Asus Eee PC: First Impressions
My Asus Eee PC arrived today. I’m using it right now to post this first impression post about the Eee. First off, despite what all the other reviews out there say, the keyboard isn’t too small. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it works nicely and I can type pretty fast on it after just a few hours of tinkering with the device. The one odd bit that I’ve noticed is that every once in a while a key will duplicate. Maybe that’s why they named it with three eees. ;-)
Despite it’s small size, it feels extremely sturdy. Dense even. It’s not heavy. The way that it tapers from the rounded battery at the back to the thin closed lid makes it feel like a book when you carry it. If when it is open, you pick it up from one of the corners on either side of the trackpad it doesn’t give slightly the way both the Macbooks and the Macbook Pros feel like they do. It feels really solid. The mouse button on the trackpad takes some breaking in and getting used to. The first several clicks it seemed very resistant to movement, but after a few hours it feels looser and I can tell which part of it to click on for a right-click or left-click (I realize that sounds dead-on stupid as a statement, but it does take some getting used to given that the button is only a little over an inch wide).
The default Xandros Linux install runs nicely on the default 512MBs of RAM. I didn’t notice any slow down until I had OOo, Firefox with about 9 tabs across two windows, Skype, Pidgin (the chat client included), and Gimp running at the same time. Nevertheless, I’ll probably eventually void my warranty and up the RAM to 1GB at least. Enabling full desktop mode of the Linux install was a breeze, following DownloadSquad’s directions and installing the Gimp was easy enough after following these instructions.
I’ll probably install a few other OSes on external SD cards just to say I did it, but so far, I have no complaints about the default OS. It’s a great little web computer. It plays YouTube videos without a hitch and I haven’t experienced any odd renderings on any websites I’ve visited yet. I mean, it even handles Google Docs, which is better than can be said for my iPhone or my Mac running Safari.
I tried to get the built-in webcam to work with Seesmic, but even though I activated it in the BIOS, it works fine in the default webcam app, and the flash plugin at Seesmic recognized it was there, I couldn’t get it to work. That’s my next bit of tinkering. I need to get Skype updated for video conferencing and figure out a way to get the webcam to play nicely with the flash plug-in in Firefox.
Overall, I’m loving this device.
ps—Mom and Dad, this is what your present to me for Christmas is going towards. ;-)
pps—I neglected to mention: I am glad that the first pearl white one of these that I ordered was defective and I had to send it back. It may have delayed me getting one of these puppies in my hands, but the black finish is a nice matte finish that feels better than the pearl white did. I love it.
December 4th, 2007 at 3:23 am
Such great parents! I was wondering if the camera records to file? seesmic allow uploads
December 4th, 2007 at 3:28 am
Oooooh, yes it does. Perhaps I should try that route… tomorrow. Now time for bed.
December 18th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
I am going to buy one too, but first, is it possible to install MS Office on it? and some other programs e.g. Adobe Reader or LimeWire?
January 19th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
have you tried running limewire on the eee?