gadget GYAN

ASUS Eee PC 4G Notebook PC (7″, 512 MB RAM) Tiny and fully loaded Laptop

Written by Administrator Monday, 24 December 2007 10:32

Get the power of a full-sized laptop in the ultra-compact ASUS Eee PC 4G, which offers a full QWERTY keyboard, 7-inch screen, and preinstalled Linux operating system. (This laptop is also compatible with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system.) You’ll be able to stay connected to email and the Internet easily thanks to the Wi-Fi LAN (802.11b/g), and communicate via video chat and VoIP with the Webcam integrated into the display’s bezel. Because it uses flash memory instead of a hard drive (with 4 GB of storage), the Eee PC is optimal for weathering rough handling and sharing space in overstuffed bags.

With a rapid start-up time, the Eee PC is always ready to get into action.

For the professional, the Eee PC comes with a powerful selection of software to maximize personal productivity–over 40 built-in applications. The Open Office suite of software enables the user to open, edit and create documents, presentations, spreadsheets and databases that are compatible with Microsoft Office. For journalists, photographers and other professionals who need to use a computer in the field to create, to communicate and to collaborate with other colleagues, the Eee PC’s combinati on of power, extreme portability and rugged build makes it the ideal computing solution.

It’s also a great choice for young students, with a built-in Dictionary that’s great for homework, and it includes two modes of intuitive graphic user interface design to accommodate both experienced and inexperienced PC users. The Eee PC also handles your digital images, movies, and music as well as Internet radio.

No technical manual required with the specially designed, user-friendly, and intuitive graphic interface.

Compact and highly portable at just 32 ounces, the Eee PC 4G has a 7-inch wide color TFT LCD with an 800 x 480-pixel resolution (WXGA). Under the hood is a 900 MHz Intel Mobile CPU with integrated Intel graphics processor, 512 MB of RAM (not expandable), and 4 GB of solid-state flash memory. With the dependable solid-state disk, you get unparalleled shock-protection and reliability. In addition to its wireless LAN, it also offers wired Fast Ethernet connectivity and a 56K modem. The Eee PC includes software for Web browsing (Firefox), email, OpenOffice 2.0 for creating and editing word processing documents and spreadsheets, and a suite of other productivity software to help keep you on track.

You get three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA output for connecting to external monitors, headphone and microphone jacks, and a Secure Digital (SD) memory card slot. The Eee PC measures 8.9 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches, and it weighs 32 ounces. The 4-cell, 5200 mAh battery provides up to 3.5 hours of battery life (depending on usage). It’s backed by a 1 year warranty for parts and labor.

User Reviews

great value and performance!
If you think you’d rather spend an extra $100 and get a “real” laptop, think about how often you carry around an 8 pound 15″ screen laptop and what you actually use the laptop for. The eee pc is 2 pounds and the size of a portable 7″ dvd player, and chances are it will do everything that you would do with a regular laptop. Also, the AC adapter for the eee is the size of a cellphone (nokia) charger, not a brick– and ask yourself, how often do you carry your regular laptop without a charger? so the size of the charger matters.

the wifi range of the eee is spectacular! — it can catch earthlink access points located on the streets with 70% signal (whereas my regular wifi router barely gets 40%).

whats also great about the eee is that the bios allows you to boot usb devices– including dvd/cd drives and external usb flash/hard drives. If you want to, you can install other operating systems on a portable usb hard drive and “dual boot” between the internal linux OS and others. Asus supplies Windows XP drivers in the cd.

the only negative is that it doesn’t come with built-in bluetooth so you need a usb dongle to access gprs/edge over bluetooth.

A great little Windows computer!!!
Yes, the eeepc comes shipped with Linux, but also with some very simple instructions for replacing Linux with Windows/XP if you have a licensed copy Windows available to install, which I did.

I thought I might end up with a conversation piece. I started off simply. by installing Windows XP/Pro as per Asus’s instructions. Then, I installed Firefox, then Thunderbird. Oh, what the heck…I installed Office 2003, Cool Edit 2000, and kept on going Everything works like a charm! The eeepc is light and easy to transport. It’s got built-in WiFi and can do anything any other laptop can do. It has a built-in SD card reader than appears as a disk drive. This allows you to install an SD card to be used as additional disk storage. I put a 4GB card in mine and installed many of my programs there. I am now starting to think of this as my new full fledged laptop.

The eeepc does not come with a DVD/RW, internal or external, but any external USB unit can be used, which is how I installed XP. Many installation CDs can be copied to a 1GB USB drive (flash drive/thumb drive) by using another computer and the USB drive used to install the programs on the eeepc. I’ve done that, too!

There is some debate about whether XP/Home is compatible with the eeepc. Consensus seems to be that the critical factor is Service Pack 2 rather than the type of XP. I have no first hand knowledge of XP/Home, since I installed XP/Pro with SP2.

There are some small disadvantages to the eeepc. Keeping in mind that my overall rating is 5 stars, here they are:

(1) The screen is 800×480, an odd size. It can be set to 800×600, but that requires some auto-scrolling to get to the top and bottom of the screen. All in all the 800×480 isn’t bad, though.

(2) 4GB isn’t a lot of space for a primary partition. A typical XP/Pro installation will run about 2+GB. Some users have reported installing XP in less than 1GB, although it’s not entirely clear which pieces they’ve left out. By the time you add the programs that don’t run well from a secondary drive, there’s a good chance that, even if the drive is not full, there won’t be enough space to allow the computer to hibernate, which requires as much disk storage as the computer has memory. An 8GB version is reported to be available early next year, which will alleviate the problem for many.

(3) There are no Caps Lock, Num Lock, or Scroll Lock indicators. However there is an excellent freeware utility available on the Web that places indicator lights in the system tray.

Excellent inexpensive UMPC
I just received my pearl white Eee PC. I am extremely happy with the device. The whole process of: unpacking it, booting, set it up and watch internet TV took 10 minutes. Amazing. It looks great, it’s very light, and it’s very small but still usable. For a very modest price, you get an Ultra Mobile notebook, with a webcam and flawless internet connectivity.

The main con I found is the screen size and resolution, which is just adequate. They could have put a slightly bigger screen, and bump up the resolution a bit. Also, the area around the screen looks a bit rough, giving it an undeserved cheapish look. The rest of the notebook looks great, small and classy. I hope they improve this in future versions.

Otherwise, the keyboard size is more than fine for everyone in my family, and the screen quality superb. The software just works. At this price, this little notebook is a steal.