Asus eee PC: Size Matters
Personal Productivity April 2nd, 2008
Size matters… a lot. I still haven’t decided if I’ll be able to work on this mini-PC (the Asus eee PC). The 7″ screen in itself would not be that bad, but the 800×600 resolution is far too restricting: most websites are designed for higher resolution, meaning one has to scroll horizontally to see all, or click action buttons. The other problem is the keyboard – I don’t think I have fat fingers, but am struggling with it.
On the other had, it’s the ideal travel / conference machine. I don’t even need it as a computer, just a web browsing / note-taking / blogging device. And of course the alternative is His Beautiness the MacBook Air, but boy, that price for a travel accessory! Decisions…decisions…
(My regular display vs. the eee)
Update (4/3): I’ve owned the eee PC for a day and am returning it tonight. I could get used to the screen size, my fingers would learn to deal with the keyboard, but it’s impossible to browse the Net with this thing. The problem is that most websites are designed for larger resolution, and the eee can only display part of a page. Vertical scrolling (a lot) is not the end of the world, but having to scroll horizontally, just to find disappearing action buttons is simply ridiculous.
Tags: asus, eee pc, MacBook Air
Zoli Erdos
just trying to show off your desktop image Zoli!
I’ve been there nadyon nadyon yo!
Nice picture Zoli
Regarding the choice I’d go with what I already have. A 13.5′ macbook. It fits into all my (smaller, larger) backpacks and no laptop bag or specially designed bag is needed.
is that a 22″ screen? I have a 19″ hooked up to my laptop 14″ wide laptop, but thinking of getting a 22″.
Anyway, the thing i wanted to point out is that a combination like this works like a charm for me:
- 14″ wide laptop for travel / work in bed
- 19″ wide display in the office hooked to the lappy
The parliament looks great
Jan,
Yes, it’s 22″, which I guess is considered small in tech circles:-)
I’m returning the eee, see post update above:-(
Per jkOnTheRun, the new HP mini has an 8.9-inch screen running at 1280×768. They have some good pics that compare to the (awesome) Fujitsu P1610. I own the latter; it’s great for travel. Big bucks compared to the Asus and mini, but more horsepower and the screen rotates to act as a tablet.
As an aside: the newfound success of this form factor shows that the Foleo wasn’t crazy, even though it got some details wrong.
Yes, I saw the HP mini and liked it. Am still surprised how most reviews focus on the form factor (size) only and forget about resolution.
I could deal with the eee’s screen size if it had the Mini’s resolution…
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