Leonardo Da Vinci would carry several notebooks of different shapes and sizes with him in order to capture ideas when inspiration strikes. Today, many people would use the digital equivalent by capturing thoughts and events via mobile phones, PDAs or laptops.
When the Eee PC was released near the end of 2007, it was smothered in glorious reviews by the press and also became a commercial success. From reading reviews I just didn’t get it, I thought the journalists were being woo’ed by the small size and cheapness and actually forgetting to ask if it’s any good or not. I don’t think it’s that cheap either, at £219 for the 512MB RAM / 4GB storage model, it’s only £30 cheaper than a bottom end PC laptop that comes with Vista Basic. Admittedly, the bottom end PC would be large and heavy, and you’d have to use Vista Basic. Miniaturization has always come at a price, so I’ll not dwell on price too much.
I kept reading the rave reviews, and so I decided to get one of these for myself and live with it for a while.
I purchased my white Eee at Toys R Us, itself an indicator of who this laptop is aimed at. On the box there are four images of people with their eee; a scantily clad woman on the beach, kids playing with it, a young couple on the grass enjoying it and finally a woman holding it (possibly) on holiday. They seem to be suggesting that the eee is desirable, easy to use, more social than a typical pc and easy to travel with. I think I’d agree with all of those.
The box the Eee comes in is tiny, giving a clear message as to the key feature of this laptop. The box for the MacBook is no bloater, but the Eee is substantially smaller.
Out of the box, the Eee feels quite solid, certainly robust enough to travel with. Only the basics are included in the box, but unlike other laptops, a soft case was included. I did like that the power supply was also small, possibly the smallest for any laptop I’ve seen.
I’m curious to see where the Eee will fit into my digital life. For full functionality when travelling I have a MacBook Pro and my iPhone is with me everywhere, so where will this fit in?
First impressions of the Eee are quite positive, but I don’t think Leonardo would use one, I’d like to think of him as more of a Mac user.
Next time – using the Eee and views on the OS.
2 responses so far ↓
Vox O'Malley // March 9, 2008 at 9:19 pm |
I too saw one of these in Toys R Us and wondered about the general usability… would it be easy for a non techie person to set up and do the basics on?
Maria // March 17, 2008 at 2:15 pm |
Hiya!
Is it very useful? I’ve been eyeing at this Eee thingy everytime I go to Toys R Us…
If it is that useful, do share with me ya..
Maria