Easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play

Outlook News - Sunday December 23, 2007

GADGET GUY

Easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play

This sub-notebook PC has most of the functionality in half the size

MARK CHILD

With children - and adults - all over the world looking forward to Christmas and anticipating waking up on the morning of the 25th with their stockings overflowing with goodies, along comes the Asus Eee 701 PC, perhaps the perfect Christmas stocking-filler. But while it wouldn't look out of place on a toyshop shelf, you'd be wrong to dismiss this compact sub-notebook computer as a mere plaything, even if it would make a very welcome gift for young and old alike.

Its diminutive proportions - it measures just 225 by 165 by 35mm, and weighs in at a meagre 920g - belie its usefulness and capabilities. And while it's never going to compete on level terms with a fully-featured notebook PC, that's really missing the point of what the Eee PC is all about, which is mobility.

At the heart of the Eee 701 is a 900MHz Intel Celeron M, which may be getting a little long in the tooth now (it was launched in 2004) but it was designed for low-voltage mobile computing, making it ideal for the Eee. This is coupled with an Intel Mobile 910 GML Express chipset, also designed for low power consumption and mobile computing. The Eee 701 is also supplied with 512MB of DDR2 system memory and 4GB of flash memory in place of a hard disk drive.

The 7in. (17.8cm) TFT LCD screen has a resolution of 800 by 480 (WVGA) with a 24-bit colour depth, driven by an integrated Intel UMA graphics controller. There is also a VGA port to connect an external monitor, which can be driven at a resolution of 1,024 by 768. The built-in stereo speakers are functional, but as you might expect in a unit of this size, nothing to write home about. Above the screen is a webcam capable of capturing 640 by 480 images at up to 30fps, and there is a small microphone built into the case. There are also three USB 2.0/1.1 connectors, an integrated 10/100Mbps network adaptor and built-in 802.11 b/g wireless connectivity, and a flash card reader on the right-hand side that supports SD/MMC media. The Eee 701's 5,200mAh lithium ion battery has a claimed battery life of 3.5 hours, and after using the unit for a week this seems not far off the actual battery life.

The Eee 701's small keyboard doesn't feel overly cramped, and is a positive joy to use compared to the keyboard on any PDA or mobile phone. The screen is more than up to normal office suite tasks such as wordprocessing, and is fine for email and making video calls.

The operating system supplied with the Eee 701 is the Debian-based Xandros Linux distribution, and dedicated Windows users have nothing to fear: It really is easy to use, and even users who have shied away from Linux in the past will find themselves quite at home after just a few minutes. There is some controversy in the Linux community, however, over claims that Asus has violated the terms of the Linux General Public License (GPL) by modifying the code of the operating system and failing to make the source code available. However, Asus has stated that it is committed to complying with the GPL.

While it is possible - and relatively simple, following the supplied instructions - to install Microsoft Windows XP on the Eee 701, the pre-installed Linux operating system is probably better-suited to the task. Even a streamlined installation of Windows XP is likely to take up more space than Linux, and the pre-installed software, which includes a copy of OpenOffice 2.0, includes everything you'll need for normal computing chores. Connectivity, using either the wired or the wireless network adaptors, is easily managed by even the most techno-phobic, and using the Eee 701 proved a joy.

In addition to the suite of office applications, Firefox, Skype and SMPlayer (for multimedia playback) are also pre-installed, and because it's a Linux machine, you will find a wide range of applications on the Internet that you can download and use for free.

Increasing the Eee 701's storage capacity can be done in a number of ways: You can use a memory card in the SD/MMC slot, or plug in an external USB hard disk drive, or even an external CD/DVD writer.

Overall the Eee 701 represents good value for money, an attractive design and what seems to be very good build quality. The only real negatives are the lack of on-board storage capacity, and the slightly cramped keyboard (unless you are comparing it to a PDA).

While there are ultra-portable notebook computers from several vendors offering high-capacity hard disk drives, larger and higher resolution screens, much faster processors and near-full sized keyboards, none come even close to the small form factor of the Asus Eee PC. More importantly, none come anywhere near the Eee 701's list price of just 12,900 baht (for the 4G model we looked at), which can drop to below 12,500 baht if you look around hard enough.

Mark Child is the former editor of 'PC Magazine' (UK).

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