Kiran Jonnalagadda’s Blog

Within the space of just a week, no doubt owing to the Acer Aspire One and MSI Wind becoming available. But for its weight, the Eee PC 1000H is a very compelling selection, with a comfortably sized screen, large keyboard, excellent trackpad and high quality speakers. Staples is selling with the full capacity 6-cell 6600 mAh battery. Earlier Eee PCs including my 701 were sold with a lower spec battery than elsewhere in the world.

It’s been two months now with my Eee PC and I’m pleased as punch. This is easily among the most useful gadgets I’ve acquired.

The Eee PC is incredibly small and light. It fits everywhere, even in my camera bag with the camera also in it. Despite the miserly 800x480 resolution, or perhaps because of it, I keep all windows maximised and work distraction free. The screen’s just wide enough for a column of text, which makes it a great ebook reader. OpenOffice with read-only documents defaults into viewer mode, which is great. I no longer have to convert stuff into PDF to make a comfortable reading experience, like I needed to do on the Mac. Vim, with my customised vimrc, works splendidly for editing in reStructuredText, my text markup format of choice.

When I’m not working with documents or code, I’m working with people, and XChat when maximised once again delivers the goods. I can keep the device aside, an eye on the conversation, while I’m working on something else.

Because it’s always in my bag, I can pull it out when waiting at a coffee shop, make a note, read something, or otherwise generally be productive instead of twiddling thumbs. The device is low profile and the keyboard comfortable. The battery life isn’t great, but I’ve managed to stretch it as much as 3:30 hours. It lasts long enough between the average visit to the power socket.

That said, the quibbles:

• The trackpad’s scroll area is way too sensitive. I use a scroll mouse occasionally just for the scrolling comfort.
• The PgUp/PgDn keys are overloaded on the arrow keys. Navigating documents a page at a time is that much less convenient.
• Boot time with Hardy is several seconds longer than it should be, while suspend-to-ram sucks juice.
• I miss Skim. It made reading and annotating PDF on the Mac such a joyous experience. There’s nothing like it on Linux.

All minor. The device overall gets two thumbs up.

1. Damn, this thing is light.
2. Damn, this thing doesn't fit my pocket. It's a computer, not a phone.
3. The keyboard's tiny! How will I ever learn to touch type on it?
4. This thing is light. It doesn't stay put when I type.
5. Where's the keyboard backlight? I'm supposed to adjust ambient light now?
6. It froze! Thrice! Ah, the community forums have the answer. Something oddball with the wired network settings seeking a network. Turn it off. Who plugs in anymore anyway?
7. Why doesn't this thing just connect to my wireless network when I turn it on, like my Mac does? Why doesn't Apple make this thing?
8. It's so tiny, it won't sit on my lap like a laptop. I need new postures.
9. Look ma, it's so small, I can hold it with both hands and thumb-type! Just like with my phone!
10. I think I can get used to this keyboard. I typed this entire post on the Eee PC itself!
11. Eh, why don't my Mac keyboard shortcuts for extended characters work? How do I get smart quotes in this post? Why doesn't Apple make this thing?
12. I see major lifestyle changes happening.