi all,

I've been smitten by these Eee PCs since i first saw them in Stuff mag ages ago. I was put off by the small screen of the original version, but now they've sorted that with a larger screen, i'm so tempted - especially as i'm off to Canada in a couple of weeks and able to take advantage of the good exchange rate.

Trouble is, as ever, i'm hit with the hurdle of justifying spend on more gadgets (just bought a TomTom 530!). so i need some good excuses as to what these babies can do. We already have a PC and cheap laptop in the house, but the main selling points of the Eee PC to me are a.) fast boot-up time and b.) size/weight.

Anyone got any good ideas? For instance, could i use it to review photos taken with my digicam when out and about (via SDHC card reader)?

Also, is the Eee PC still the best buy? Seems to be a good few others on the market now, including one in Maplin now for under £170 - not sure what model this is though.

[Guest rameses]

Found this on the maplins site, is this the one you referred to.

If so look here, same thing but £30 cheaper.

(I googled the model number from the user manual on the maplin's site pdf).

I was thinking of getting an Eee also, but after reading Paul's post about putting OSX on the Advent/MSI I think that will be a much better option and well worth the extra spend.

[Guest petec500]

Found this on the maplins site, is this the one you referred to.

If so look here, same thing but £30 cheaper.

(I googled the model number from the user manual on the maplin's site pdf).

I was thinking of getting an Eee also, but after reading Paul's post about putting OSX on the Advent/MSI I think that will be a much better option and well worth the extra spend.

That's incredibly cheap, thanks! Still got the smaller screen, but at that price it's very tempting. I'm going down to Maplin at lunchtime to have a look at one.

I still dont get the idea of loading OSX/XP/Vista on these machines - what benefit does that give you that outweighs the fact you're surely slowing the system down with a cumbersome OS and taking up the memory too, not to mention killing the fast boot time? For me anyway, the Linux installations have everything i need - internet browsing, email, simple office document handling.

Edited August 8, 2008 by petec500

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

Hey Pete

Guess it depends what you want to do with it. Really you are looking at the current crop of "netbooks". These are smaller than notebooks, typically 8 to 11" screen, and powered by Intel Atom processors. (Although there is an AMD alternative).

Current other choices are:

Advent 4211 - I know it's supplied by PC World, but when we get over that hurdle, it's got a 10" screen, 1024 x 600 resolution (so can view full width websites and only scroll downwards and not across as you had to do with original EEE).

Medion Akoya E1210 - Available in Sainsbury's - Same really as the Advent, but a different wifi card, and without Bluetooth.

MSI Wind - Same as the Advent 4211, just different packaging. (This is the original ... the Advent is rebadged). However this is harder to get in the UK ... although if you're buying in Canada, might get a nice Wind.

Acer Aspire One - Smaller screen than the above 3, at only 8.9" rather than 10" ... ask the wife, the extra 1.1" makes the difference! :D

Now all if not most of these are available with either SSD or Hard Disk format, obviously with the hard disk ones these can be replaced with larger format. Generally the SSD ones come with a flavour of unix, and the Hard Disk based ones come with Windows XP.

The MSI Wind and Advent, and possibly the Medion Akoya can be purchased with 3 or 6 cell versions ... the 6 cell is only just starting to appear though, but offers up to 5 hours usage.

I can't really justify it to you BUT ... below are a few example of what I use mine for:

1) Using in car for mobile broadband, especially when looking for houses. We looked at areas we liked, spotted houses for sale and then looked at their details and importantly price on the agents website!

2) Viewing TV Episodes or Movies while on a plane/train

3) Perfectly usable for working using office tools such as word, excel etc

4) Access to email

5) As I work from home, I tend to locked into my "office" during most of the day. If I'm really busy and need to work evenings, then I can sit on the sofa, launch Remote Desktop and use my main machine ... but also not annoying the other half for not relaxing on the sofa with her during the evening!

6) When out and about using my Digital SLR Camera, I can backup and archive photos on the laptop. This frees up the memory card for more pics! Can get really cool with this by using an Eye-Fi card to store photo's and then transmit the images to the laptop wirelessly!

7) Similar to above, when using the digital camera, the screen is much better for showing people images which have been taken.

8) Beats taking a newspaper to the toilet!

9) aaah factor ... when sat in a coffee shop ... you get far more comments using a dinky laptop than using a monster. People say "awwww look at that cool little laptop!" ... and then frown when they realise you're looking at pron ... or is that just me that it happens to! :S

Anyway ... as ever her indoors needs persuasion for Capital Expenditures ... buy her a pair of new shoes to soften her up first!

Oh for the record ... I have a "normal laptop" that the other half uses when I'm sat on the sofa working, she's arsing about on Facebook or MSN! My netbook is the Advent 4211 which I have pimped to 2GB ram, 250GB hard disk, changed the wifi card (dead easy!) and installed OSX !

[Guest petec500]

Changed my mind about the one in Maplin after reading this: undefined

Seems like the possibilities for installing other software etc. are dashed by the processor.

For £60 for the 9" EeePC, I think i'll save my money.

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

Ah yes, I'd read that one:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/08/07/minibook_laptop/

[Guest Monolithix]

That's pretty awful, they out right admit wifi won't work? Wonder how many people will fall for that one! Not many RJ45 jacks in Starbucks :D You'd have hoped for a little more than 3hrs standby on such a low-power device too...

[Guest petec500]

Thanks for the detailed response "WearTheFoxHat" - most useful.

I've had a quick look at the other machines you mentioned and they're all tempting, though pushing my budget that much further. I've seen the EeePC for a shade over £200 in the UK, whereas these other machines are nearer the £300 mark, though i admit they're better spec'd with hard disk drives etc. The disadvantage to me of these machines though is with XP/Vista/OSX on an HDD, boot-up times are always going to be an issue. Perhaps i'm just too impatient, but i tend to find i use things a lot more if they're more accessible, i.e. fast time to usability. That's what i liked about the EeePCs - switch on and within 10 seconds, you're away. For casual/intermittent web-browsing, this is such a bonus. It must help with usable battery life too if you're not wasting all that energy booting up every time.

The other big selling point though is size and all these models win there. Having something that you can carry around with you whilst out and about is a definite plus point, like your application of looking up houses on the market. I often use my HTC Touch to look up prices of products on pricerunner or amazon when out and about to see if deals offered on the High Street are worthwhile or not. I suppose i'd only be able to do that within ear-shot of a wifi point with these ultra-portable PCs, unless i get a 3G dongle, but that's more money. Maybe i could wirelessly link to my Touch and use GPRS through that instead?

I like all your suggested justifications - a good few i hadn't thought of before!

One thing i'm having trouble with is finding something like the EeePC online in Canada for a good price - seems like they're way more expensive than here, even with the exchage rate as it is, plus of course they put all sorts of taxes on top of the prices advertised. Seems like i'll be better buying one here.

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

Just tested the Advent 4211 with OSX ... 70 seconds to boot. If you were using XP you could of course use the hibernate function. I dont personally find it a problem, id much rather have a familiar OS and navigate it quicker, than something fast like on the original EEE, but a bit clunky.

You could wirelessly link to your touch, but that will kill the battery really quickly! If you stick with XP, you can tether using Windows Internet sharing over USB.

Canada used to be worthwhile for buying stuff about 2 years back when they still refunded the tax to visitors, but that has now stopped too.

[Guest petec500]

Thanks again for the advice.

70 seconds isn't bad. I think my aging Celeron laptop is just too bogged down with loads of software and other garbage, so takes a good few minutes before it settles down enough to be able to do anything with it.

I think the taxing system they have in Canada is crazy - there's always two taxes to add on to all avertised prices everywhere and they're not easy numbers like 10% either. I'll be taking a calculator with me for sure!

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

Thanks again for the advice.

70 seconds isn't bad. I think my aging Celeron laptop is just too bogged down with loads of software and other garbage, so takes a good few minutes before it settles down enough to be able to do anything with it.

I think the taxing system they have in Canada is crazy - there's always two taxes to add on to all avertised prices everywhere and they're not easy numbers like 10% either. I'll be taking a calculator with me for sure!

A slight aside ... when I was last in Canada, I was paying for a meal, and gave the waiter the money just as he said "It that all ok?". I assumed that he meant "Was the meal ok?" ... whereas he actually meant "Is this ok to keep the rest as my tip?". When I realised that Id given him a stupidly large tip, I felt a bit of an idiot! Nevermind, won't catch me out again!

[Guest petec500]

A slight aside ... when I was last in Canada, I was paying for a meal, and gave the waiter the money just as he said "It that all ok?". I assumed that he meant "Was the meal ok?" ... whereas he actually meant "Is this ok to keep the rest as my tip?". When I realised that Id given him a stupidly large tip, I felt a bit of an idiot! Nevermind, won't catch me out again!

Thanks for the "tip"!!! I'll bear that in mind.

[Guest petec500]

Quick update - ended up getting a 15.4" laptop from Sainsburys of all places, but it was a deal i couldn't resist.

Medion dual-core, 2GB, 250GB, wifi, tv tuner, HDMI output, dual-layer DVD, Vista Premium - everything basically - for £200 - reduced from £600!! If they'd had more than one left, i would have bought them all and sold them on ebay!

It's a bit bigger than the EeePc that i was originally planning to buy, but with that spec and price, i couldn't say no! Read several reviews online that gave it good value at £600.

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

Nice bargain there!

I've recently given up building my own PC's and bought a medion or two as desktops and they are great value for money.

[Guest petec500]

Nice bargain there!

I've recently given up building my own PC's and bought a medion or two as desktops and they are great value for money.

I'm the same. I was thinking about building another desktop from bits i salvaged from an old dead one i had, but by the time i'd bought a new motherboard/processor/memory, case/psu and a semi-decent screen, i'd have spent more than this laptop cost me!