Thursday, March 27, 2008 Ng: Asus EeePC versus Intel Classmate By Wilson Ng Wired Desktop
NETBOOKS or subnotebooks are now growing popular. Some call this category the MID (Mobile Internet Devices) while some call them the ULMPCs (Ultra Low Cost Personal Computer).
Nicholas Negroponte made them popular in his OLPC (one laptop per child) project, in which the vision is to come up with a small notebook PC worth $100 to be given to children in developing countries. So far, this has not been successful, and the cost of giving an OLPC is now about $200.
However, lately, the Asus Eeepc, was released by Asus. EEE stands for Easy to Learn, Easy to Work and Easy to Play. Intel also released the Intel Classmate PC, which is marketed in the Philippines as the Neo Explorer.
I have spent a few weeks with the Asus Eeepc (model 4G Surf, which I will henceforth call EeePC), and spent the Lenten Holidays going over the Classmate PC (which I will call Classmate). In fact, I typed most of this column in the Classmate.
The EeePC comes with a 512 megabyte (mb) memory and a four gigabyte (gig) flash disk (There are also models that have two gig). It runs on Xandro Linux.
The Classmate comes with 512 mb memory, and a 30 gig hard disk with Windows XP Starter Edition. Both have a seven-inch monitor screen and both run on Intel Celeron 900 mhz processors.
Both are roughly of the same price in our market.
But there are four pluses of the Asus Eeepc.
The keyboard is very slightly bigger and better. One of the things that I cannot understand about the keyboard of the Classmate is that the makers took out the shift key on the right. This seems to be a very important key for a user.
Classmate has no external monitor port. This means, if you are a person who go to other places, and one of the uses of your sub notebook is for Powerpoint presentations, you can not give any. It looks like when you have the Classmate, you will have no other recourse but its seven-inch screen.
Classmate also has a leatherette cover which looks cheap.
It is also slightly heavier and bigger than the Eeepc. The documentation says there is an SD card option, but I could not find it.
The EeePC boots much faster at start-up.
However, there are also pluses of the Intel Classmate.
Its screen looks better even at 800×480 resolution. The Eeepc screen looks grainy.
Classmate has an option to switch to 800×600 resolution, and also 1024×768 resolution. Obviously, the 1024×768 resolution or even the 800×600 resolution is very hard to read and see, but Classmate offers the pan mode, which means that it can hide some amount of the screen, and you can just scroll or pan.
It obviously has a bigger hard disk.
A four gig flash disk is still very challenging, though one can now add a four or eight gig SD card for the EeePC.
But 30 gig is 30 gig, and I can imagine the one big thing about this sub notebook is being able to store lots of pictures and songs, which one cannot obviously do in the EeePC. With the four gig flash drive, one practically has less than two gig left after installing the applications.
WindowsXP is still superior to Linux, whatever anyone says.
One of the good things is that I am able to insert a 3g adapter into the USB (tried both Visibility and WeRoam) which allows me to surf anywhere, I still cannot install that in the EeePC.
A Classmate has a handle which makes it easier to carry around.
With regard to the applications, they are almost the same.
The Asus has the Adobe pdf reader, and also Open office, so, in theory, one can immediately get working in spreadsheets (But I don’t see how one can do spreadsheets in a seven-inch screen very well).
But, at least, one can immediately open and read Powerpoint presentations or Excel.
Overall, both are great values for the price one pays.
Whether one want one or the other may depend on individual preferences. If its hard disk space, being able to surf anywhere or having important Windows XP applications, then Classmate wins.
If its being able to type faster, having a more professional look or for presentation purposes, then the EeePC wins.
