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October 31, 2007

Asus Eee PC 701 review

To PC Advisor, the ultra-small, ultra-lightweight computer remains the Holy Grail. Unfortunately, you generally still pay a premium for miniaturisation. The £220 Asus Eee PC 701 shatters that perception, though.

For a fraction of the cost of competing ultramobile computing devices, the Asus Eee PC 701 delivers a highly functional portable that might appeal to road warriors and students who want an unobtrusive and inexpensive computer for basic web surfing, word processing and email.

See also: RM Asus miniBook £169 laptop PC review

But, let’s be honest here. With a list of components that tend towards the modest, the Asus Eee PC 701 isn’t for everyone. The unit is saddled with a small 7in low-resolution display. The on-board storage is virtually non-existent, giving you just 4GB of solid-state memory – and of that, the system snags 2.4GB, leaving just 1.4GB available for the user. The 512MB of memory is low at a time when laptops typically come with a minimum of 1GB. And the Intel Mobile Processor doesn't even merit anything more specific than that designation in the system information screen.

See our Laptop Advisor website for expert reviews of today’s best laptops, plus read our essential advice to make sure you choose the right specs

Oh, and there is one more rather significant factor. Upon first boot of the Asus Eee PC 701, we were greeted not by the familiar chime of Windows but by a licence agreement for the Linux-based Asus Desktop OS. Dell has set a trend for Linux operating systems in PCs, and we can expect to see increasing numbers of systems using these as a cheap (particularly in terms of hardware) alternative to Windows-based machines. But it is worth pointing out to the unaware that a Linux experience can be very different from using Windows.

Having said that, Asus has done its best to make the Asus Eee PC 701 as easy to use as possible. The new operating environment mimics much of Windows' functionality (for example, a Home button where the Start button would be, a Taskbar that shows open apps and apps in memory, and window minimise, maximise, and resize controls). A nice addition is the happy face icon at the lower right for Asus Eee PC 701 usage tips, and the green SOS icon (hover the pointer over the icon to figure out what it is) to show you which apps are open in the background - and how to close them. We were confused by the tiny row of icons at the bottom of the display though, and we often opened apps without realising, sapping the already limited memory and cluttering up the Taskbar.

You can install Windows XP on the Asus Eee PC 701 if you choose, but only business travellers might need it. With applications like Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird for web browsing and email, and OpenOffice.org for word processing and spreadsheet needs, you'll be able to continue being productive. We had no problems opening PDF files, MP3s, WMV Video or high-resolution JPEG photos, and using USB flash drives was easy. It can take time to load files, and some of the programs (the Music and Image Managers, for instance) are rather inelegant, if fairly functional. You can multi-task though, and we were able to happily browse an Excel spreadsheet while listening to an MP3 playlist.

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Independent customer reviews from

Asus Eee PC 701 scored:
8.5 out of 10 100% real reviews

The 2 most helpful reviews based on 256 reviews:

22 Mar 2008 Vic, Burton on Trent

10

Good Points

Everything is built in to this small laptop and is so easy to carry around, It is ideal for business people on the move and also for children with the amount of games that are built into it. I got one for myself and my wife, and shown it to my parent and they purchased one and now my daughter wants one on her christmas list, Must be good to get 4 purchases so far from one family.

Bad Points

None

05 Apr 2008 David, Southampton

9

Good Points

Nice solid build quality and works straight out of the box. Small size and fast boot-up makes it good for email when travelling.

Bad Points

Small screen.

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User Reviews

Wednesday, 30 July 2008

Reviewed by Peripheral SQL

Star Rating: rating of 5

Duration of ownership: 6 months

Strengths:
Small enough to carry everywhere. Powerful enough for all day to day needs away from home. Fast boot from solid state drive. Fantastic online support from the eeeuser.com community. Webcam built in.

Weaknesses:
Battery life needs careful management. Screen is small, but usable. Gets warm.

Overall Evaluation:
One of the best purchases ever. Value for money is exceptional, (4G 701). The best excuse to learn Linux. The f9 button restores the machine to factory state if you mess up! Buy one. Or maybe two.

Monday, 03 March 2008

Reviewed by pauladev

Star Rating: rating of 3

Duration of ownership: 3 months

Strengths:
Size (doesn't cut into your hand baggage allowance) quick boot with Linux, and great wireless connectability. Very easy to use and contains everything I need while travelling except (see below)

Weaknesses:
I looked at the sockets, and saw not only a LAN plug, but a phone socket. Later I found out there is no internal modem fitted It is only useful online where wireless or LAN is available!

Overall Evaluation:
A great little unit, which if it had been able to use a dial up connection would have been perfect for my purposes. It is listed in the manual as 'optional' but it cannot be purchased as an add on. This is a major defect for me and I would not have bought it if I had realised the telephone socket was not connected to anything.

Saturday, 15 March 2008

Reviewed by rj :)

Star Rating: rating of 4

Duration of ownership: 3 days

Strengths:
Price(£1000 cheaper thn mbook air) Free Linux OS & openoffice Easy to use Fast boot & shutdown Expandable via USB2 Size&weight Can swap OS Top value

Weaknesses:
Get's warm OS a bit flakey (loss of audio requires reboot) Initial Wifi setup can be hit&miss but OK with subsequent connections Build quality 2GB option limits your OS options. 4 & 8GB are rare

Overall Evaluation:
Very impressive It's cheap, small, light & works surprisingly well. Audio, Video, OpenOffice & Firefox means u r covered for basic use. Was going to switch OS to XP but does the job so will keep it. Impressive bootup under 30 secs. If you want to expand storage, it reads iPod, SD card & USB devices. Don't expect to use it for intensive tasks e.g. video & photo editing & you'll be fine. Buy!

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Total reviews: 4,313

See product specs

expert rating

Build quality

4/5

Features

3/5

Value for money

4/5

Overall

4/5

expert rating

PC Advisor Reader Ratings

4/5

Asus Eee PC 701

READER REVIEWS


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