Pscience5 Forum

JonB · Joined: 05 Aug 2005 Posts: 91 Location: Hull, UK

As the topic suggests, I've moved from my lovely, trustly, wonderful nB to one of the newish Eee 701's.

I have to say, I miss the nB, the battery life is much better and it's a far better looking machine I think, but I just needed the newer software. Not only running Firefox 3 and Office but Visual Studio too. It's a great thing.

I was wondering if anyone else has made the move, or is making the move and wondering about replacement software, or if anyone has any questions and would like some help.

Though I'd prefer not to be hit for leaving my nB, it still sits at home, I've not finished all the Vexed level packs yet Smile

Jon

PS I've also started a similar thread on the Eee User forum.

scorpio · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 17 Location: London

I've thought about it, but am holding off at the moment - here are my reasons, and I'd appreciate your input about my concerns:

Power on/off - still not as fast as the netbook
Screen size - although it's bigger the applications for the Nb are designed to fit perfectly - I get the feeling that the eee apps feel squeezed onto the screen. And the eee with the bigger screen is a bit overpriced
Battery life - still unbeatable on the Nb
Touch screen - much preferable to a mouse pad
Bluetooth - the one thing that I'd love on the Nb is absent from the eee

Actually, I've just bought a new Nb off Ebay (mine is beginning to show it's age)

I think the linux based UMPC format is going to be huge bext year - maybe then there will be something so much better than the Nb that I'm compelled to change.

JonB · Joined: 05 Aug 2005 Posts: 91 Location: Hull, UK

Sorry, it’s gonna be a long one…

Power on/off is quite a big one, and the reason I use my N95 for a calendar, address book and to-do list. It's always on. My Eee takes nearly 30 seconds to boot and then I'd have to start Outlook/Thunderbird etc. But as I say, between my phone and my Eee I came to a reasonable compromise, I miss Agenda but it's a worthwhile price to pay for some of my Eees new facilities.

Screen size is an interesting one. Being 800x480 it’s actually only wider then the netBooks lol. It's quite true that the netBooks programs are designed to fit the screen. Now I run XP on my Eee so I can run certain programs like Visual Studio, Tiberian Sun, MS Office which are obviously well outside things that the netBook can come close to running. As for fitting on the screen, certain things are an issue (to an extent) but remember that in a lot of programs things can be turned on and off or resized. To ease a few thoughts I'm popping some screenshots of a few programs in Windows running that you may not think would work on this screen size.

Battery life is an issue, but what I did was buy an extra battery. I can get a full days use out of mine now. Remember, you can turn sound off, wireless off, backlight down a bit and you actually get a solid 4hrs off the standard battery. The extended battery I got is a good 5hrs or more. You also have to remember that the battery on the nB is severely cut with wireless on (well mine was anyways, down to like 3 or 4hrs).

Touch screen... Well, not much you can do there. Some apps in Windows are better for a touchpad, but I miss Jotter a lot. I'm considering grabbing a 5mx just for Jotter in lectures for note taking, Word is just not cut out for note taking. No drawing ability, no sketching... Big drawback. But remember that you're not used to a touch screen on a PC and it is supposed to be more a laptop than a PDA.

Bluetooth is a dumb item lacking, but see attached for a nice tiny bluetooth add-on, they’re like £7 on eBay.

Overall I think the cons for the Eee 701 have to be things like:
- a touch screen (which to a certain extent I miss for things like Paint or drawing in Word but a lot of apps are kinda meant to have a mouse/pad)
- bluetooth is not a killer to add but dumbly missed off
- battery life, if you use Wi-Fi a lot it isn't awful compared to a nB but for typing it's a fair bit shorter, buy a second battery
- boot time, annoying, only way round was a phone for a PDA
- screen size, honestly not much of an issue

Pros have gotta be:
- The apps you can run, photo editors, video player, decent web browser, proper full featured office suite, ace games, and they can all be up to date
- Lovely full colour screen, great for pictures and videos
- USB, everything from your computer connects, memory sticks!!
- WPA and 54Mbps for the wireless, WPA is near enough necessary now
- VGA out is kinda cool
- Networking, connection to printers and file shares, wonderful

It’s not for everyone, you have to remember that this is not a PDA but a laptop. The netBook is supposed to be a big PDA with some laptop features, but the Eee is supposed to be a tiny laptop with most of the laptops features.

Overall if your netBook is fine for you stick with it (I did for a long time) but if you fancy WPA for wifi connections, or an up to date web browser, or some new games (it will some good ones, check YouTube), or video play back or any of the other features I talked about, well, you’ll have to make a few compromises. Personally, I miss Jotter, the touch screen, instant on, and Vexed Smile

But using Firefox whilst having a video running in a tiny Media Player Classic window is a killer convincer.

Hope this helps a little.

Click to see full size image

scorpio · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 17 Location: London

Thanks for your reply! I admit, there are some huge advantages to a laptop over a netbook but for day-to-day use I still can't get over the sheer usefulness of ol' faithful.

Actually, I've just bought a new one off Ebay as mine was getting a bit flaky after years of daily use.

Ah well, maybe the next generation of super laptops will be the one!

Chaz