Our friends at Geeks.com, known for their cheap laptops offers, sent in one of the most popular netbooks around: the Asus Eee PC. The model is the 701 4G, with 512 MB RAM, and Windows XP in it. Read through for a review of the product.
Intro
This 2.0 lbs baby-laptop (as I call netbooks) came in black color, with a 4 GB SSD drive, Celeron M 900 Mhz down-clocked by Asus at 630 Mhz, 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM, SDHC card reader, 3 USB 2.0 ports, Wi-Fi, ethernet, VGA out, audio out port, mic in port, VGA webcam, a 7″ 800×480 resolution screen, and WinXP Home with a certificate of authenticity.
The netbook is very small, as you can see from the picture, it is very easy to carry, and very lightweight. Size-wise it makes it a perfect companion for your travels and small local trips. It’s also a good solution for university students who don’t type too much during lectures (as typing on its small keyboard can be a bit difficult). In my opinion it’s a better solution than the Nokia N810 internet tablet, as it is faster, and a bigger keyboard. But some might think differently.
I found construction to be very good for the price. Even if Bluetooth is missing, overall I found the amount of hardware features on the product a good blend. The laptop does not run too hot, it is very stable, and it’s responsive. The screen has 4 different dim settings and it’s bright and well lit. Its webcam and onboard mic have a good quality too. When a webcam drives you to do funny faces for it rather than turning it off immediately, it’s a good thing. The speaker is loud and of better quality than in some of the bigger laptops (better than my Powerbook’s).
Asus also ships a variant of the laptop with a special version of Xandros. The Eee PC 701 is also compatible with this new Ubuntu-derived distro, the Ubuntu Eee. The distro installs all the needed drivers and makes your 701 work well with Linux. Unfortunately, using Ubuntu’s official updates might be messy though, as if you let it overwrite your custom kernel, you might end up without proper support for your Eee.
I will focus on five points regarding this laptop: screen resolution, internal storage, memory, speed, and battery life, as everything else was as good as expected.
Screen Resolution
The 800×480 screen is small for some websites. The primary usage of such netbooks is internet browsing, email and IM, so while this resolution is fine for email and IM, when it comes to browsing, it’s not always enough. Our OSNews, News.com, CNN, Yahoo, Engadget, Gizmodo and many other popular sites, all need 1024 pixels wide to render their site. The good thing is that most of these sites have columns, so you just need to scroll once in the appropriate column to get the piece of information you need without further scrolling.
A bigger problem is that many third party utilities (and a few Windows ones), don’t fit in 480 pixels vertically. For example, using the preference panels of both Gaim and Trillian was an exercise in patience. Thankfully, Asus includes a daemon that auto-loads each time you log in to your account, which lets you choose between 800×480 and 800×600 resolutions, but some of Gaim’s panels still don’t fit in 600 px vertically. And this was the reason why I decided to get XP and not install Ubuntu on this netbook (I am not interested in Xandros you see): many GTK+ utilities or preference panels require 700px vertically to fit. While XP’s apps are not immune to the problem, the apps I use that have the problem are certainly smaller in numbers than the ones using GTK+ under Linux. Anyways, this is not a huge problem, as after the initial configuration of the machine, you will probably be ok.
Storage
The 4 GB SSD is not enough (~1.3 GB was free originally). The machine comes with Windows XP SP2, but it is not possible to install SP3 (not enough free space, claims the installer) without first removing all the “un-installation files” of previous Windows updates that Asus applied, remove restore points, compress unused files, and even remove some other files manually (e.g. the 90 MB Adobe setup files that are not needed anymore but Asus ships with anyway). If you don’t feel confident deleting so many system files, then your only way towards SP3 is to delete the MS Works installation (400 MB) to make some space for it. I find it inconceivable to sell a machine where it’s not updateable by official means as shipped, especially as this is an internet machine and security is so important. Personally, I have streamlined my installation (with a huge risk, of course), by deleting a lot of things that are presumably not exactly needed, and so now I have 1.1 GB of storage left (just 300 MB of swap, Firefox, Trillian Pro, Quicktime but not iTunes (required by Trillian in order for the webcam to work), Gaim, PaintShopPro 5, VLC, Windows Defender, and AVG Free AntiVirus installed.) I read that other 701 users had to create manually special XP bootable CDs with SP3 already applied in order to get it installed… A mess.
RAM
The 512 MB of RAM are enough for a basic XP installation, but after installing the AVG anti-virus and Windows Defender (both needed for this internet market this product strives for), the RAM consumption sky-rocketed from 180 MB originally, to 300 MB. Having Firefox, Trillian/Gaim, and Live Mail opened all at the same time is not recommended, because you will run out of RAM (and swap, if you are forced to have very little of it in order to save storage space). Especially if you also need to turn ON indexing on the drive and install Microsoft’s terrible “Desktop Search” utility (without it Live Mail refuses to search inside emails), then you will see a typical RAM usage of 600+ MBs. Now, this is not too bad in 512 MBs, believe it or not, but as I said, when your swap is also small because of the SSD size constraints, then you can bring the machine to its knees and even see crashes. Personally, I just use Firefox and Gaim, and never ran out of swap so far. I guess the consensus here is: don’t use Live Mail and don’t install Desktop Search (Outlook Express is still good enough and requires very little RAM).
Speed
I am happy with the speed of the machine, even when under-clocked at 630 Mhz by default. Browsing speed is good, and I had no problems at all with the speed of the SSD and XP. Common usage felt as speedy as my P4 3Ghz, and web browsing on sites like OSNews did too. Because though, as you probably know, I am more into video production lately rather than OS news, I need some good Flash video performance. I found that this machine, at 630 Mhz, is a bit faster than my Powerbook 12″ 867 Mhz G4. When using the freeware utility Eeectl to boost the CPU speed to its natural 900 Mhz, the Eee PC becomes significantly faster than my old Powerbook.
Overall I found the following when running at the default 630 Mhz:
YouTube normal quality window: full speed
YouTube normal quality fullscreen: full speed
YouTube high quality window: full speed
YouTube high quality fullscreen: ~2/3s speed
Hulu 360p quality window: full speed
Hulu 360p quality fullscreen: some few hickups
Hulu 480p quality window: hickups
Hulu 480p quality fullscreen: almost unwatchable
Vimeo SD version quality window: some few hickups
Vimeo SD version quality fullscreen: hickups
Vimeo 720p HD version quality window: unwatchable
Vimeo 720p HD version quality fullscreen: completely unwatchable
When clocking at 900 Mhz (100 Mhz bus), YouTube becomes universally full speed, Hulu 480p window becomes full speed, but its 480p full screen version is better but not perfect. Vimeo’s SD versions become watchable, with the HD windowed version now running at 1/2 speed. Its HD full screen version is still unwatchable. The latest stable version of Flash 9.x was used (10.x is not ready yet).
I am pretty sure that netbooks using the Intel Atom 1.6Ghz instead are significantly faster than the Celeron M 900 Mhz. Based on some benchmarks I’ve seen, I’d say that they would almost rival my P4 3Ghz desktop in some operations, including online Flash video.
Battery
I don’t mean to be negative. I really don’t. I love these cute little machines. That’s why I asked one for a review. But if you think that what you just read was somewhat negative, you haven’t read the battery section yet.
So, the Eee PC 701 and 900 series have this major (hardware?) bug, where battery would drain when on sleep or when the laptop is completely off. Sure, all laptops do that, but not at this rate. The Eee PC 701 has 23 hours of standby (sleep) battery life, and 9 days when powered off. In contrast, my Powerbook and my DELL Inspiron laptops have 6 days to 10 days of sleep battery life, and 2-3 months of power off battery life (and we are talking about old batteries already, not brand new ones like in the Eee PC). This of course, makes this machine utterly useless for a “on the go” machine. The only workaround found so far by the community is to shutdown the OS and remove completely the battery when not using it.
The Eee community awaits for a new BIOS version to hopefully fix the problem (if it’s fixable via software). Otherwise, I believe it’s only fair for Asus to recall these laptops or provide free service plans, and if they don’t do that, to get sued big time by their customers. It’s one thing to say “this is a cheap product”, and another to completely diminish the value of a netbook (which is to be on the go extensively). This is like someone sells you a small, cheap, low-in-oil consumption when-in-use car, only to find out that all your oil is drained overnight while parked. Come on, are we serious now?
Regarding normal usage, the netbook has a good battery life, at around 3 hours of usage, with WiFi on. No complaint there.
Conclusion
Get an Atom-based netbook with enough storage and screen resolution. I would suggest either DELL’s new Mini 9, or Asus’ own 1000H, or the Acer Aspire One or MSI Wind. Just stay clear from the Asus 701 and 900 series. The 901 series is a good choice too (no power drain problem you see). Geeks sells the Acer Aspire One for just $25 over the Asus Eee PC 701, so that should be a no brainer.
Rating: 5/10
I haven’t had any problems with XP on the 701 (aside from hard drive space) but it does need more RAM. We put 2G in at work and it flies.
However if you don’t upgrade the RAM you have to be a bit considerate of its limited capabilities. Just don’t bother with AVG or windows defender. You don’t need either of them if you’re not routinely visiting shady sites or pirating software and the Eee (and any computer really) runs way better without them.
It’s also funny that you choose XP because of the height of windows. Linux makes it dead simple to deal with oversized windows (ALT-Drag) while Windows is a pain in the ass (hacks like virtual res of 800×600 which don’t always work like you say). Overall the 701 is way better suited to Linux. Leave XP for the more powerful mini notebooks..
I beg to differ regarding AV/anti-spyware. I sincerely believe that it’s important to run these when on Windows, especially when connected to the net. A user can easily get infected SD cards or even mp3 players from friends — let alone the internet spyware.
As for the height of the windows. While Linux might have a shortcut about this, it also has more apps that require the shortcut. On Windows, these [popular] apps that would require it are fewer. So it’s a trade off.
Edited 2008-09-17 01:17 UTC
I recommend ESET Smart Security (it’s NOD32 with internet security tools) for older machines… and for modern ones too. It’s very lightweight and still can deal with everything efficiently. In my experience it’s usually using 30-40MB of RAM. It’s not free like AVG though.
Using two different antimalware solutions is a bit too much for any computer IMHO.
AVG Free does not do anti-spyware (only the paid version does), that’s why Windows Defender is needed to complement AVG Free’s anti-virus service. I wouldn’t use both if there was a duplication in functionality. Before I installed Windows Defender I tried Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware. This application did NOT execute on my Eee PC. It would die on load with a cryptic error message.
AVG 8.0 has Anti-Spyware protection in the free version.
It doesn’t do the same job though. For example, on my main PC, Ad-Aware can remove threats and spyware that AVG ignores. Besides, Defender only eats up 30 MB of RAM.
Edited 2008-09-17 02:19 UTC
Regarding ALT-drag, Although Windows doesn’t support it out of the box, you can choose one of these small utilities on Windows:
http://code.google.com/p/altdrag/
http://winxmove.sourceforge.net/
The latter also allows resizing with ALT + right/middle-mouse-button. Both GPL.
That shot of the iphone, psp and eee shows what I love about my 900. Like the 701 in the shot, it is matte. The other two devices in that shot are so incredibly smudged and covered with fingerprints thanks to their glossy finish. I am so annoyed that all of the eees with the Atom are now glossy
That matte finish looks so much better to me than how the psp and iphone look in that shot. Obviously not everyone feels that way (shiny!) but a choice would be nice. Why not white, black or matte?
“Besides, Defender only eats up 30 MB of RAM.”
And we’re cool with a background process using 8% of our RAM
I recently repaired a laptop I used years back when overseas with its stunning 16 MB or RAM. It’s just how things change I guess.
I thought you had left already?
I am left. This is my first article in two-three months. I only contribute when I have a review to write, I don’t do daily work anymore.
Please keep the discussion on topic.
Edited 2008-09-17 04:40 UTC
as I used the versions 701, 900 and now the 901, I agree with most parts of the review… never used the Win version, though… I tend to believe that the primary use of a netbook is browsing, email and sometimes wordprocessing – on the road… the Linux version does all of these well (of course installing anything not in the standard repositories could be a pain for a novice user)
regarding the battery… as stated the 901 is not suffering from this “leak”… furthermore it offers over 5 hrs usage in Linux with wifi on and browsing (vs. 2-3 hrs in the 900) with the supplied standard battery which makes the little machine 901 shine over the competition…
strictly on topic: I got rid of my 701… the main factors for doing this where poor battery life, way too small screen for daily internet browsing and lack of support for my 3G stick…
Is that with “Li-Ion 4 cell 4400 mAh” battery? (the only version available here…and if this battery gives Eee over 5h, it would be over 2 times better than any other here, which ship only with 3 cell battery)
my 900 has been shipped with a a 4400 battery (2 hrs with wifi on), but the stock battery of the 901 is a 6600 mAh battery (5 hrs wifi on). I later purchased a Mugen 7800 mAh replacement battery for my EeePC 900 (4 hrs with wifi)…
these figures clearly show that the Intel Atom (in the 901) is a clear step forward for the usability of the EeePC…
…is Opera browser, with its, generally working good, “fit to width” function. And migh be better for other reasons too – bahaving more gracefully with slow cpu and low ram, or having keyboard shortcuts for almost every action.
While I do respect the choice of WinXP on this, I still have a bit of a hard time understanding it. I mean, many of the shortcomings in this review could be avoided or at least they could be slightly improved by using the original Xandros, which is highly optimised for that device. I know you’ve said you’re not interested at all by Xandros, but why not? Have you at least tried it?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really *crazy* about Xandros either! Actually to tell you the truth, when I got my 701, I remember that I also had decided right from the start I would install another OS on the machine. Being used to Ubuntu, I found Xandros to be very limiting and way too “basic” for me. The thing is however, after playing with EeeXubuntu installed on the SDHC for a while, I realized that all I ever do on this device is to read email, browse, video-talk with Napster, and do some Openoffice work. That’s about it. That’s when I realized that I could do all of that very easily with the original Xandros, and as a bonus It would boot in only about 10-14 seconds (which also solves the problem of the energy in sleep mode – just shut it down everytime, it boots so fast anyway!!). So in the end, to my own surprise, I’ve ended up using only Xandros most of the time! I still have my Ubuntu partition on the SDHC but I rarely use it, why wait for it to boot when I can have all i need ready in 10 seconds? Especially when you are on the road and in a rush, that’s crucial to me.
Now I know you mentioned in a previous article that you wanted XP mostly to use Trillian with all the video features on all IMs. If that’s really your primary use of this device, and If video on all IMs is of major importance to you, I can better understand. Otherwise If you are like me (and many others) and you only need to use the video feature once in a while, why not simply ask the people you want to video chat with to use Skype as well with you? Wouldn’t it make life easier? Just an idea.
Once we face the fact that all we really do on a EeePC can be done easily with Xandros, then why not use it rather than complicate our life with huge desktop OSes?
Btw, although the ASUS Xandros is very limited indeed, It’s also highly and easily hackable. If you need to add stuff like GIMP, Opera, Google Earth, Google Chrome, etc, these are easily installable either by adding a few depots or even easier, by installing the .deb files…!!
The review makes clear that WinXP is less-than-ideal in various ways. I think this is as useful to prospective buyers than loading a better OS and reporting on what a success it all was.
I have an Eee PC 701. I think XP works fine on it when you slim it down using nLite.
I tried using Xandros but could not get the wireless working to connect using 802.1x using MS-Chap-V2. I fiddled with it for a solid day but never got it working. Not the fault of the device.
Anyway, I specifically bought this device so that I could test wireless connectivity (specifically, the way we have it implemented here at work). In this case, it is important to have a device using the same utilities for connectivity as the end users. It works perfectly for this and I am happy that the tech is actually doing the job I bought it for.
I guess my point is that regardless of how much everyone else seems to be in love with Linux and its variations, there is a place for XP on this device as well.
Suspend mode works perfectly also. Kind of surprising, so kudo’s to Asus on the hardware/software combo and giving me the XP drivers that made it easy to select the OS of choice. Same cannot be said of Toshiba laptops.
Eugenia Loli-Queru trolled…
Horse-Apples! You know exactly what you’re doing and calling this trolling is the nicest thing I could say about this laughable “article” of yours. If you really wanted to be positive or to ratify your love of these Netbooks you would have requested an EeePC 901 model instead of the 7xx and 900 models which are known to be broken when it comes to power management and suspending.
I’d have bought this tripe of an excuse if this review had been maybe five months ago or earlier–but to try to pull this off as a real review when its one of the oldest revisions is a joke… Shall we expect your upcoming review on Windows 3.11 next week? How about an expose on the follies of Apple entering the Mp3 player business?
–bornagainpenguin
Your little conspiracy theory is dead WRONG.
I did NOT know of the battery problem when I requested this model. I requested this model because it was cheaper of the 901 model that cost $550 at Geeks. Geeks CAN NOT send me products that are generally over $300. So I had no other option but to get EITHER this 4G model, OR the even worse one, the 2G one. Thankfully, they sent me the 4G one. I went to review this model with the BEST of the intentions! I WANTED a netbook anyway! I really wanted this to work!
Also, I can’t request for review whatever the hell I want. So stop thinking that I do things on purpose. Why the hell would I want that???? Your comment makes no sense. Please stop ASSUMING things without knowing the whole story.
>but to try to pull this off as a real review when its one of the oldest revisions is a joke
You forget one important bit. Geeks.com’s business IS about older models. They don’t have new models in their store, they are mostly carrying older stuff. And adding to that, I can only request products that generally cost no more than $250 to $300. So that’s what I do.
Besides, this is no excuse for Asus for releasing such a shitty product — and I am talking about the battery of course.
Edited 2008-09-19 20:12 UTC