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[akpoff]

I found an ad from our local MicroCenter for the Asus EEE PC so while I was in the neighborhood I stopped by and checked it out.  Following are a few thoughts.

Keyboard
it's small.  Smaller than I was expecting in all ways.  I've read reviews from others who mentioned the small the keyboard and I'm a believer now.  After a few attempts at typing on it I think a) I could probably get the hang of it for quick notes, but b) would probably carry a larger keyboard in my backpack to use with it for extended use.  I don't think I could spend 8 hours a day working on it.

Surprisingly the keyboard has a full row of numbers and function keys.  The keys are also overloaded with lots of function options to be used with the fn key found near the bottom left of the keyboard.  I found out fn+fn1 puts it to sleep.    I was disappointed with the right-shift key, or the almost lack thereof.  While the left shift is large, juicy and relatively "strike-able" the right one is the same size as the other keys and not well placed.

The trackpad is also very small.  It's proportional to the rest of the EEE but it's just too small.  Frankly for me they could have dropped the trackpad, put an IBM-style pointer and made they keyboard a bit bigger.  I would be much happier.  Also, the button (it is just one button) is way too thin.  It's as wide as the trackpad but very thin.  It does support left and right click but it's not divided into two buttons.

Display
The display is better than I was expecting.  I've read quite a bit of kvetching about the display, most notably the fact there's so much "white space" around it.  What I hadn't noticed anyone mentioning is that left and right of the display in that "wasted" space are the speakers and above the display is where the camera sits (did you know it has a webcam?).

The display was actually very viewable.  I can't yet comment on it vs. the XO's display but it looks as good as any mid-priced laptop I've seen.  I'll agree with those who've noted that 800 x 480 is not a lot of display but we are talking about a case that's just about 8.9" x 6.5".  That doesn't leave much room for more.  With a higher dot-pitch perhaps they could boost that to something like 1024 x 640 but I think it would be hard to read.  I'm not a fan of micro-dots on the 1600x1200 laptops.

I think what also made the display very nice to work with was the lower resolution coupled with the friendly GUI and easy to see icons.  It made the Asus feel more like a computing device than a general purpose computer.  I'll talk more about the GUI below.

Webcam and Extras
I didn't know the EEE comes with a camera.  I also didn't know it has a wired ethernet connection (10/100 only) as well.  I did know about the external VGA connector.  For $399 that's not bad.  I also learned that for $349 you can get the EEE without the webcam.  When you leave the XO out of consideration (especially now that G1G1 is over), that's a lot of portable computing for under $400.

Heat
The EEE runs really, I mean really, hot.  It was sitting on a hard surface, plugged into the wall sans battery and was hot to the touch, top and bottom.  While there's not a lot of surface area for your hands, I found what areas did touch it felt almost like they were burning.  I've experienced that level of heat from the bottom of other laptops, especially PowerBooks but rarely from the top.  Even the trackpad felt very hot.  Quite frankly I would be very hesitant to buy one just because of the discomfort it.

Perhaps it runs cooler in battery mode when the processor speed is scaled back.

Speed
It's peppy, not fast, but peppy.  The EEE is plenty fast enough for what it is -- a portable computing device.  The built in FireFox browser launches quickly and loads most pages quickly enough.  I loaded one flash presentation and thought it loaded rather slowly but that could have been the wireless network at the store.  The built-in OpenOffice.org worked very well once loaded.  I was dismayed at how long it took to load Write from the solid-state disk in the EEE.  I don't fault the EEE, though.  I think the load performance says more about how bulky software has become than how slow the processor is.  I wish I could have tried AbiWord on it.

As for other tasks, I'm a programmer and could easily use the EEE for some of my development work.  I wouldn't want to do anything that required lots of complex calculations or long compiles but for writing interpreted code (PHP, Perl, Python) it would work very well.  It would also make an excellent terminal connected to a remote computer.  As I mentioned above, though, I'd want an external keyboard and for long work periods a connected monitor.

The EEE also sleeps and wakes-up pretty quickly.  The ne plus of laptop sleep and wake have to the MacBooks.  The Asus is nowhere near the MacBooks but they're ahead of any Windows laptop I've used.  I didn't time them but my impression is sleep was about 1 second or less and wake was 2 - 3 seconds.

Rebooting was also very quick.  Again, I didn't time it but let's say about 30 seconds or so.  From what I understand that's way faster than the XOs.  Hopefully the XOs will get faster as the OS is refined.

Software
The GUI is very friendly and inviting.  One of the benefits of the lower-resolution screen is the icons are large (without being too big) and easy to see and interpret.  Like the XO, Asus have put together (or, more accurately, commissioned) a non-standard GUI.  The desktop is more like the tabbed launcher you would find on the Sharp Zaurus or the Nokia tablet PCs.  Rather than a traditional "desktop" space it has the aforementioned tabs -- Internet, Work, Games, Configuration (I may not have the names right but the functions implied by these names are correct).

Along the bottom of the screen is a taksbar with icons for providing information about battery life, wireless connectivity, date, time and other useful information.  Like the XO and the Nokia and Zaurus handhelds, the Asus has a home button that shows the launcher.  The "home" key looks like a house in a circle.  Striking it switches back and forth between the tabbed-launcher view and the front-most application.

"Compared" to the XO
I can't offer much of a comparison to the XO since mine haven't arrived yet.  Having run the system in a virtual machine, however, I can offer a few thoughts:

What's the Griping About
Everyone and their brother, or so it seems, are complaining about OLPCs decision to break with convention and norms and create their own interface.  Why don't we hear near as much griping when companies like Apple, Asus, Nokia, Palm and even Microsoft create custom interfaces for "unique" devices?  Many devices have their own interfaces.  Must computers all have the same or even similar interfaces?  "It's an education project, not a laptop project.""

The question, then, is not whether OLPC should have created YAGUI (Yet another GUI), but whether the one they created accomplishes the goals they set for it and whether they correctly understood and modeled the situation it would be used in.  I find the Sugar interface interesting and am close to saying I like it.  It may need tweaking but I don't think it's fair to say they made a bad choice.  They made a diffrent choice.  Like anything that departs from the norm there will be a period of adjustment.  For those of us in the West who've pretty much used Macs and Mac-inspired GUIs like Windows and the several open-source copies of the Windows UI, it's a radical shift.  But we may not be the best judges of what works in technology pre-literate societies.  Sure, there's real benefit to learning the GUIs that are dominate in the West, if integrating and working with the West is the goal.  But that goal doesn't appear in the OLPC mission statement.  Education does.  Nevertheless, the proof will be in the pudding.

As an Educational Tool
Could the EEE be a good replacement for the XO if it ran Sugar?  Good?  Perhaps not.  Acceptable?  Possibly.  While the faster processor of the EEE would certainly make the Sugar interface and the activities more responsive and peppier, the construction of the EEE just wouldn't cut it.  I wouldn't give one to my children here in America where "ruggedness" is a cosmetic afterthought applied to Hummers.  I certainly wouldn't send one to a village in Peru.  It just wouldn't last.

As I mentioned above, it also runs very hot.  Remember, neither the EEE nor the XO have hard drives or optical drives.  The heat is all, or mostly, from the processor.  Sure, some of it could be attributable to poor ventilation but that would be a stronger disqualifier for the EEE for use in environments like those envisioned for the XO.  The heat probably also means lower battery life.  To run that hot it's drawing a lot of power and the heat itself can affect the batter life of the computer.

The heat issue also makes me wonder about the Classmate.  I believe the EEE and the Classmate use the same ULV processor from Intel.  I'd really like to hear from XO owners about how hot the XO feels when running.  The criticism above may be less pertinent if the XO is also really hot.  I'm inclined to think it's cooler because it runs slower.

Lastly, the screen size could be an issue.  The whole XO-screen perception vs real size thing is a bit lost on me since I haven't seen one, but I can say I've seen the Asus screen and think Sugar would look small and truncated on the 800x480 screen.  I'd really like to try it, though.

Final Thoughts
For the most part I like the EEE.  It has a lot going for it except for the heat issue.  It has a faster processor, more RAM and storage, external monitor connector and the wired ethernet connection.  Nevertheless, I think the XO is a better device, especially when you compare price.  The strengths of the XO outweigh those of the EEE: the screen, e-book mode, tablet-mount display, low power, game pad, ease of repair and replacement of parts, ruggedness and the handle.  The XO just seems like a better design.  In fact, when you consider the price I can't help but think, "Wow, Asus are making a ton of profit on the EEE."  There's nothing wrong with that, but I like the fact that my $400 bought two laptops.

Lastly, though I just somewhat dissed cosmetics above, I'll add a personal preference for look of the XO over the EEE.  That funky green and white, antennae-ears look just works for me.  I'm looking forward to some strange gazes at the coffee shop with my XO.  I really think my kids will dig them in ways that's just not possible with an industral-black or vanilla-white EEE.

--Aaron

[Gabey8]

Has anyone tried to hack an Eee by putting Sugar on it?

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before someone does.

I find it hard to think of the XO and Eee as competing products, since they're built so differently. I haven't seen an Eee yet, but from everything I've read, it's not built to be ruggedized for kids' use, nor is it built to withstand the kind of conditions the XO was designed for -- undependable power grids, dust, heat, rain, spills, being dropped, etc.

Until there's a rugged, low-power kids' version of the Eee, or a commercialized version of the XO, these two products are targeted at two totally different markets and despite the features they have in common (like size, light weight, and low price), they're not likely to be siphoning potential buyers away from the other product.

[Celegorm]

As far as the heat issue, the XO runs like an ice cube The only thing on the bottom of the laptop is the keyboard and touchpad, so there's nothing to get hot on you lap. I have noticed a fairly negligible amount of heat if I touch the back of the monitor.

As for the eee, it does get warm, yes, but it's never bothered me at all. I guess it's just something that different people tend to notice more or less. It's not the first time I've heard someone complain about how hot it gets, though.

[akpoff]

Until there's a rugged, low-power kids' version of the Eee, or a commercialized version of the XO, these two products are targeted at two totally different markets and despite the features they have in common (like size, light weight, and low price), they're not likely to be siphoning potential buyers away from the other product.

Hi Gabey8,
I'd have to agree with this, at least in my case.  I did consider getting EEEs for our homeschool use but went with the XO after I really examined the hardware specs.  I didn't have the benefit of my recent hands on but am pretty convinced I made the right decision.

Also, I really believe the EEE just has to be a really profitable machine for Asus.  $400 is too high when compared to the XO or even the Classmate.

As for putting Sugar on it, I think you're right.  It's just a matter of time.

Cheers,

--Aaron

[akpoff]

Celegorm,
Thanks for the reply on the XO and heat.  I suspected it ran pretty cool.  Dan Bricklin made pretty much the same comment down to the note that the back of the display gets a tiny bit warm.  I'm really happy to hear that.

How would you rate the XO vs. the EEE for typing?  Are the keyboards approximately the same size?  Would you mind posting a photo of the two together?  I don't have my XO and was able to fight off the urge to buy the EEE so I have nothing right now.  Well, not nothing, but a Thinkpad X31 running Sugar in VMWare is a poor substitute.   

--Aaron

[Celegorm]

Aaron,
The keyboards are the same size, but the one on the XO takes a lot more getting used to because the individual keys are smaller, and the rubber membrane thing is rather weird to type on and makes it harder to tell if you actually pressed a key or not. After having a while to adjust, I find I can use the eee's keyboard just as easily as a normal keyboard. I haven't had as long to get used to the XO's keyboard, but I find that I can use it without difficulty, although I can't type quite as fast on it.

I went kinda crazy taking pics of my eee and xo together a while ago, actually. I put all the half decent ones on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22249560@N07/sets/72157603570072256/

[akpoff]

The keyboards are the same size, but the one on the XO takes a lot more getting used to because the individual keys are smaller, and the rubber membrane thing is rather weird to type on and makes it harder to tell if you actually pressed a key or not. After having a while to adjust, I find I can use the eee's keyboard just as easily as a normal keyboard. I haven't had as long to get used to the XO's keyboard, but I find that I can use it without difficulty, although I can't type quite as fast on it.

Hi Celegorm,
I may need that spare keyboard in the bag after all.  I'm going to try, though, to get used to the XO keyboard.  On the upside, I can see it working well for children.

Thanks for posting the photos!  I was hoping for just one of those shots.  Those are great.  I didn't realize just how thin the base of the XO is.  I had assumed the XO was like typical laptops with the motherboard in the base.  Cool!

--Aaron

[gyffes]

For the record, I have both eee and XO and I INFINITELY prefer the eee.

* It is faster as a web browser;

* The keys are larger than on the XO and have more play (so more tactile feedback) and less slickness -- I type at about 85% of my usual speed, whereas I'm happy to get about 40% on the XO. And if you're typing on one of these (EITHER) for 8 hours w/o an external keyboard, you're a nitwit;

* Without replacing the entire OS, I was able to slip the eee into "regular computer mode" in a very short time: now it is merely a mini computer. The XO remains an odd, not-necessarily intuitive interface;

* I'm a mac guy, but I'm far happier delving into the eee's console (er, "konsole", dratted KDE naming conventions) than the XO's terminal, where many of the commands I've laboriously learned over the years don't work as they should;

* Wireless reception is better on the eee (better than my Macbook, as well, oddly enough);

* storage is the same (3 usb, 1 SDHC slot);

* easily upgradeable RAM on the eee allowed me to kick it into even higher performance;

* XO's iteration of Firefox is awful and I've yet to successfully replace it;

* Bricked my eee trying to put Xubuntu on it. The World's Best Restore process had me back and running the original system w/in 3 minutes. The XO bricked ITSELF 2 days after arrival and NOTHING ON EARTH could get it started again. Two months later, a new one arrived from OLPC;

What does the XO have that rocks? mmmmmm... 

* it has a cool handle, but I preferred the one on my eMate, more.

* It has those cool ears (but they don't seem to appreciably improve wifi reception)

* its head rotates (though I've yet to see a need for it to)

* "my neighborhood" -- a truly outstanding concept.. provided your XO is not the only one in the state.

I don't mean to dump on the XO so much as praise the eee. The original poster seems to've damned it after very very cursory examination. Take a look around the web: the praises people are singing for their eees are high, indeed.

Oh, one more thing: here's a vote for "XP on XO: NIGHTMARE"

[jon_meadowbrook]

I don't think you are dumping on the XO too much

I appreciate your thoughts. I too have been thinking about buying one of the EEE's. Especially after seeing the mouse control on the cloudbook (if you want to call it that...)

thanks!

[gyffes]

de nada.

One thing -- the Surfs are considerably crippled -- pay the money for the full device. And if you get an eee, your one-stop shop for info help advice and the like is http://forum.eeeuser.com/

[jon_meadowbrook]

I don't know anything about the eee's except that they rock. What are the surfs?

[gyffes]

A variant of the regular eee offered at a discounted price (usually about $50 less).

Suffice to say, there's a REASON they're cheaper and it's a tradeoff that just isn't justified vis the amount of money you save vs power/performance/utility you give up.

[delphi]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned the big difference in display capabilities (and associated with it different power management) - not a trivial matter if you're into eBooks or just spending a lot of time surfing the Internet:

( http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/01/16/xo-eee-browse_small.jpg )
( http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/01/16/browsing_xo_eee_vertical_comparison.jpg )

[mike]

I found an ad from our local MicroCenter for the Asus EEE PC so while I was in the neighborhood I stopped by and checked it out.  Following are a few thoughts.

Keyboard
it's small.  Smaller than I was expecting in all ways.  I've read reviews from others who mentioned the small the keyboard and I'm a believer now.  After a few attempts at typing on it I think a) I could probably get the hang of it for quick notes, but b) would probably carry a larger keyboard in my backpack to use with it for extended use.  I don't think I could spend 8 hours a day working on it.

Surprisingly the keyboard has a full row of numbers and function keys.  The keys are also overloaded with lots of function options to be used with the fn key found near the bottom left of the keyboard.  I found out fn+fn1 puts it to sleep.    I was disappointed with the right-shift key, or the almost lack thereof.  While the left shift is large, juicy and relatively "strike-able" the right one is the same size as the other keys and not well placed.

The trackpad is also very small.  It's proportional to the rest of the EEE but it's just too small.  Frankly for me they could have dropped the trackpad, put an IBM-style pointer and made they keyboard a bit bigger.  I would be much happier.  Also, the button (it is just one button) is way too thin.  It's as wide as the trackpad but very thin.  It does support left and right click but it's not divided into two buttons.

Display
The display is better than I was expecting.  I've read quite a bit of kvetching about the display, most notably the fact there's so much "white space" around it.  What I hadn't noticed anyone mentioning is that left and right of the display in that "wasted" space are the speakers and above the display is where the camera sits (did you know it has a webcam?).

The display was actually very viewable.  I can't yet comment on it vs. the XO's display but it looks as good as any mid-priced laptop I've seen.  I'll agree with those who've noted that 800 x 480 is not a lot of display but we are talking about a case that's just about 8.9" x 6.5".  That doesn't leave much room for more.  With a higher dot-pitch perhaps they could boost that to something like 1024 x 640 but I think it would be hard to read.  I'm not a fan of micro-dots on the 1600x1200 laptops.

I think what also made the display very nice to work with was the lower resolution coupled with the friendly GUI and easy to see icons.  It made the Asus feel more like a computing device than a general purpose computer.  I'll talk more about the GUI below.

Webcam and Extras
I didn't know the EEE comes with a camera.  I also didn't know it has a wired ethernet connection (10/100 only) as well.  I did know about the external VGA connector.  For $399 that's not bad.  I also learned that for $349 you can get the EEE without the webcam.  When you leave the XO out of consideration (especially now that G1G1 is over), that's a lot of portable computing for under $400.

Heat
The EEE runs really, I mean really, hot.  It was sitting on a hard surface, plugged into the wall sans battery and was hot to the touch, top and bottom.  While there's not a lot of surface area for your hands, I found what areas did touch it felt almost like they were burning.  I've experienced that level of heat from the bottom of other laptops, especially PowerBooks but rarely from the top.  Even the trackpad felt very hot.  Quite frankly I would be very hesitant to buy one just because of the discomfort it.

Perhaps it runs cooler in battery mode when the processor speed is scaled back.

Speed
It's peppy, not fast, but peppy.  The EEE is plenty fast enough for what it is -- a portable computing device.  The built in FireFox browser launches quickly and loads most pages quickly enough.  I loaded one flash presentation and thought it loaded rather slowly but that could have been the wireless network at the store.  The built-in OpenOffice.org worked very well once loaded.  I was dismayed at how long it took to load Write from the solid-state disk in the EEE.  I don't fault the EEE, though.  I think the load performance says more about how bulky software has become than how slow the processor is.  I wish I could have tried AbiWord on it.

As for other tasks, I'm a programmer and could easily use the EEE for some of my development work.  I wouldn't want to do anything that required lots of complex calculations or long compiles but for writing interpreted code (PHP, Perl, Python) it would work very well.  It would also make an excellent terminal connected to a remote computer.  As I mentioned above, though, I'd want an external keyboard and for long work periods a connected monitor.

The EEE also sleeps and wakes-up pretty quickly.  The ne plus of laptop sleep and wake have to the MacBooks.  The Asus is nowhere near the MacBooks but they're ahead of any Windows laptop I've used.  I didn't time them but my impression is sleep was about 1 second or less and wake was 2 - 3 seconds.

Rebooting was also very quick.  Again, I didn't time it but let's say about 30 seconds or so.  From what I understand that's way faster than the XOs.  Hopefully the XOs will get faster as the OS is refined.

Software
The GUI is very friendly and inviting.  One of the benefits of the lower-resolution screen is the icons are large (without being too big) and easy to see and interpret.  Like the XO, Asus have put together (or, more accurately, commissioned) a non-standard GUI.  The desktop is more like the tabbed launcher you would find on the Sharp Zaurus or the Nokia tablet PCs.  Rather than a traditional "desktop" space it has the aforementioned tabs -- Internet, Work, Games, Configuration (I may not have the names right but the functions implied by these names are correct).

Along the bottom of the screen is a taksbar with icons for providing information about battery life, wireless connectivity, date, time and other useful information.  Like the XO and the Nokia and Zaurus handhelds, the Asus has a home button that shows the launcher.  The "home" key looks like a house in a circle.  Striking it switches back and forth between the tabbed-launcher view and the front-most application.

"Compared" to the XO
I can't offer much of a comparison to the XO since mine haven't arrived yet.  Having run the system in a virtual machine, however, I can offer a few thoughts:

What's the Griping About
Everyone and their brother, or so it seems, are complaining about OLPCs decision to break with convention and norms and create their own interface.  Why don't we hear near as much griping when companies like Apple, Asus, Nokia, Palm and even Microsoft create custom interfaces for "unique" devices?  Many devices have their own interfaces.  Must computers all have the same or even similar interfaces?  "It's an education project, not a laptop project.""

The question, then, is not whether OLPC should have created YAGUI (Yet another GUI), but whether the one they created accomplishes the goals they set for it and whether they correctly understood and modeled the situation it would be used in.  I find the Sugar interface interesting and am close to saying I like it.  It may need tweaking but I don't think it's fair to say they made a bad choice.  They made a diffrent choice.  Like anything that departs from the norm there will be a period of adjustment.  For those of us in the West who've pretty much used Macs and Mac-inspired GUIs like Windows and the several open-source copies of the Windows UI, it's a radical shift.  But we may not be the best judges of what works in technology pre-literate societies.  Sure, there's real benefit to learning the GUIs that are dominate in the West, if integrating and working with the West is the goal.  But that goal doesn't appear in the OLPC mission statement.  Education does.  Nevertheless, the proof will be in the pudding.

As an Educational Tool
Could the EEE be a good replacement for the XO if it ran Sugar?  Good?  Perhaps not.  Acceptable?  Possibly.  While the faster processor of the EEE would certainly make the Sugar interface and the activities more responsive and peppier, the construction of the EEE just wouldn't cut it.  I wouldn't give one to my children here in America where "ruggedness" is a cosmetic afterthought applied to Hummers.  I certainly wouldn't send one to a village in Peru.  It just wouldn't last.

As I mentioned above, it also runs very hot.  Remember, neither the EEE nor the XO have hard drives or optical drives.  The heat is all, or mostly, from the processor.  Sure, some of it could be attributable to poor ventilation but that would be a stronger disqualifier for the EEE for use in environments like those envisioned for the XO.  The heat probably also means lower battery life.  To run that hot it's drawing a lot of power and the heat itself can affect the batter life of the computer.

The heat issue also makes me wonder about the Classmate.  I believe the EEE and the Classmate use the same ULV processor from Intel.  I'd really like to hear from XO owners about how hot the XO feels when running.  The criticism above may be less pertinent if the XO is also really hot.  I'm inclined to think it's cooler because it runs slower.

Lastly, the screen size could be an issue.  The whole XO-screen perception vs real size thing is a bit lost on me since I haven't seen one, but I can say I've seen the Asus screen and think Sugar would look small and truncated on the 800x480 screen.  I'd really like to try it, though.

Final Thoughts
For the most part I like the EEE.  It has a lot going for it except for the heat issue.  It has a faster processor, more RAM and storage, external monitor connector and the wired ethernet connection.  Nevertheless, I think the XO is a better device, especially when you compare price.  The strengths of the XO outweigh those of the EEE: the screen, e-book mode, tablet-mount display, low power, game pad, ease of repair and replacement of parts, ruggedness and the handle.  The XO just seems like a better design.  In fact, when you consider the price I can't help but think, "Wow, Asus are making a ton of profit on the EEE."  There's nothing wrong with that, but I like the fact that my $400 bought two laptops.

Lastly, though I just somewhat dissed cosmetics above, I'll add a personal preference for look of the XO over the EEE.  That funky green and white, antennae-ears look just works for me.  I'm looking forward to some strange gazes at the coffee shop with my XO.  I really think my kids will dig them in ways that's just not possible with an industral-black or vanilla-white EEE.

--Aaron

trouble for me, heat means things will, not might, WILL burn out... my XO doesnt do that. I like it, from a hardware perspective. If sugar ever chokes on me, I'll get more adventurous and throw something like Damn small linux or gOS on it or similar.

[gyffes]

I forgot to mention that I disagree with his heat assessment, as well.

My eee gets no hotter than any other laptop and far less so that most. I've run it for hours and hours, basically running out the battery and then plugging in and continuing to plug away, usually laying in bed holding the machine in my hand (as opposed to having it lay on a desk); I'd be instantly aware of the moment it became excessively warm and it has yet to.

And the impact of heat on drive lifespan has been debunked. It has to get close to "fire! fire!" level inside a machine for components to start failing.