Asus Eee PC 900 Netbook: $200 new, with 1024-by-600 screen and 20G of solid state storage
Possibility for e-bookers—perhaps FBReader fans?
The Asus Eee PC Netbook, $200 new from Best Buy, uses linux and supposedly boots up in mere seconds. Res of the 8.9-inch screen is 1024- by 600. Rated battery life is apparently several hours. The solid-state drive is 20GB; RAM, 1G. CPU is an Intel Celeron M.
Reminder of the obvious: You can’t read DRMed books on this, for now. Hello, eReader? Is a linux port still a possibility in the near future?
And speaking of small computers: LLRX review of the Dell Mini 9 and the Averatec All-in-one PC. Also see Engadget on the soon-to-vanish Mini 9.
August 20th, 2009 at 7:38 am
True, the linux versions won’t do DRM’d e-books. However, some of the Eee PCs come in a Windows XP flavor, opening up your options a bit. The Eee PC T91, which does WinXP and also folds into a tablet configuration, looks to be a very good e-book reader (though I haven’t confirmed by its specs whether or not it will switch from landscape to portrait mode).
For those of us who are singularly not impressed by the e-ink offerings so far (Kindle, Sony Reader, etc), I’d recommend tracking the Eee devices down and having a close look.
August 20th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Hey, Steve, I agree with you. In fact, I recently bought and wrote about the Acer Aspire One’s XP version, which I picked up refurbished for just $200, on sale from Tiger Direct.
Alas, the Eee PC T91 is more expensive than either my machine or the Asus one I just mentioned, but I really like the idea of netbooks as e-readers.
Thanks for the added info.
David
August 20th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Whenever you see a “good” deal on a EeePC, it’s Linux. They’re all over Woot! all the time.
However much I get nostalgic for that time I never *actually* took the time to switch over the Linux when it was cool, it’s too late for me now and I need the XP. (Fortunately, EeePC doesn’t seem to come in the Abomination of Vista.)
Anyhoo, this will be my next ebook reader. I want a multifunction device without a mandatory data plan (hellooooo, iPhone and all smartphones).
August 20th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Thanks, MoJo. Maybe your solution will be a mix of a netbook for in-home reading and a used iPhone for elsewhere. Keep us posted. David
August 20th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I like my EeePC for a travel laptop, but the battery life is so poor I’d hate to use it as my sole ebook reader. Eink may be gray and boring, but the battery life is hard to beat, especially for long plane rides and those who read a lot.
August 20th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I haven’t done it on an Asus, but on my ubuntu linux desktop, I can run eReader under Wine.
August 20th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Great timing! I just bought this Monday on Woot for $169. I picked up a 16GB SSD and 2GB of RAM for $80 because it only has a 4GB drive, but it does have an Itel Atom CPU.
So for 250 bucks I’m pretty excited and looking forward to really getting into linux which I never was able to do w/my XO.
Some of the Woot bloggers even talked of the possibility of putting Win7 on it. Also, as Laura noted eReader under Wine. And I’m a FBReader fan.
October 19th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
i recently bought a white Asus Eee PC and i am very surprised about the size of this machine. it is very small and lightweight compared to my Toshiba laptop.