Asus Eee PC 4G Windows Review

by Jerry Jackson

The Asus Eee PC quickly became an overnight success after its release last year. Consumers looking for a low-cost ultraportable laptop began buying the Linux-based Eee PC in record numbers. After months of customer feedback, Asus has decided to offer the Eee PC with Windows XP and a couple of extras ... all for close to the same amazing price. Let's take a look.

A Little History Of A Little Laptop

As the editor for a technology website and as a consumer constantly looking for cheap deals on electronics, I was genuinely impressed with the Asus Eee PC 4G. This little low-cost laptop comes dangerously close to being a "disposable notebook" at its current price of $399. Sure, if you spend your time shopping for deals you can find new laptops from other companies that rival this price ... but none are as convenient to carry as the tiny Eee PC.

The editorial staff of NotebookReview.com chose to award the Eee PC 4G with the Editors Choice Award in October of 2007 and I even wrote a follow-up article proclaiming the "perfection" of the Eee PC. Despite all there is to love about these pint-sized subnotebooks, I would be lying if I said the Eee PC is without its flaws. In order to give consumers a mobile laptop at a rediculously low price Asus had to use a small, low-resolution LCD. This 7-inch display isn't great for long-term use, but then again the Eee PC was designed for short-term use such as a short business trip or casual web browsing anywhere you go.

The Eee PC also uses a 900MHz Intel processor that's a little slower than most consumers expect in today's market. In fact, the processor actually runs at a slower clock speed straight out of the box and it's up to the user to set the processor to run at a full 900MHz in the BIOS. That's a little complicated for most consumers ... but again, we're talking about a low-cost travel laptop that's almost disposable yet still manages to rival ultraportable notebooks costing much more.

Still, the biggest criticism from consumers was the use of Asus' customized Xandros Linux as an operating system. The "Eee" in Eee PC stands for "Easy to Learn, easy to work, easy to play." Unfortunately, although the point-and-click Linux interface was indeed simple, most customers didn't find it "easy." In fact, the single most common modification that customers made to their Eee PCs was the installation of Windows XP.

Well, Asus was paying attention, and the Eee PC with Windows XP is here.

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The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

This review of the new Asus Eee PC with Windows XP doesn't follow our typical review format because, to be perfectly honest, little has changed with this release of the Eee PC. Basically, the Eee PC 4G with Windows XP is the same notebook as the Eee PC 4G with Linux. The only difference is the operating system and couple of extra accessories (a 4GB SDHC card from A-DATA, and a small wired USB optical mouse).

Why is this attractive to consumers? Well, you get an extra $30-$40 worth of accessories and a $100 operating system for little or no increase over the low price of the original Eee PC 4G: retail prices range from $399 to $469 at the time of this writing.

Performance and Benchmarks

The Eee PC isn't designed for HD video encoding or playing Crysis, but it is designed to be a mobile companion that's perfect for web browsing, working in Microsoft Office, or some light gaming while on the road.

For our standard performance benchmarks we decided to test the Eee PC with Windows XP in both the stock configuration (with the processor running at 630MHz) and using one of the Asus BIOS to set the processor at its full clock speed of 900MHz.

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Asus Eee PC 4G (630MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	968 PCMarks
Asus Eee PC 4G (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	1,132 PCMarks
Everex CloudBook (1.2GHz VIA C7-M ULV)	612 PCMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600)	2,446 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook P7230 (1.2GHz Intel Core Solo U1400)	1,152 PCMarks
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (1.33GHz Core Solo U1500)	1,554 PCMarks
Toshiba Portege R500 (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600)	1,839 PCMarks

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Asus Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 630MHz)	289.156 seconds
Asus Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	200.968 seconds
Everex CloudBook (VIA C7-M ULV @ 1.2GHz)	248.705 seconds
Fujitsu U810 Tablet PC (Intel A110 @ 800MHz)	209.980 seconds
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (Core Solo U1500 @ 1.33GHz)	124.581 seconds
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.2GHz)	76.240 seconds
Dell Inspiron 2650 (Pentium 4 Mobile @ 1.6GHz)	231.714 seconds

The bottom line is the Eee PC performs well with the Intel processor ... but it performs better when it's running at full speed. The other item of note in these benchmarks is the incredibly poor performance of the VIA processor despite a significantly faster clock speed. This suggests VIA processors may in fact be a poor choice for this form factor. It also means the competition needs to think seriously about alternative processors choices from Intel.

Conclusion

The Eee PC with Windows solves two of the key complaints about the original Eee PC 4G. Adding Windows XP and an extra 4GB SDHC card make this notebook much more attractive to most consumers who need a low-priced notebook that can go everywhere with them.

Although I understand the realities dictating retail price, the Eee PC is already dangerously close to being too expensive for what you get. The original $399 price point is great, but some retailers are selling the new Eee PC with Windows XP for $469. Once we get to $500 most consumers would be better off buying a budget 15-inch notebook and living with the inconvenience of the larger size. The Eee PC is still a great choice for people who want a low-cost travel companion, but the key element to the Eee PC's success has been the low price. The Eee PC concept likely won't succeed if Asus or retailers keep increasing the price.

Overall, the Eee PC 4G with Windows is a great deal for anyone who was considering the purchase of the original Eee PC and buying Windows separately. If you're the type of person who wants a low-cost ultraportable notebook the Eee PC is still the king of the hill.

Pros

• Still a great subnotebook at a great price
• Windows XP is a better fit for this machine
• Extra 4G SDHC card and mouse are nice

Cons

• Still a tiny display
• Still a cramped keyboard
• The processor should be clocked at 900MHz by default

Related Articles:

Original Eee PC 4G Review

Asus Eee PC Review Part 2: Budget Subnotebook Perfection

Eee PC 4G Tweak Guide

 

Looks like Best Buy has it available now for $399.99

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8781464&st=eee&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1205245967446

The very same price as the Linux based version. Go figure.

 

It's a shame that they can't just cut the price period. If they can afford to include the SDHC card and Windows XP license for virtually no extra cost over the Linux model, why can't they just lower the price of the Linux model??!?

I complain because I only have $370 saved toward my ultraportable laptop fund...

 

Thanks for this update.

What's the battery run time for the two processor speeds - I presume the slower speed is there to conserve the battery? Also what is the battery power drain (you can use the battery info of RMClock or similar). I wonder how it compares with my Sony G11 which can get down to around 6W power drain (without wireless and medium display brightness).

John

 

The SDHC card and the XP license, along with the mouse, all probably cost less than $29 for them to get.

 

I'm still considering a Eee PC for use on all of my 2 to 4 day business trips. Although WinXP would be fine, I would be perfectly satisfied with the Asus-tweaked Xandros. My only primary uses would be e-mail and OpenOffice anyway.

Asus does have to be careful with the pricing however. Of course, any used notebook can be had for approximately the same price point, but when you can buy off-lease ThinkPad T42s and T43s for around the same money these days, you have to think twice. Then, the major thing going for the Eee is the size and lack of a HD - which are two of the primary attractions of this product.

 

Good point.

Also, maybe we could compare battery life between Linux and XP, too? There could be some difference there, too, right..?

 

$400 is pushing it for these things. $300 is the sweet spot.

 

Going above $400 kills the deal for a "disposable" notebook. Also, I understand that people who are on the move a lot and actually need ultraportables would consider a 15 inch notebook an inconvenience, but I don't know if a larger notebook is really an inconvenience for many consumers (I'd prefer a larger screen to a lighter smaller notebook)

 

Yea I think most people would opt for the larger screen and keyboard. I don't think many people outside of students and business people actually take their laptops out of the house all that often, so portability is not a big concern.

 

Our original Eee PC with Linux delivered 3 hours and 23 minutes of battery life under normal use, backlight at 100 percent and using wireless for web browsing and watching a few DivX movies at 75 percent volume.

Our Eee PC with Windows XP delivered 2 hours and 40 minutes of battery life with similar usage.

Asus claims there is a 6-cell extended life battery coming soon. If so, then you should be able to get even better battery life for a modest increase in size.

 

Shortened right shift key in the keyboard is the first irritating thing I found in Eee. Index finger mark on keys 'F' and 'J' are too small to feel and I always have to look at the keyboard to correctly position my hand.

(people are talking about disposing Eee, well wait don't do that, I offer $100)

 

I think the 9" one for $399 will be perfect ;p

 

Nice review.

Cheers for the VIA comparison. Been waiting for the HP UMPC 2133 and still reckon for my needs its the better bet. 120gb Hdd is just something I cant do without and 1gb ram standard. Also looks the **** as well. At least the little albino Asus started the ball rolling in getting other manufacturers in on the game. Still buying a Vaio TZ as well cause its got WWAN.

 

JerryJ,

This was with clock speed at 630 or 900?

Any comparsion between this 2 speeds?


Thanks,

 

Both at 900MHz. It's worth mentioning that the battery life indicator in both Linux and Windows is flawed and will give you a false low-power warning before the battery is really drained. It's either an issue with Asus' batteries or the hardware.

The battery life gains for running at 630MHz are negligible in my opinion. Unless you need to squeeze every last possible second of battery life out of your Eee PC you are better off having the improved performance of the processor running at full speed.

What's the point of gaining a couple minutes of battery life if you lose a couple minutes of productivity because of a slower processor?

That's why I really want Asus to release the 6-cell extended life battery for the Eee PC that they've been advertising since late last year.

 

Thanks JerryJ.
Same problem here with batery meter. Goes realy fast until 20% and then almost an hour to the last 20
I'm looking forward for the 6 cell batery


Regards,

endurance

 

Doesn't seem like Windows is worth the extra $100 it costs here.

 

I am assuming there isn't this plug and play ability with iPods on the XP machine as there is on the Linux...I would rather not install iTunes on an XP machine, seeing as I have major difficulties with them butting heads on my current machine.

 

I was reasonably ok with the Xandros Linux on my eee, but wanted to do a few other things like rip CDs whilst travelling, etc. There are instructions on the web on how to unlock Xandros, but as I was unfamiliar with it, chose to install eee-ubuntu, with which I am satisfied. All my music is happy, but playing movies (AVIs) is broken, still investigating this problem. The eee is excellent for travelling, carry the eee, ext. HDD and CD/DVD burner go in the luggage. It recognises my camera, iRiver music player and mobile phone as mass storage devices. Wireless works. Next version of Mandriva Linux due out end of April promises optimised version for eee - one should be able to buy the version with all the legal codecs included. Enjoy!