ASUS Eee 900

How do you get people so excited about a computer that the entire stock of 1000 is sold out within an hour of the machine being launched in Hong Kong? Also, Yahoo in Hong Kong sold out of the new machine within hours of the launch. The source for this is the IDG new service on 21st April 2008.

What are the big advantages of the new machine? The screen has been enlarged from 7”to 8.9”. Let's remember that screen size is measured diagonally (a throw-back to the old TV screens). The memory is larger. The 700 series has a maximum memory of 8GB. The 900 series has a 12GB memory for the Windows XP machine and 20GB for the Linux PC. Logic would say that the XP machine needs the larger memory but to enable them to be sold at the same price the Windows XP machine had to have a smaller hard drive. The other major advance is the web cam is now 1.3 Mega pixels instead of 0.3 Mega pixels. The final advantage is a larger and more responsive touchpad instead of a mouse.

Both of the new machines have 1GB of RAM but only the 8GB 700 PC has 1GB the other models have 512MB.

In Hong Kong so many people rush for the latest technology and the latest offering, but will this sales rate be sustainable elsewhere? I think the answer is yes, especially for anyone who is short of space, either while traveling or at home. This will not be suitable for the first machine for someone but will be a backup and something to be used while traveling or for a second machine.

I can see a rush of people who will buy an Eee to take on holiday with them. They will use the larger screen of the Asus to look at their holiday photos and see what the quality of the photos is like. They can even send friends; family and work colleagues e-mail postcards of their holiday and know they will get there quickly rather than be delayed by snail mail. It is embarrassing to get back to work from a holiday and the card arrives back after you do.

I can see a large number of wives having to wrestle their husbands away from their work on the ASUS Eee when they are supposed to be on holiday. I can also see a number of husbands having to get their wives away from long chats to their girlfriends when they should be on holiday. Sometimes we can't leave home even for a little while.

Can this little marvel make a place in your home? Yes is can, especially for many people who need an extra machine for a limited amount of time during each week. I cannot imagine someone with large hands or fingers being able to type on the ASUS Eee keyboard for a very long period. Also people who have limited space to keep even a portable PC available all the time can consider this little machine.

The big advantage with it is that it is so quick to start up. This may be helped by having so little RAM on board as every time a computer starts up the RAM is checked by the operating system to be working properly. A 5 minute job on the ASUS will only take 5 minutes and not 5 minutes to start the machine followed by 5 minutes work and then 5 minutes to shut the machine down again.

The 3 USB ports on the ASUS Eee allow many different hardware configurations for the little machine. Some of us will choose to use a mouse or trackball as opposed to the touchpad, others may choose an external keyboard but with the size of the screen that may need to have an external monitor to use a keyboard. All of these are possible as we have a fully functional pc. We can also add in a printer either using the wireless LAN or one of the USB ports.

The more you look at this machine the more it looks like a machine for everyone at any time.