Ive been a fan of Ultramobiles since my uncle let me borrow his old Crusoe based one and I loved every moment of it. Palms kept the thirst down, especially that beauty we know as the Zodiac2 and my very much loved Zire71, but it never quite hit the spot. Even with the keyboard for the Zodiac it was a bit of stretch. Maybe it was because the system didnt quite have the power to play videos at full speed without being resized to a far lower resolution than it needed to be (now I am getting off track). Well my Zodiac battery needs to be replaced but something just came around a couple weeks ago that is making me rethink my plans.
Asus, yes the motherboard company, pulled a fast card on the ultramobile industry and showcased their EEE. A 900mhz, 7inch screen, linux based ultramobile laptop. Weighing in at just shy of 2 pounds and slightly bigger than a vhs tape, the EEE is going to take the world by storm. Why, well if I tell you know you arent going to read the rest of the post. So lets go through the specs:
OS - Xandros based custom linux kernel. Tabular and, from those that have used it already, mostly idiot proof. For those hardcore linux fans, yes you can make it command prompt and yes you can install another distro. Supposedly it can run xp, but I would not want to...maybe tinyxp.
Processor - 900mhz Pentium M
Ram/Memory - 512 megs ddr2-400
Harddrive - 4,8, or 12 gigs of flash
Screen - 7.0 inch at 800 by 480
Graphic Chipset - Intel UMA...so yeah there’s the downside
Interfaces - 3 USB, SD/MMC reader, VGA, Mic, Camera (.3 megapixel)
Battery Life - Wikipedia states three (3) hours, which is fine, but users have stated upwards of six (6)
So what are the downsides of this? Well for one the resolution means some websites are going to be out of whack. The umph isnt all there, meaning that you wont be able to do any hardcore gimp or sketchil work. It is smaller than a normal keyboard, meaning there will be a bit of a learning curve, and the disk space is kinda lacking. But a 15 second hardboot and enough space for a several episodes of doctor who, MAME, and my typings...well consider this $200 well spent.
Yes the base model, 7inch screen and 4 gig internal is stated to be in the $200 range. There will be a bigger screen, 10inches, coming out next year with drives in the 8, 16, and 32 gig varieties, with rumors stating the 8gig will be in the $300-350 range.
So $200 for an internet browsing, pdf reading, typing, Roc Jousting ultramobile? The only real downside is that my arcade sticks will be bigger than my laptop…maybe this is where that extra Ms Pacman/Galaga stick will go.
And ofcourse the videos:
Man Asus should be sending me a check...
