Hi all - sorry it's been so long, it's been really busy in the
DaC IT dept of late! However, I can tell you about the
latest gadget around; and it's one I've recently bought! |
In a world where technology moves at an astounding pace, DaC Network Administrator Jonathen Winterburn takes an occasional look at the latest gadgets… JON ASKS WHAT’S NEW? |
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(Unreal Tournament works perfectly), watch films or TV programmes (downloaded legally from BBC iPlayer, I hasten to add) or transfer your photos onto it whilst on holiday. Now to the specs… The 701 ships with Xandros Linux installed by default. Whilst this is easy to use, it's rubbish for the built-in wireless and personally I prefer Windows XP, which you can install if you have a valid licence and access to a USB CD-ROM drive. It comes with a 4GB solid-state drive (no moving parts) which, whilst small, is more than enough for XP and all the programs you'd need. Plus, www.play.com are selling a 4GB SD card which you can pop in the 701 to double your disk space. You can keep any big files on your USB key, which you can then stick in whenever you need to get to them. The full QWERTY keyboard is a bit small admittedly, but after a bit of playing you get used to it. Let's face it - you're not going to replace your home computer with this; the Eee is designed for use on the move. Again, installed memory is 512MB, which is sufficient, but you can upgrade this to 1GB or 2GB for a few pounds on eBay. The 7 inch matt screen defaults to 800 x 480 but can be increased to 800 x 600 (and above with free add-on software) but is more than sufficient for browsing the 'net or watching a movie. Being matt rather than the oh-so common gloss screen is so much better for viewing on the move, as you don't |
get that horrible glare from bright light. The 900Mhz processor is underclocked to 600Mhz, but can be easily clocked to the full 900Mhz, although surprisingly for the most part, you never need to do this. The mini-laptop has 3 USB/2.0 ports, an RJ45 network port, built-in 802.11g WLAN, decent sound, graphics and a modem. In addition, there's a built-in webcam and headphone/mic sockets. Battery life is pretty good - up to 4 hours continuous use and the charger is no bigger than a mobile charger, unlike the big heavy bricks most laptops require! The shell itself is matt and surprisingly durable. The touchpad is very easy to use and is responsive, as you’d expect. The Eee 701's dimensions are a tiny 22.5 x 16.5 x 2.1~3.5 cm (8.9 x 6.5 x 0.9~1.4 in). So it has the essentials of a full-size laptop, but is considerably smaller, lighter (about as heavy as a bag of sugar) and because of its solid-state disk, it's shockproof. There are later, larger editions from Asus - the 900 and 901 - and other companies are now getting on the bandwagon. But from the reviews I've read and my own hands-on experience, I think the 701 is the best by far for a mini-laptop. My 6 year-old son loves it too! Buy one now while you can as they are selling fast! Jonathen Winterburn |
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