ASUS EEE with 8.9 inch screen at Cebit 2008

[Evan Leibovitch]

Lennart Sorensen wrote:

>> http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3523905&body=MAIN#detailspecs
>>
>> i love the Eee i just got to , at 400$
>> I got some tiger direct junk mail today and checked it out,
>> and , well for 200$ more ... that lenovo just blows the Eee away,

As has been mentioned, larger laptops have traditionally been less
expensive than equal-quality smaller ones.

(for a lenovo-to-lenovo comparison, consider the price of the new X300,
which is as close as the company gets to the Asus in size/weight.)

> The Eee is
> much smaller and easier to carry in your bag with you at all times,

Also consider air travel. If you're in economy class and the person in
front of you leans the seat back, most conventional laptops can't open
more than 45 degrees. Small systems like the Asus will work in that
environment fine.

This field is about to get even more crowded.

HP will soon have an entry that's more expensive than the Asus but also
have a very Mac-like slickness to it:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/hps-umpc-2133-revealed/

> The Eee is also solid state disk
> rather than a harddrive which makes it more durable (and a lot smaller
> in disk space).  Hard to compare though.  A 16GB solid state disk can
> cost $500 which would already make the laptop cost a lot more given the
> disk it comes with is close to $100.

A lot of that money goes towards the circuitry that makes the SSD look
like a regular hard disk (ie, the ATA interface).

Most of these small laptops accept SD cards for extra NVRAM. These days
an 16GB SD card is under $100.
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=016766&cid=990.218.675

While the 24GB on an ASUS (8GB onboard plus 16GB of SD) is still a lot
less than 160GB of a regular hard disk, it's still plenty for many --
and as has been said it's faster, lighter, cooler and more durable.

- Evan
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