I just saw the orginal Asus Eee yesterday, and that thing is small. I read all the articles about it, but it doesn't prepare you for the actual thing. However, I think it's too small, at least the screen is. I don't think I could do anything useful on it.

Like I have stated many times. Asus has completely lost focus on what the EeePC is. $649? You have to be joking. I own the 701 and my sights are set on the MSI Wind. Sub $500 is where this needs to be.

Right now, the Eee PC has three remaining issues:
- chipset, which eats too much power and it isn't powerful enough to play OLD games and to watch some types of video (high CPU use and no quality enhancement)
- keyboard, which still has some quirks. The keyboard on the HP 2133 seems to be the best.
- price, which seems to be getting out of control.
Also, the (current) Eee PC has five strong advantages:
- a fine CPU for the intended usage which draws little power and it's very cool. The Eee PC doesn't get hot and the fan doesn't need to spin at high RPMs.
- a screen size and resolution which are more than good enough.
- very good battery life (over 4 hours with wireless enabled, full brightness and an appreciable workload according to TrustedReviews)
- a decent feature-set in the areas of connectivity, expansion options, RAM size and storage size.
- a nice software bundle (the custom Linux build)

I expect that the market forces (demand, competition), the technology advancements (better chipset, smaller manufacturing process) and improved engineering (re-designed keyboard, etc) will fix the current issues and continue to improve on the strong points.

We are at a point where an average person could have two computers or more. I have my desktop gaming rig, an EEE 4G and a work laptop. For the household, add a laptop for the wife and a wii for browsing and gamines. I am fighting urges to build an HTPC/storage server. Include a usb print server, Slinbox and a Zune that accesses the PC via wireless and I have a network of eight devices, soon to be nine, for two people.

The 4G is plenty for my purposes. If you want a little more, the 901 and 1000, MSI Wind and MiniNote could replace a desktop. The EEE has taught me alot about what a computer needs to be given the widespread access to the intarwebs out there.

Why would you pay $100 more for this over the Msi Model ?

Dear Asus,

I'm not sure I understand what you're doing here.

I - like many of my fellows - appreciated the novelty of your original EEEPC. When it launched, everyone discussed "Is this an appliance, or an actual computer?" That was a lot of fun, and I think we all generally settled on "actual computer" once the hackers came out and found new and interesting things to do with it. Then the arguments turned to "Can you REALLY have an actual computer for only $300?" I feel that debate still rages on around your original product.

Now that you're introducing newer, bigger, more expensive models, I think my questions are changing. Regarding the new computers, I have to ask: "What are they REALLY offering me?" Because, at this point, there isn't a lot of novelty to a 3.2 pound, $700 computer. I hope you have a trick up your sleeve on this one, Asus, because you're only a few inches away from the "subnote" ceiling.

Thank you for your time!

eitje

X = standard price of cheap but okay laptop.

When the EeePC was X/2 in cost, it was a no brainer purchase, and the portability was a nice aspect, and the negatives were acceptable for the cost.

At X an EeePC is a much tougher sell because it is much weaker than the alternative (even if it is smaller) and it isn't as light either. So when you are laying down X for something, it's not a no brainer and you have to consider which to get - the faster more powerful laptop that is still a low-end laptop, or the weaker, lighter, but a lot of compromises EeePC.

And then there is a cheaper Wind alternative to boot.

Just because the Eee PC was the first of the genre doesn't mean it's the most cost-effective or the most interesting. The MSI Wind looks a lot more interesting. The same form factor, an 80 GB 5400 rpm hard disk and about $150-200 less. And if you can give up the 2.5" form factor drive, the Acer Aspire One is even cheaper.

The appropriate comparison isn't really to a 14.1" Inspiron (or Vostro, which is priced like an Inspiron but actually has metal in its frame), but more like a 10.6" Fujitsu Lifebook P7230[1], which costs upward of $1,550. (Of course, it's also built better, has more features and has an honest-to-goodness LV Core Solo. But ultraportables have traditionally been the most expensive notebooks.)

[1] http://www.expansys-usa.com/d.aspx?i=150915

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If you factor in the cost of the SSD (ie, if you bought a competitor you'd then have to buy an aftermarket SSD and swap it in) the price is pretty reasonable, though the market for ultra-small, highly-shock tolerant notebooks may be fairly small. Then again, like Hance with his GPS, there may be new markets that open up.

It will be interesting to see the battery life of both versions. They're going to be handicapped by Intel's chipset, however.