Asus Confirms Specs, Price of Eee PC 904 and 1000 261
Ken E. writes "Asus seems to have completed its Eee PC laptop line-up, at least for the time being. The Taiwanese manufacturer has now confirmed both specifications and UK pricing of the Eee PC 904 and Eee PC 1000 — its two latest models. The Eee PC 904 is essentially an Eee PC 900 in an Eee PC 1000 chassis (big keyboard, 8.9in screen, Celeron-M 900MHz, Windows XP) and will cost £269 inc VAT. The Eee PC 1000 will cost £349 inc VAT for an Intel Atom (1.6GHz) chip, 10in screen, 80Gb HDD and Windows XP. Looks like those early Eee PC 900 adopters (£329 inc VAT, initially) have been stiffed. Still, that's progress, I guess ..."
Where's my $200 laptop (Score:5, Insightful)
Enough with the "I got ripped off!" whining (Score:5, Insightful)
Looks like those early Eee PC 900 adopters (£329 inc VAT, initially) have been stiffed. Still, that's progress, I guess.
No. They got a nice working computer for a price they found reasonable. Something better will come out for less money next year, and again the year after that.
This is not a good thing (Score:3, Insightful)
This is not a good thing for Linux adoption. Earlier articles today pointed to the increased adoption of Linux among housewives, attributed to sales of eeePCs and other cheap laptops. Now that these ones have XP on them, this can't be a good thing for the trend continuing.
erm, who actually wants one? (Score:2, Insightful)
There are low-end but fully-fledged laptops (i.e. 10s of gigs, 512MB-1GB, 13"+ screen) of the OEM-unbranded type in this price range selling all over the Web in the UK. For 50 quid more, you get an Acer. And they all come with 12 month warranties, often extensible. Who actually wants the eepc?
Early Adoption (Score:2, Insightful)
I bought my 900 back in May for £329 so I guess that makes me one of the early adopters who are being stiffed, but to be honest that's just what happens whenever you buy electronics. I'll get over it.
I'm also not entirely convinced that there'd be that much difference in performance for my usage (casual web browsing) between my 900 and the 901, and a few extra gig of HD is fairly inconsequential when I have 320gb of USB drive for transfer/backup between my various computers anyway.
If I'd known about the new models back when I bought my 900 I *might* have waited for the 1000 series (the reason I didn't get a 70x was because I was holding out for the bigger/vaguely usable screen) but if I'm honest I'd still probably have bought then safe in the knowledge that whatever I bought, whenever I bought it, would be superceded within months anyway. Anyone who complains about their computer hardware being superceded needs to get a grip on reality.
Stiffed (Score:4, Insightful)
<rant> I never understand this point of view. Especially with computer/tech hardware. Every one of us, when buying a new video card, or a new processor, or whatever, knows that within a few months, the price will come down on the thing we just bought, and a newer, better thing will be out. And I never see people bitching about that. But make it some shiny, all-in-one thing like an iPhone or this Eee PC, and suddenly there's this group of people who are outraged about it. What gives? It's life, you know? You can sit on all of your money and never buy anything, for fear that you could get a better deal tomorrow, or you can buy stuff today and enjoy it. </rant>
Not that the OP sounded all that bitter about it. It just reminded me of people who do.
Re:Where's my $200 laptop (Score:5, Insightful)
I have to agree. I can spend $200 on a used laptop and it has more than fast enough to do anything I want. But it's not small, and its battery will suck.
If they'd just make a $200 laptop, I'd buy it. I don't care how slow it is. I did real work on P100s 10 years ago, and I'd be happy to do the same today.
arms race. (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of my HW is quite old, 7+ years apart from my early adoption of an Asus EEE. was I stiffed on the price? hell no - had it over half a year and makes a good wifi web station.
I understand the commercial reasons behind the rapid depreciation in HW and SW - but as far as I'm concerned my PC hardware is a tool, like my car. I'm upgrade only when there is a compelling reason or something breaks. Is the arms race a good or bad thing? well it promotes innovation and new technologies so I cannot really argue against it.
As long as I can still run an up to date distro on my hardware I'm a happy camper. An old PC will let me write SW, surf and do office tasks as well as a new one, and be just as net safe if I keep to a regular upgrade cycle.
Re:Where's my $200 laptop (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Enough with the "I got ripped off!" whining (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a 701. It cost me $399, and I received it on November 2 of last year.
For the last six months, since I static-zapped my desktop, it's been my only personal computer.
I'm typing this on it right now, from a plaza in Silver Spring, Maryland. It's a gorgeous day, the fountains are running.
I am super happy with it.
I don't feel "stiffed," I feel like I got in on something awesome before it was trendy.
Re:Enough with the "I got ripped off!" whining (Score:3, Insightful)
We can be sure that Asus will release a cheaper and not-so-beefed-up model for the folks that are waiting for the $200 model.
Someone will, if not Asus.
Re:The world is full of idiots. (Score:4, Insightful)
A very valid point, though even by technology pricing standards, the iPhone's price drop (33% off after two months) was pretty unusual.
Always had a choice. (Score:2, Insightful)
They've always been available in both XP and Linux versions. The difference is that the original 700 version was out using linux first, and XP came later, the newer versions are doing it the other way around. 901 are now becoming available in the west, and so far it's all Windows XP. The cynic in me wonders if Microsoft called Asus up and said "If you ship XP versions one month before the linux versions, we'll give you a nice little rebate on your XP licenses. giddigy"
My thoughts on it... (Score:2, Insightful)
I almost bought a 900 a few wEeeks back. I'm glad I didn't because now I can get a 900 for 399 with a 8.9' screen and 16 gig hard drive at newegg. Or find a good deal on regular 900's at lots of online retailers(100 Mail in rebate). Although the 901 is better, I'd rather save 100 bucks and get a slightly lesser processor. I mean the whole point of this thing is to be simple and surf the web. The upgraded processor isn't really worth the extra 100 IMHO. They really need to get these things in local stores nationwide, and then they'll be cooking.
Re:Where's my $200 laptop (Score:5, Insightful)
The value of the dollar has turned to shit since they said that.
Re:erm, who actually wants one? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't want one, but for the opposite reason. I want something slower and cheaper. All I want is something with enough power to SSH into a server over wifi, a qwerty keyboard, and a battery that lasts more than a couple hours. The EEE is overkill, both in performance and price. Is anyone making the device I want?
Re:The 900 is still a sweet machine (Score:1, Insightful)
What's not to like?
I think the Eee is a perfect candidate for having a trackpoint, it would fit with the compact nature of the Eee. I'd love to see an Eee with one. They don't take up much room and would probably increase productivity.
Does anyone know of a successful hack that added a trackpoint to an Eee?
As a bonus if you dropped the touchpad you'd probably gain some room for adding more mods
Re:Perfect (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:erm, who actually wants one? (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally I find those low-end fully fledged laptops completely worthless. They have little storage, almost no memory, no expansion capability, a pitiful screen, a barely useful graphics card and a painfully slow CPU.
They're simply not a useful replacement for a desktop. And on top of that they're just not that portable; you dont quickly throw them in your bag, purse or coat pocket and go.
Still, I have a need for something to take notes, run presentations and look stuff up on when not at the desk. And while I find the low-end laptop unsuitable for the task due to it's desktop-replacement complex, the EEE segment is extremely suitable for the purpose (the £1000+ micro laptop segment is also suitable, but, eh, I'm buying a glorified pencil+paper, not some form of jewelry or fashion statement).
Re:Where's my $200 laptop (Score:5, Insightful)
the world does not revolve around the US dollar.
Maybe not revolve, but if the world is certainly not independent of it. If the US went into a true depression, do you think europe, japan, china, and the middle east would be completely immune?
If so you better quote-a-source or flash-an-econ-degree because everything I see has every major foreign market tied in multiple ways to the US's.
Or did you really just want to claim that all Americans are pompous?
Re:erm, who actually wants one? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Enough with the "I got ripped off!" whining (Score:5, Insightful)
I needed a new computer after using the one my parents bought me a decade ago. So I bought a laptop. I promptly put it on my desk, plugged in a mouse, and have never moved it since!
It was an excellent purchasing decision on my part, seeing as how, for $2000, I got a monstrous 15 inch screen, a 2 GHz Dual Core processor, and 2 gigs of ram!
Nothing more than that is really necessary, even though for $2000 I could be sitting in front of dual 24" monitors, a quad core chip, 4 GB of RAM and terabytes of storage. Or maybe something with similar specifications, in a desktop form factor, and a much heavier wallet.
You have no idea how many times I hear the same idiotic story and the bullshit excuses that go along with it. I don't understand people justifying their moronic purchases by using the wrong tool for the wrong job, and I never will.
Let me see if I can put it in perspective for you. If you owned a box truck and a subcompact smart car, and were faced with the task of moving a house full of furniture, using that EEE every day in a fixed location is like strapping a couch to the top of your smart car after lugging it past the open rear door of your box truck.
Now, I have to ask, because maybe there's just "something" I don't get: What the fuck is that EEE doing on your desk, serving as your main computer, when a nonportable PC (like your Mac) is much more appropriate and functional? Is there ANY reason, other than "Zomg, It's so cute and portable," to pass up a much more functional, and frankly better in every way given the task, device for something so horribly inappropriate?
To quote Chris Rock:
You can drive a car with your feet if you want to; it don't mean its a good fucking idea!
On a side note, my friend sold his laptop and bought the first EEE because he said the enhanced portability would allow him to use it better and more often that what he had currently, even though I told him it was a waste of money.
Two months ago, he bought a 15-inch Compaq laptop that was on sale for the same price he got the EEE for. It's a much more appropriate machine.
Re:But they're getting larger and heavier again... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:as sound as a pound (Score:3, Insightful)
That only makes the quoted prices worse. People in the UK and EU are looking for a 100 Euro or Pound notebook.
Theoretically we ought to be expecting something like that (hah), but we know that any $300 laptop will turn into 350 € laptop *if we're lucky*.
Typically most vendors make some kind of reverse currency conversion and $300 are more like 450 €...
Re:In US dollars (Score:3, Insightful)
For comparison a Vaio in the same weight class costs 2.5 times as much in the UK, and is larger.
7" screen, not 7" device (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Enough with the "I got ripped off!" whining (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand people justifying their moronic purchases by using the wrong tool for the wrong job, and I never will.
Neither do I. Those people drive me nuts. For me, the Eee turned out to be perfect for my needs and it was the Mac that was the wrong tool for the job.
using that EEE every day in a fixed location is like strapping a couch to the top of your smart car after lugging it past the open rear door of your box truck.
Very true - if I used it from a fixed location. Which I don't.
Now, I have to ask, because maybe there's just "something" I don't get: What the fuck is that EEE doing on your desk, serving as your main computer, when a nonportable PC (like your Mac) is much more appropriate and functional?
I think you're hearing voices, because I never said anything like that. The Eee is my main computer now, and I use it from the living room, bedroom, kitchen table, and pool in the backyard (wanna try floating with an eMac in your lap?).
Two months ago, he bought a 15-inch Compaq laptop that was on sale for the same price he got the EEE for. It's a much more appropriate machine.
So your friend miscalculated his needs and found something that better fit his actual situation. Good for him! On the other hand, I always thought I wanted/needed a full-size desktop computer, and it turns out that I really wanted/needed a tiny little laptop that can float around the house without hassle.
What I don't get is people who get so worked up about other people having different needs than themselves. I'm not cursing at you for using a desktop, and don't really understand why you're cursing at me for using an UMPC.
You're missing the point (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is portability. Then people get that portability and decide they want better specs. The price goes up.
There's nothing wrong with this.
Re:Perfect (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Where's my $200 laptop (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the point is that light and portable is (finally) down to similar price points ro clunky desktop replacements. For the longest time, these light machines cost twice as much as middle-of-the-road laptops.
This is off topic, but (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Where's my $200 laptop (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course the world isn't independent of the US dollar. The world also isn't independent of the Euro, either, or just about any other currency, for that matter. Isn't that the whole point of this globalization thing -- that people rely on each other, that no one is wholly isolated anymore?
Maybe I'm misinterpreting you here, but your response makes it sound as if you're arguing that the world is uniquely dependant on the US dollar, which just isn't the case.