It's An Eee Pc900a For Me!

[threegee]

Been following the Asus Eee PC series since the original 7" machine launch, and had a play with one at every opportunity. But, there was always a reason not to buy, and I have to agree with

.

Well... I reckon with the PC900a I've no longer got any excuse not to squeeze one in to my bulging anorak pocket together with the other gizmos. The Nokia N800 might have to stay at home though!

So... after thinking about it over the weekend I went and ordered one from eBuyer. Went back the other night with my card details to complete the order and ^%$%£% the order item has been scratched! Likely because the 3100 odd haven't actually landed at Asus UK yet.

The amusing thing is that the 7 days free assistance is now showing on the open order as a £49.99 debit! Assistance that probably won't be needed on a computer that doesn't exist. Nice one eBuyer; but I'm sure you'll come through with my tiny new toy in the end!

Review coming, sometime, someday.

[threegee]

I'm upset! Still no 900a availability.

I think that Asus may be withholding the shipment in order to clear the - now heavily discounted - PC900. I mean who wants a machine with half the battery life on the same cells, and much poorer graphics for more money (and I'm taking the discounts fully into account here)?

The rather nice Samsung NC10 is due for release Nov 1, so it wouldn't be surprising if the 900a suddenly became available then. Also found an early review on the new Apricot (yes, you read that right!) netbook last night. At £299 I'm not impressed. These will eventually have to be priced at near or below £200 to sell.

If you are in to the Eee I just found these sites. No info on the 900a just yet though.

eee-900.co.uk --- eee-901.co.uk --- eee-904.co.uk --- asus-eee1000.co.uk --- asus-ebox.co.uk

Wonder why they completely ignore eBuyer though? Probably no dosh in the click-throughs.

[Blank]

Can't you just cancel your order and get one from Currys?

https://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/product/se...00+Black/833570

I was thinking of getting one, my brother bought one the other week, it seems like a good little computer but I'm a bit put off by the 1GB memory - although I suppose that's fine for just surfing / word processing etc (plus it's cheap!).

[threegee]

Can't you just cancel your order and get one from Currys?

https://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/product/se...00+Black/833570

I was thinking of getting one, my brother bought one the other week, it seems like a good little computer but I'm a bit put off by the 1GB memory - although I suppose that's fine for just surfing / word processing etc (plus it's cheap!).

I can get a PC900 just about anywhere, and significantly cheaper than Currys! I'm not talking about the PC900, I'm talking about the PC900a - there's a world of difference!

If I had to choose between the 900 and the 901 I'd go for the more expensive 901 (and I nearly did when it was launched, until I saw one hands-on). But the 900a is set to sell at about £180-£190. It's a cheaped-up 901 in the old 900 case, and significantly lighter. Many people think the bulkier PC901 case was a backward step. All you loose is Bluetooth, and the 1.3M pixel webcam becomes 300K pixel - hey it's a webcam for Skype, 300K is just fine for that! OK there are a few other differences like no 'n' mode WiFi - what's that you say?

The big deal is that the PC900 has a power hungry Centrino chip in it, but both the 900a and the 901 have an Intel Atom. This is a new low power CPU that approximately doubles the battery life. It also has hyperthreading which makes it look like a dual core (it isn't) to the operating system. The Eee's were always intended to have Atoms, but Intel couldn't deliver enough of them when the PC900 was launched last year, and Asus wasn't prepared to sit back and watch a competitor drive the market.

Oh, and the PC900a graphics are far better than the PC900 too. Don't be tempted by bargain PC900s, even at £200 they aren't any longer!

On the memory issue 1GB is more than adequate for Linux - I will install Ubuntu rather than the Asus Linux. You can swap out the 1GB SIMM for a 2GB one if you really want more. It's a bog standard 200 pin one. Unlike the entry-level Eee's the 900a has a door over the memory sockets.

More important - especially if you are going to install Windys - is the slow write speed of the flash. Not much of a prob with Linux, but you'd find that swapping the Express Card flash module for a faster one will make a huge difference to XP. This is a fair bit more expensive than swapping the RAM though.

BTW Currys haven't even got the picture of the PC900 right. Their picture is of an older PC700 series with a 7" screen.

[threegee]

Interesting that the stocks of the old PC900 are dwindling fast now. So my bet is the PC900a will go on sale this coming week - this time for real. Lots of frustrated buyers when they realise that they could have had an Atom machine for the same price or less! But not the first time this has happened in the computer biz - or the last!

The price of the Eee PC901 seems to have been trimmed about a tenner more too. Probably because the Netbook competition is heating up. All bodes well for the consumer, despite the plummeting pound!