Final Thoughts
Everyone's impression of the Eee PCs is different based on what they're expecting. If you're willing to forego everyday usability for serious portability at an inexpensive price, then you might be pleasantly surprised by how far you can push the 4G XP. The addition of a preinstalled Windows XP variant to this line is hands-down an intelligent move that will surely sway more people into buying, as the comfort factor and ability to easily install new applications will win many over. The addition of the 4GB storage card is also a solid move, providing double the space to fill out with new programs.
If you're in the market for an Eee, the 4G XP is a great choice. The ASUS Eee PC 900 should also arrive in the US shortly, sporting a larger 8.9" LCD with a 1024x600 native resolution. Performance will be similar and the price is higher, but the resolution increase can definitely help with programs that don't like 640x480. Looking into the future, ASUS also plans an Atom-based model that should dramatically improve battery life without sacrificing performance.
Of course, while the original Eee PC was quite interesting from a price/features perspective, it also lacked competition. The success of the Eee PC has paved the way for other companies to enter the market, so now we have the HP Mini-Note 2133 and the Everex CloudBook Max - and likely others to come. We're not ready to announce a winner in the subnotebook wars, so stay tuned for more coverage.
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Nihility - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
What about batter tests of XP vs Linux? Considering what a mess there was with the reviewed EEE 900's this should be tested.Nihility - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
Not so much. I was hoping computers like the EEE and the OLPC would help push linux but all these companies are quickly finding that it's easier to just ship with windows. Your customers like it, your developers like it and it's already been tested and proven so that saves on RnD. Maybe they still will help push linux in the long run but it sure doesn't seem like it for now.The EEE 900 with the bigger screen, even if it's more friendly to those older games it will come with a major drawback of even lower frame rates. Don't forget that. What the EEE needs is more power, for less power.
turkeyjob - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
Microsoft recently posted a video to their Ch9 website, of work they'd done to reduce the disk footprint on smaller systems. They demonstrated fully functional XP AND Office-2003 installed in 1.2GB of disk, on an EEEamasephy - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
In regards to the Diablo 2 benchmark, the eeepc doing 25-30 fps is normal. D2 was capped at that for single player mode, which judging by the screenshots is how the game was benchmarked. More than likely it would perform better played on bnet.Matt Campbell - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
Good point - I did the Diablo II tests at the very end of the article (actually as an add-on after it was written) and didn't try multiplayer mode.1up949 - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
I guess anything can be made to run anything if you cripple it enough...Sc4freak - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
There seems to be something funky going on with the page navigation in the article. 3 pages are named "Windows XP", and you can't go to a previous page from them.Matt Campbell - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
Thanks, fixed.