Impressions of an ASUS Eee PC 900

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

I have now owned – yes, I bought this one and it is not a review sample of any kind – an ASUS Eee PC 900 Netbook with Linux operating system for about six months and I must say that I am rather in love with this little computer.

The Eee PC 900 Netbook of mine has one idiosyncrasy in its Linux operating system (OS) though and that is that it will overwrite an old file if a new one created has the same name without, as do other operating systems, warning the user that this is about to happen. So, users beware!

Furthermore I have two serious complaints, if I may call it thus:

The first one is that the battery just does not live up to the claim of three hours life or such. If one can get an hour and a half out of it then that could be considered good, I would say.

The second problem is that SD memory cards are not recognized when inserted into the SD card slot provided.

Otherwise, however, you will have to prise this netbook out of my cold, dead hand before I would give it up.

I find that the Eee PC 900 Netbook of mine is the notebook kind of computer that I use most. My bigger Fujitsu Siemens Amilo laptop rarely comes out of the desk drawer where it lives. My definite first choice of computer on which to do my writing is the Eee PC 900 or the my Ubuntu PC that I have for the writing use.

The above mentioned Fujitsu Siemens laptop, on the other hand, is about to become the replacement for my rather aging and ailing, methinks, Compaq Evo Desktop with Windows XP.

My Eee PC is an ASUS Eee PC 900 with a 16GB SSD hard drive and 1GB of RAM.

Probably because of the fact that it runs ASUS' own version of Linus it opens fast and is a pleasure to use.

I do need my reading glasses, though, for the 8.5inch screen but that would be the case also with a 10inch screen.

In fact, I do believe that the Eee PC 900 Netbook is just the right size for a Netbook and there is naught wrong with the size of the screen or the keyboard either. I can type faster on the ASUS Eee PC 900 keyboard than that of the Fujitsu Siemens laptop of mine and about the same as – if not better also even – on the keyboard of a desktop PC. So where people seem to get the problem from as regards the 900's keyboard size beats me. Yes, it needs a little getting used to but that is by-the-by.

How do I rate it, you, the reader will want to know now, I guess.

Overall: good
Design: Great
Battery life: Oh dear!
Weight: Light
Linux Operating System: Very good bar the little problem with the file overwrite without warning.

Summary: 7 out of 10 and that because of the battery life and the non-working SD card slot, plus the file overwrite problem.

If that could be remedied then this would be the absolute best, I think, netbook about.

I have seen – though not (as yet) – tested the newest versions of the Eee PC netbooks with the 10inch screen and the new keyboard but I think the 900 will take a lot of beating were it not for the above problems.

© 2009
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