ASUS Eee PC 901 8.9-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB Solid State...

ASUS Eee PC 901 8.9-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB Solid State Drive, ... | perfect for flights and train rides

computers & hardware:

ASUS Eee PC 901 8....

	ASUS Eee PC 901 8.9-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB Solid State Drive, ... Asus Asus average customer review:based on 69 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Great, but install Ubuntu EEE

I own a 900a and this 901. The 900a I own only has a 4 gb ssd. This has 20gb. The Xandros distribution this comes with is great for a new user, but any serious user should install Ubuntu EEE immediately (google it). To install ubuntu eee, just burn it to a disc, plug the cd rom into the usb port of the 901, and power it on. For some reason, the eee 901 contains an ssd 16 gb drive and a 4 gb drive. Install ubuntu eee to the 16 gb drive. I also used the "buy together" option on amazon and purchased a 2 gb ram module, along with a 16 gb sdhc card. So for about $70, you double the ram, about double the storage, and for free you get Ubuntu EEE, a vastly superior OS. With Ubuntu you can install Wine, which lets you run Windows programs natively. I then installed the Photofiltre for Windows which is a great image editing program, and Ereader for Windows. I keep about 50 books from Ereader on my EEE 901 and it makes a great ebook reader as an alternative to Kindle. The battery life and flexability is wonderful. I'm a physician and use this to network with my hospitals medical records and take it into patient's rooms and it is very non-intrusive since it is so small. When I have any downtime I tab over to Opera and browse the web or read books on Ereader. It's a perfect accessory for the mobile professional. Oh yeah, it's very fast. My only dislike about the Atom processor is that it won't handle high def streaming video very well... but I suppose that's a battery life / performance trade-off.

for more information click here

perfect for flights and train rides

I bought the linux one because it came with a larger ssd but I put win XP on it right away because the version of linux that it came with is very limiting. It runs fast enough to play 720p movie if you install coreavc and I am able to write java code without it being too intolerably slow. Also, I've gotten the battery to last ~6hours with a decent work load.

DAH

i received the ASUS Eee PC109 in a very timely manner. It was as listed. It is much faster than my desktop with windows vista. I haven't use it very much since Linux is not compatible with some web sites. I may change the
operating system to windows XP.

for more information click here

Great netbook, but needs upgrades to run XP

This model runs linux very well, I tried the included Xandros linux and also tried Ubuntu-EEE. Both are speedy on this model, have attractive interfaces, and include an impressive number of applications. Unfortunately I couldn't find a printer driver for my Canon MP970, and couldn't seem to connect to the shared drives on my Windows Home Server. The windows remote desktop application in linux didn't seem all that great either, so I decided that my computing needs were just too windows-centric to live with linux.

If you're thinking of buying this model to get more drive space over the XP version, and then installing XP, don't bother. This model has two solid state drives (SSDs): a 4GB SSD with fast 30 MB/s read/write speeds and a slower 16GB SSD with 30 MB/s read and 12MB/s write speeds. The 4GB SSD is too small to fit XP, and the 16GB SSD is too slow. I tried moving the "Program Files" and "Documents and Settings" directory to the 16GB drive and the system was constantly hanging because of slow writes to the 16GB drive. An OEM version of XP will cost you $100. My advice is to instead buy the XP version of the 901, plus a 2GB RAM upgrade ($30), and a 16GB Runcore SSD ($70). That will run XP like a champ. If you want to spend less to run XP, then buy a hard drive based EEE PC instead.

The keyboard on this model is spongy in the middle and the keys are very small and close together. Even so, after a bit of practice I am able to touch type on it. There are threads on the eeeuser.com forum on how to make the keyboard less spongy by putting layers of aluminum foil under it.

After installing XP, I took the 901 with me on a trip and it was great! I was able to remote desktop to my computer at work, check my personal email and skype home to the family (something I'm not allowed to do with my work laptop). I didn't miss lugging around a 7-lb brick one bit. I had room in my notebook bag for this and my kindle, and my shoulder and back weren't sore.

When I'm not traveling, the EEE PC 901 sits on my nightstand for use as an internet appliance, and for syncing my iPod shuffle. It's a great little gadget.

for more information click here

If you want a small netbook, this is the one to get.

I've been using a 901 for a month and, after some tweaking, I'm very happy with it. It's easy to carry around and the battery life is great (around 4.5 hours with wifi).

Keyboard - They keyboard is the major drawback of the 70x/90x series of eee pc's mainly because of its size but partially because it flexes when you type. Occasionally the flexing results in a ddouble character being typed. However there are two things you can do to improve the keyboard. Turn on key debounce detection to prevent repeated character strokes. Insert 10 - 12 layers of aluminum foil under the keyboard to shore it up (I'm not kidding, this works very well). Info on both changes can be found on eeeuser.com's forums. One thing you can't really change is the keyboard layout which is is somewhat modified from a standard keyboard to get everything to fit. The right-shift key isn't next to the "/?" key as the up-arrow gets in the way. This doesn't really bother me as I tend to only use the left-shift with my quasi-touch-typing. The change which frequently screws me up is that the "`~" key is up on the top row of keys between Esc and F1. This leaves the "1" key as the first key on the numeric row, shifting all the number keys left by one position with respect to the rest of the keyboard. I'm slowly getting used to this but I still type "@" when I really mean "!". In general, the 10" netbooks have bigger/better keyboards. The Aspire One keyboard (which I've tried) is quite easy to type on and feels solid.

Trackpad - The trackpad is a decent size considering the overall size of the laptop. The multi-touch works nicely for scrolling. The buttons are below the trackpad which I prefer to having buttons on the left and right like the Aspire one. I tend to use tap-to-click so I mainly end up just using the right button.

SSD - One thing I didn't realize when I bought the 901 was that the 20GB solid state drive is actually a 4GB fast drive and a 16GB slower drive. The fast drive is used by the operating system leaving the slower drive for your data (music, movies, docs etc....). This is a price control measure as 20GB of high-speed SLC flash would be expensive...and I'd rather have 4GB of it than none at all. Faster flash modules are being sold by third-parties for eee pc's for under $100 and the price are coming down quickly.

OS - The default Xandros GNU/Linux OS is fast to boot and gives you ready access to the web, mail, music, videos, office editing. However, if you want to install additional programs you're limited to those available via Asus's free download service. New software you install resides on the slower 16GB SSD. One neat trick Asus did was to use a union file system that allows modifications to be made on top of a read-only version of the operating system. If anything goes wrong, it is easy to blast the machine back to the original OS as it shipped from the factory. One downside, is that the read-only OS takes 90% of the fast SSD. As updates are installed, the new files don't actually replace the old ones and more space is gobbled up. After using the default OS for a couple of weeks I installed Ubuntu-eee (one of several Ubuntu Linux distributions tweaked for the eee) and I've been much happier. While the factory restore option is now gone, I have 1GB free space on the fast SSD for additional programs. I can also install pretty much any software package available for Ubuntu rather than just those allowed from Asus (which tend to be out of date).

Screen - The screen is reasonably bright. The resolution is good enough for viewing most web pages. Videos play back full-screen nicely.

Camera - I never use it. But it's nice to know that it's a whole megapixel better than the 0.3 megapixel cameras.

Other - One nice perk to owning an eee is there is an active community of eee users. eeeuser.com contains lots of good information about using, troubleshooting, and modifying the eee.

for more information click here