Eee PC 900 on Hand (A Short Review) -

Eee PC 900 on Hand (A Short Review)

by Auw Jimmy
May 11, 2008
IT/Gadget, Personal
2

I just received Eee PC 900. Here is some photos and comparison with my old Eee PC 700 series (4G). Enjoy it! 😉

Photo above is the comparison between Eee PC 700 series (left) and 900 series (right). Not much different in size (and weight) between those two. The black frame surrounding the Eee PC 700 screen now has been removed on 900 series. On 900, The speakers is moved to the bottom side. The 900 series will have 8.9″ screen, compared to 7″ on 700 series. Note: I forgot to remove the plastic on 900’s screen 🙁

Above is the 700’s screen. You can see that the vertical resolution on 700 is not large enough to show the complete size of most Windows’ dialog box.

With new higher resolution (1024×600 pixels), user on 900 now can enjoy a full screen navigation. No need to use virtual resolution to enlarge the screen.

The camera also has been upgraded to 1.3 MP resolution. A mirror like frame gives elegant look.

Multi-touch touch pad is one of the interesting feature on this stuff. It’s no longer a Mac exclusive!

From the top view. Believe me, it’s just a little bit bigger than it’s older brother (700 series left, 900 series right).

From the front view. Notice a wider touch pad button.

From the left side. Completely the same, but now without “modem” connector.

From the right side. Still a dejavu for me 😉

From the back view. Completely the same. Even (I think), the 900 could use 700 battery.

New power adaptor. It’s more likely a typical notebook charger. It has higher rating than the 700 power adaptor. Expect to charge the battery faster than the 700 series.

On the bottom side (after you remove the RAM door), you can see the RAM slot (standard model comes with 1 GB installed) and the additional SSD module mounted on the mini PCI-E slot.

The complete back view of 900 series. We can see speakers installed on the bottom side.

Now, it’s time to see the software installed (mine is XP Home pre-loaded version). For your information, the XP version will have 12 GB total storage (4 GB main drive and 8 GB additional SSD module on mini PCI-E slot), while Linux version will have 20 GB total storage (4 GB main drive and 16 GB additional SSD module mounted on mini PCI-E slot). All others specification should remain the same.

We can see some softwares installed by default (like StarSuite 8, Adobe Reader 8, Skype, Microsoft Works, and XPack Mini DVD Player).

Please be noted that the 12 GB storage on XP version (or 20 GB on Linux version) is divided into 2 drives (main 4 GB mounted on C drive, and extra 8 or 16 GB mounted on D drive). Don’t expect to have 12 or 20 GB on 1 drive only!

The default Start Menu. You could see some standard applications here.

The native resolution is 1024×600 pixels. You can use virtual resolution up to 1024×768 pixels but you will need to scroll up-down to navigate the screen.

The multi-touch touch pad is made by Elantech.

Patent notice by Elantech and also some guide on multi-touch usage.

Now the BIOS has speed adjustment (just like Eee PC 700 with 0511 BIOS revision). High Performance will set the speed at maximum 900 MHz, while Power Saving will down the processor speed to 630 MHz. So, it’s up to you!

With CPU-Z, I can see the default CPU speed is 900 MHz (High Performance mode). The processor is Celeron M 353, Dothan based, and 512 KB L2 cache. This 512 KB L2 will boost significant performance to Eee PC, compared to the same processor without L2 cache installed.

Well, the old eeectl tool will still work with Eee PC 900. You can set the speed to Stock (630 MHz), Medium (around 765 MHz), or Full (at 900 MHz). The fan and backlight adjustment also works! Great!

Conclusion:
For me, it’s a major improvement over 700 series. It’s “more notebook” than your child’s first time computer on 700 series. Larger screen and multi-touch touch pad are simply two most wanted features from this new Eee PC. With only 0.99 Kg weight (vs 0.92 Kg on 700 series), the 70 grams different surely not a problem. What else? The price tag? Surely this one a little bit expensive compared to the old 700. But still on the competitive range with similar competitors. We will expect more competition from the competitors and this will affect the price also. Expect a more competitive price in the near future 😉

Asus Eee PC IT Windows

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Auw Jimmy

Article Comments

Billy
July 10, 2012 15:42

Greetings!
I just got an Asus Eee PC 700 as a gift and it came up with EasyPeasy as an operation system. I want to use XP because it is a bit easier and I know it better. Is it advisable to turn to XP with the parameters of the 700?
Any answer is welcomed.
Thank you 🙂
Vishnu
December 20, 2012 15:09

I think not offering a linux vesiron is too bad. Perhaps it is just pointing to a need to offer some better support for linux in the form of faster updates, more recently refreshed repositories and perhaps some more thought on which apps get installed out of the box. Says: One of the things that drew me to the Eee in the first place was that it shipped with Linux. While it may require a slight learning curve with unfamiliar users, I think Asus did a good job with their vesiron of Xandros in regards to making it easy to use. Just because Windows is the most commonly used shouldn’t make it the standard.Mike Says: I agree with John. I have been using several distros of linux for some time,and think the problem is that linux software is unfamilair to the masses, so they think that linux is too prohibitive. Most don’t realize that everything that is done in windows can also be done using linux. I was excited about the fact that linux was being offered right at the oem level,but unfortunately popularity wins over quality once again.

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Eee PC 900 on Hand (A Short Review)

Eee PC 900 on Hand (A Short Review)

Auw Jimmy

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