ASUS EEE Keyboard – PC

The touch-screen

Asus have come out with a really interesting idea here. At first glance, I thought it was just a fancy new keyboard from them to hook up to your EEE netbook which normally come with difficult to use keyboards. I was totally blown away when I realized it was a PC, complete with 16 GB space, 1 GB RAM, a few USB ports, Wifi, Bluetooth and HDMI/VGA outputs. On top of that, it also has a 5″ touch-screen on the side that probably acts as a mini-display of sorts.

Amazing! I’d like to know when it is launching and for how much.

Somebody made a comment saying they should have called it the Asus kEEEboard.   🙂

Images courtesy of Engadget.

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[Gizmodo article]

My Asus EEE 900 review

We’re once again in Dhaka for 1-2 months and then headed to Lahore for a month. All this moving around lately has increased and due to this I decided to get a portable laptop for my wife, Maliha so she can chat and surf while I’m at work during the day.

Basically, we didn’t need to have another full-sized laptop to lug around and from this perspective; the Asus EEE series has been a real blessing. ‘Netbooks’ is the name awarded to the recent small laptops that are popping up everywhere.

I was going to order mine on Amazon, but learnt that Best Buy (fake one) was selling it in Hawally. I thought I’d check it out and after roaming around for a while I found a shop (a few shops before Best Buy) that gave me a pretty good deal at K.D.140 which is quite competitive to what I’d have paid to Amazon.

I got a black EEE 900 and this is the 20GB Linux version. The Linux based OS it comes with is decent but doesn’t give me sufficient flexibility. I formatted it and installed Windows XP instead. FYI, they also sell one preloaded with Windows XP for about the same price, but that has a 12 GB HD, so why lose out on extra space? It also comes with a very nice pouch to keep it cozy.

We’ve been using it for a month now (mostly her though) and its an amazing little device.

Maliha's netbook

The first thing you notice is how small it is. At 225 x 165 x 35mm (WxDxH), I can place two of these back to back to have a footprint the same size as my 14.1″ HP laptop. The 8.9″ screen is pretty sharp and can go up to a decent 1024×600 resolution. The 1 GB RAM keeps things moving at a decent pace. The 1.3MP built-in camera performs really well with the IMs and the wireless network works like a charm. 20 GB of solid state space is sufficient and efficient for its purpose. What’s more; the touchpad supports multi-touch and gives you some pretty cool ways to scroll (using two fingers) and zoom in/out of pics by pinching. The battery life is decent and it gives around 2+ hours of usage.

Weirdly enough, the speakers are placed beneath the body, though I find this aesthetically more pleasing than on the sides like in the 700 series models. The only downside so far is that typing isn’t as convenient as on a standard laptop. The keys are small and it takes some time to get used to it.

Overall, I’d say this is a very impressive machine yet it serves a specific purpose. If you are looking for a power-horse, this is not it. If you are looking for something ultra-portable, light, that lets you do basic stuff and even watch movies and listen to music; you can’t go wrong with this Asus.