EEE PC Review

I`ve been playing around with the e3 pc for the last couple of days, and must say that it really is a great little machine.

Some stats on the machine first:

Weight 900 gm

900Mhz Intel Celeron-M processor

800 x 400 pixel screen resolution

3 Usb 2.0 ports

VGA output

Ethernet socket

Webcam

Stereo speakers

Headphone & mic sockets

Built-in mic

SD card slot

Built-in WiFi

Flash storage

I have the standard white 4Gb, 512Mb ram machine; which can be upgrade to 2Gb ram.

The OS in a special version of Xandros Linux. There are a host of open source programs pre-loaded, which include OpenOffice for word processing, spreadsheets and the like.

There are a couple of media players for playing MP3's and video., there is also a a voice recorder.

The EEE PC & Psion Revo

So far; I have been using the E3 for most of my computing usage; writing emails, surfing the web and some word processing. The E3 has worked well for all these, the keyboard is a bit small and the keys are a bit flimsy to the touch. If you are a touch typist it will be a strange experience but as a two fingered typist, I`m not finding it to much trouble.

The Wifi works pretty well in all parts of the house, I haven't tried it out and about yet.

The web browser is Firefox and the email is web based and has tabs for most of the major email web based players.

All the web pages load O.K and look good on the screen, video channel play the same as on my main computer.

The machine only takes 15-20 seconds to boot up and normally starts in the easy desktop, this is the default setting.

Easy desktop

The easy desktop has tabs across the top for the major areas of usage and subsections within them.

Everything is pretty straight forward and getting start doesn't even require the user manual.

The desktop can be changed to advanced mode, which requires a download. This then looks like a normal Windows/Mac desktop.

Advanced mode

There is a good user group for the E3 and also a Wiki; this is where I found out about how to chance the desktop.

All of my USB devices; Aiptek camera, MP3 player and USB flash key have all been recognised by the machine.

Battery life is about 3-4 hours even with the Wifi switched on.

I have found that the webcam is O.K when viewing but the actual recording seems very jerky and not to clear.

The machine is really designed for children and does look like a toy but it is a really neat little machine.

The biggest advantage over the Psion is the WiFi; with so many hotspots around it means getting that all important blog entry in quickly.

Sizewise you wouldn't want to take it backpacking but overall this a useful machine for quickly checking emails, a bit of surfing and some word processing.