Last of the notebooks.
LoopyByteloose
Posts: 12,537
I have to admit that I am extremely notebook dependent. It started with an Asus EEEpc 4g and then I moved over to a Toshib NB250 when the 4g began to die.
I absolutely love the smaller size and lighter weight when compared to a more conventional laptop. Besides, what is not to love about the lower cost?
Anyway, Asus annouced a few months ago that they will stop their notebook production. Everything is going to Pads with touchscreens. But I love the keyboard, and love having a generic OS (Ubuntu Linux). I certainly haven't wanted to move up to Windows8. So I have been keeping an eye on buying one last ASUS notebook before it is all over.
Today, I visited the local computer stores and it became obvious I was a bit late. I no longer could buy a black ASUS EEEpc, and the prices were 20-25% off the original list. I had to act now or end up buying a used notebook for my one last one. I managed to get a red one, I certainly did not want an all white as they show quite a bit of grime. But I had to buy the last red one that was the floor display unit.
My Toshiba NB250 is still working, but the lid is cracked and may fall apart in the near future. Besides the Toshiba screen is a flexible plastic that is hard to clean, while the ASUS is glass.
So be warned, if I can't buy this any more in Taiwan - it is not going to be very long before all the sources dry up. There are still Acer notebooks, but ASUS did a great job with using the backplate of the keyboard as cooling and has been the most Linux friendly for me. Toshiba notebooks are certainly not as rugged.
The notebook era is ending. Anything you buy is going to be more costly - either a laptop or a pad. I bought an ASUS eeepc 1015cx for $7990NTD or about $275USD.
I absolutely love the smaller size and lighter weight when compared to a more conventional laptop. Besides, what is not to love about the lower cost?
Anyway, Asus annouced a few months ago that they will stop their notebook production. Everything is going to Pads with touchscreens. But I love the keyboard, and love having a generic OS (Ubuntu Linux). I certainly haven't wanted to move up to Windows8. So I have been keeping an eye on buying one last ASUS notebook before it is all over.
Today, I visited the local computer stores and it became obvious I was a bit late. I no longer could buy a black ASUS EEEpc, and the prices were 20-25% off the original list. I had to act now or end up buying a used notebook for my one last one. I managed to get a red one, I certainly did not want an all white as they show quite a bit of grime. But I had to buy the last red one that was the floor display unit.
My Toshiba NB250 is still working, but the lid is cracked and may fall apart in the near future. Besides the Toshiba screen is a flexible plastic that is hard to clean, while the ASUS is glass.
So be warned, if I can't buy this any more in Taiwan - it is not going to be very long before all the sources dry up. There are still Acer notebooks, but ASUS did a great job with using the backplate of the keyboard as cooling and has been the most Linux friendly for me. Toshiba notebooks are certainly not as rugged.
The notebook era is ending. Anything you buy is going to be more costly - either a laptop or a pad. I bought an ASUS eeepc 1015cx for $7990NTD or about $275USD.
Comments
Best options seems to be large stores with old stock(You know, those chains that sell to the uninformed) or possibly online stores.
(I need to stock up a bit myself. Or possibly nick the heap of DELL Latitude 2100 machines at the office as we have a few that has been replaced by Pads... )
Note that I don't really recommend DELL... They're just slightly better than the alternative.
(The alternative being without a netBook)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-Asus-Eee-PC-1025C-MU17-BK-10-1-Atom-N2600-1GB-320GB-W7S-Netbook-/200739685020?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item2ebd04829c
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Asus-EEE-PC-1225B-SU17-BK-11-6-E450-4GB-DDR3-320GB-USB3-0-W7HP-Netbook-/200753925443?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item2ebdddcd43
FWIW, I love my Acer Aspire One. Still in perfect condition, XP. Mainly used for travelling, so I hope it lasts a long while.
I just got a netbook for the kid http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-10.1-Aspire-One-AOD270-21375-Netbook-PC-with-Intel-Atom-N2600-Processor-and-Windows-7-Starter/20604676
It's as capable are the full sized laptop (and some of the desktops) from, just a couple years ago.
Is their something wrong with the Acer? Seems great to me.
Also interesting that WM sells this hotter Acer notebook for $198: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Red-11.6-AO725-0687-Laptop-PC-with-AMD-Dual-Core-C-70-Accelerated-Processor-and-Windows-8-Operating-System/21853455 It's out of stock, but probably will come back since it's a new Win8 product.
The main thing is that the days of a $300 'mini-laptop' are disappearing.
ACER is okay, but they were organized as something like an Asian Dell, ASUS has its roots as a motherboard manufacturer and I believe the corporate culture just takes design and engineering to a higher level than Acer.
Asus as separated its OEM motherboard production into another company called Pegatron, which is not seen in branded equipment. But the simple fact is that HP, Apple and many others are relying on Asus/Pegatron to provide most of the integration of what their end products provide.
IOW, Asus uses all Pegatron motherboards, just adds the brandname. Pegatron will put anyone's brand name on a motherboard so you won't know it is from Pegatron, previously Asus.
As I said... ASUS has announced that it is ending its EEEpc product line. But Microsoft and Apple are really trying to dry up this competing Linux line. Apple never produced a notebook. And I don't see any notebook computers being sold with Windows 8.
Windows has always been a big problem with this format as MS wants a nice big OEM fee for each unit. That was the reason the first EEEpcs went to Xandros Linux. Asus actually forced MS to cut their OEM XP license fee from over $100 to about $50 for the EEEpcs at one point in time by proving the hugely popular machines with Linux.
We are indeed returning to higher prices for complete computers. The manufactures want to offer you a touchpad for small and light, or a bigger laptop... nothing in between.
On the other hand, Acer and Toshiba and others might provide lesser quality notebooks with W7 for some time to come in MS will allow them to do so. My Toshiba NB250 was a mistake to buy as it has proven nowhere near as durable as an Asus EEEpc.
But the EEEpcs were a 'golden moment' for Ubuntu Linux.
Everything seems to work fine in both W7 and Ubuntu. And the creation of a dual boot wasn't difficult.
Used it to make image analysis with Roborealm on a Bot.
If he stops working i have no other.
Also looking at compact boxes (about 120g) like the ebox 3350MX.
Is the market of this small boxes growing this days ?
Jean Paul
But it does seem that the industry feels they gave the consumer too much for too little and is try to recover lost profits by shifting everything to touchpad format and away from these 'small is beautiful' computers.
BTW, since Ubuntu 11.04 you have to do a small hack to load Ubuntu on the EEPpc 901 as Ubuntu created a minimum 4.4Gbyte barrier in the installer. It is easy to do, but you do have to know it is there and how to modify the installer.
The actual install image is less than 3 Gbytes, so it appears that Ubuntu for some mysterious reason decided to make supporting the EEEpc a bit more difficult.
You can upgrade to the latest Ubuntu or Fedora on that 901 and it will run faster.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1975462