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The Asus Eee PC has been heralded as a groundbreaking new computing experience and great for children. It’s been just over one month since I got the deliciously compact Eee PC 901.
Most of my initial issues are starting to fade (I’m actually adapting to the tiny keyboard) and it’s been nothing but thrill after thrill since then.
A 12 second boot time to check e-mail means the whole process is complete in just over a minute. Can’t beat that.
When you hear about how small the Eee is, believe it: the unit measures approximately nine by seven inches and weighs a mere two and a half pounds.
It's hard to take something that small seriously because it looks like a “toy”. Open the lid, however, and you'll find power and features that belie its diminutive size.
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From a techie mom’s point of view, Asus managed to pack a surprising amount of heft into one little package. The unit I have has 1GB socketed RAM, and 20GB solid-state disk storage.Asus opted to build the Eee with SSD rather than a hard drive so stored data would be less susceptible to shock and possible data loss or corruption.The unit sports a 8.9-inch 1024x600 LCD screen that was crisp and clear in all kinds of lighting.
I was impressed by the (optional) built-in webcam, microphone, and stereo speakers -- nice touches for an entry-level computer.
While hardware the Eee provides out of the box is noteworthy, the amount of peripherals you can add on is simply dazzling.
Asus crammed several ports and outlets into the right and left sides of the unit: three 2.0 USB ports, VGA out, Ethernet and modem ports, microphone input and headphone jacks, a lock slot, and even an MMC/SD card reader. |
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The Eee PC comes preloaded with a spiffy operating system based on Xandros Linux and running KDE. It boots in seconds to reveal a tabbed screen that divides the bundled applications into sections. Wikipdeia, Skype, iGoogle, and Firefox are in the Internet section; OpenOffice.org, a note-taker, and a PDF reader are filed under the Work; games, a photo manager, and a media player are in the Play section.
There are six sections in all, each packed with apps, and you can customize the tab names via the command line.
Although much of the pre-installed software is aimed at children, there are plenty of apps to keep most adults occupied as well -- the robust personal information manager Kontact, Mozilla's Thunderbird email client, and the aforementioned OpenOffice.org suite among them.
Additional software is available for download via Debian repositories. |
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After I got to know the Eee PC, I handed it over to its target market: my kids. Though they've been around computers all their young lives and are used to seeing them all over our home, they were genuinely smitten with the Eee.
My three sons range in age from 10 to 6 and each took a liking to a different aspect of the unit. My oldest immediately homed in on the math and science apps and actually traded in his alloted Gameboy time for extra time with the Eee.
Once he discovered the Planetarium app, he spent many evenings plugging in coordinates, then trying to locate the Belt of Orion and other evening sky goodies.
My eight-year-old loved the media apps. He made "newscasts" of himself, then mailed them to family members.
He organized his pictures and videos within their respective managers, and tested out different sound effects with the sound recorder.
My six-year-old budding artist thought Tux Paint suited him just fine, and liked using the Letter Game to learn new words.
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All three were able to navigate in and around the apps that interested them with no help from Mom. They had no trouble figuring out how to save their work or where the apps they wanted were likely to be found. While my children are familiar with navigating their way around a computer, the Eee's software is laid out sensibly enough that even a novice user should have no trouble figuring it out.
The Eee's keyboard's small design is ideal for a child's hands. In fact, my kids said they found it easier to type on the smaller keyboard than on a standard one.
I think the Eee is a real lifesaver when you have young kids.
We had a family trip to Grand Canyon early this summer.
I was amazed by the long battery life of the unit, which is definitely a BIG plus.
The kids did not give me a lot of “troubles” while on the road; and we all enjoyed the trip very much.
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The Eee PC is appropriate for people who are always on the go and for whom a smartphone just isn't smart enough.
It seems to fit neatly in the gap left between smartphones that do little more than push email and full-blown laptops that are overkill in many mobile situations.
I could easily see myself giving up my BlackBerry for a portable computer like this one.
If I were in the market to equip my children with a computer to call their own, there's no question -the Eee PC gets my vote. |
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