Sub-notebooks or Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs) have been around for quite a while now. They have a smaller, lighter footprint than standard notebooks, thanks to their smaller screens and because some features (like the optical drive) having being taken off.
Most of the sub-notebooks that were in the market till 2006, however, belonged in the premium segment, making people think twice before investing in one of theses. Then in 2007, Asus changed all that by giving the world the Eee PC. Considered as an offshoot of the OLPC idea, the Eee PC has made portable computing come within the reach of a large segment of the general public who couldn't afford it thus far.
We're sure you'll want to know what it's like, and what we think of it, having spent a while using and testing it.
The bundle consists of the Eee PC, the battery charger, a soft case, and a driver CD. I liked the one-piece adapter (it's not of the typical bulky kind laptops use) -- it's only slightly larger than your average cell phone charger, as you can see.
Specifications
A lot of things you usually see on standard notebook PCs are missing here -- a proper hard drive, optical drive, S-video port, Bluetooth module, FireWire port, and PCMCIA / Expresscard slot. This stripping-down, along with the smaller screen size, help to bring the weight down by more than a kilo. But in these times of plug-n-play, the presence of three USB 2.0 ports is greatly appreciated.
But it's clear the Eee PC and traditional laptops belong in different leagues altogether; it wouldn't be right to compare them.
What I am worried is the price!
Still in india, it is not become famous. This laptop is not available in ritchi street. Once it get into ritchi st, then I am sure the price may go down tremendously. Now at present this laptop is selling at 17,000 in show room. I am sure that the price may come down to 12000 within 3 to 4 months. what say?
by vignesh
from chennai
on 10/05/08 11:12 AM
Gr8 agreed. But how dou compensate the lack of cd drive. Do we have cheap external drives here. Well until then....
by Pramod
from Cherthala
on 25/04/08 07:00 AM
If other brand like ACER is around 20,000/- with full feature notebook with Celeron, is it worth to buy Asus at 18,000/- with this spec.?
by Baiju Mehta
from Vadodara
on 12/03/08 06:00 PM
While this is a great ultra portable- i would much rather wait for the 9inch screen version with 8 GB SSD- which is going to hit the market in 2 months. Incidentally this is available on compare India- for 16k.
by vijayshimla
from Shimla 171001
on 04/03/08 08:43 PM
This looks pretty impressive.. i am reading about this just now.. well written article. also i would like to know more info on this on the price and where its available for me to go and check it out etc... i am writing from chennai
by sathish sampath
from chennai
on 05/03/08 02:06 PM
wat abt cd write. can we upgrade it with 2gb ram n process. ORrrrr how can we run photoshop coreldraw max cad maya software on this is this capable to run this software if not so can we upgrade it.
by ushant
from mumbai
on 05/03/08 11:45 AM
you can connect external USB-based cd/dvd writers! Also you can upgrade to 2 GB if you can tweak the inbuilt OS a bit! The default OS only supports 1 GB but adding support for 2 GB is not a big deal! Although you *might* be able to run 3DMax etc. but please do not buy this machine for that purpose! Its in a different league althogether!
Hey Rohan, thanks for a most informative test review. I think you can improve on it if you can tell us of a few hacks that you have tried on it. Like running win xp off a usb drive. An 8gb flash drive is avaliable for 1500rs. With Xp running off a usb drive, the machine would become a killer app. This is very very imp to check out. how soon can you tell us about this? also how much will the slow transfer rate of the usb drive affect the performance in that case?
by madjack
from mumbai
on 05/03/08 01:06 PM
Can anyone tell me its power consumption? What is the wattage? A standard laptop, say the Dell Inspiron, uses about 70 watts. Also, anyone knows how it compares with the OLPC? Thanks
by Jagadish
from Trivandrum
on 04/03/08 05:13 PM
The Poll question "Do you agree with this review?" is logically incorrect. To agree or disagree with a review, I should have used the product myself and formed an opinion.
I think the question should be "Did you find this article informative?". My answer: Yes. But, has the HCL laptop with similar features and a 1400 price tag been covered .
by iGamer
from calicut
on 04/03/08 04:09 PM
As you have mentioned in the screenshots, it shows Skype already installed, you could have tested video and audio conferencing by that, I wonder if you tried to install some packages?
by Viru
from New Delhi
on 03/03/08 06:08 PM
Yes, skype 1.4 was pre-installed but unfortunately it did not have the video chat facility, thus couldn't try it out. The 2.0 beta version (released recently) has started support for video though.
by Rohan Naravane
from TechTree TechLabs
on 03/03/08 10:45 PM
Thanks for your reply Rohan, you have my vote for one of the most interesting reviews, do post again when you test the webcam quality, I would love to gift one of these to my close ones. Also please provide a feedback if you install any linux packages as how they worked and if you are satisfied with their performance.
There are 3 basic differences,
1.it carries weight of 0.92 KG, where as HCL carries 1.5 KG
2. HCL has 2 GB SSD Drive, while Asus Has 4 GB SSD Drive
3. HCL does not carry any VGA Port, while Asus does. It is important for presentaion over LCD Projectors & this feature very much important for Manages, Executives, Students who usally go for power point presantaion regularly.
4. HCL does not carry any Webcam, Asus has 0.3 meagapixel cameraof good quality.
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