Six Months with a EeePC

Back in June, I purchased an EeePC 701 4G Surf off of Amazon for about $300. The goal of it was to replace my aging Compaq laptop that had been dropped, beaten, overwritten, broken and was doing good if it could turn on without flashing an error screen.

I had been doing a lot of traveling and I wanted the EeePC to be my go-to laptop for all my getting around. I already had one trip out of the country planned and had almost half a dozen other conferences lined up. I needed something light, portable and simple. The EeePC seemed to fit the bill.

When I purchased it, I wasn’t looking for anything that would replace my home PC, just something that had enough power to “get me by” while I was on the road. I had no plans to be editing podcasts or making movies. I just wanted to write a few blog posts, touch up a few PowerPoints and check my email.

Now, after six months, two overseas trips, about ten presentations and countless hours of use, I’m finally ready to offer some of my thoughts on how well it has held up and what others might expect from the line should they buy one.

First Impressions

When I unboxed the EeePC, my first thought was how small it was. When set on top of my old laptop, it fit comfortably on top of the closed case with at least two inches to spare on all sides. The unit, even with the battery, weighed much less than my old laptop and felt more like an oversized cell phone than an undersized laptop.

It’s size actually lead to the first challenge I endured with it. I received it two days before heading to my first conference. I had neglected to order a case and had no way to transport it. However, no standard laptop case would hold it. We ended up purchasing a case intended for a portable DVD player to keep it safe, which turned out to be a perfect fit.

As for the computer itself. The default operating system, a variation of Xandros Linux, is very easy to use. Perhaps too easy. The initial display neglected the traditional desktop plus “Start” menu and instead just used large tabs with bright colorful items to the different applications. This actually increased the learning curve for me and though I was able to switch it to “Desktop” mode, as a veteran Windows, Mac and Linux user, I found the “Easy” set up to be both limiting and confusing.

Still, despite having a slower processor and limited RAM, performance has always been good, even when using known memory hogs such as OpenOffice. All in all, the only “out of the box” problem I had was that it would not work with my WPA encrypted wireless network, something that was easily fixed by a firmware upgrade.

Longer Term: The Good

Throughout the travels, the EeePC has served me well. I’ve used it to deliver many of my presentations, something it does better than many full laptops thanks to its simple interface for connecting external monitors, and I’ve used it to write many of them as well.

Overall, the EeePC has proved to be a reliable partner on the road. For basic email checking, blogging, presentation drafting and other function, it has worked admirably.

One of the things that I griped about at first, the size of the screen, turned out not to be a major issue. Though very small, it’s still large enough to use. The OS does a good job maximizing screen real estate and the way that you use the EeePC puts you closer to the screen than with a regular computer or laptop.

Finally, I am truly in love with the size of the laptop itself. I’ve never had an issue with it not fitting on a desk or table, even when I have the worst seat on a trans-continental flight and have to use the tray table and the jerk in front of you has laid the seat all the way back even though no one else has done so.

In short, it’s a capable system that can fit pretty much anywhere you can. However, this isn’t to say I don’t have more than a few gripes…

Longer Term: The Bad

I have many gripes and groans about the EeePC, but for the sake of brevity I’m going to discuss only five.

1. Battery Life: The battery life on the EeePC was never great, but after just six months it’s dwindled into nothingness. It’s to a point now that I might as well leave the battery at home and save the space. At first I got a few hours per charge, now I’m getting barely 30 minutes. Battery burnout seems to come quick.
2. The Keyboard: I knew well that the keyboard would be small, but it is also reorganized a good deal. If you look at your keyboard right now, you’ll see that, on the number line, the first key is the “~” key. Well, on the EeePC, it’s the number one. For touch typists, such as myself, that is lethal when trying to do numbers without a number pad.
3. The Software: I haven’t replaced the default OS, but I am going to have to. The software on the EeePC is now woefully out of date, even having Firefox 2 with no upgrade to 3 in sight. Yes, it is that bad. Worse still, when you do upgrade your software, you have to do it one package at a time, something unheard of for Linux and many of the packages appear to be broken. Sad to say. Might try a different Linux distro soon.
4. The Wifi: Outside of the initial and easily corrected wifi problem, the EeePC seems to really have issues here. First, there are some networks I can not stay connected on, I am signed off and on to every few minutes, even though others have stable access. To make matters worse, the wifi connectivity system is a kludge, especially if you travel a lot and have used a lot of different access points. It remembers every point you use, but the passwords for none of them. Thanks. Keeping online with the EeePC requires a little bit of voodoo, but it can work.
5. The Character Input Tool: The EeePC (at least this model), even on ones shipped to the U.S. and elsewhere, has a taskbar application that switches between different text input methods, namely Chinese and English. To switch languages you press ctrl and space. The problem is that, when you combine a fast typist and a small keyboard it is easy to hit those two keys and then wonder why you’re typing in Chinese. Worse still it is hard to fix in a document if you do accidentally type in another language as the formatting gets messed up.

In short, I was much happier with the EeePC in the weeks after I opened it. As flaws and lackluster support from Asus have started to show, my darling netbook is showing some dings in the armor.

Sadly, those dings are looking awfully ugly right now.

Final Thoughts

I wouldn’t say that I am unhappy with my purchase, I’m not. Overall I’m still satisfied with the EeePC and I definitely think I got my money’s worth out of it. It’s got a lot of annoyances but, at the end of the day, it does what I bought it to do.

Still, if I had it to do over again, I’d probably wait a few months and then get one of the Dell netbooks. The reason being that they have larger screens and Windows XP. Even though I’m not fond of Windows and would actually prefer a netbook with a real Linux distro, the one with the EeePC is a joke.

In short, I’m not exactly racked with buyer’s remorse or anything like that, but if I were given a “do over” I’d probably wait a few months and then get one of the Dell netbooks.

Even though Asus and the EeePC kicked off the netbook craze, I think others are taking it to new heights. I don’t think that is a bad thing and look forward to the day when I can quietly retire the EeePc for something a little bit less annoying.