Home > Consumer Reviews > ASUS Eee PC 900 8.9-Inch Netbook (Intel Mobile Processor, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB Solid State Drive, Linux, 4 Cell Battery) Pearl White

I have to say even though I have only had the Eee 900 for a few days I love it! I plan on coming back and giving updates as I have them but out of the gates it works as advertised. One thing amazon does not say is that it comes with the bigger 5800mah battery which is great. I haven't done an actual timed battery test but we can surf for about three hours on a charge. Also I tested out video skype(which comes installed) and that works well too. For the more advanced users you can enable a full desktop mode for KDE Linux which as a more familiar windows feel. It takes some work but once you get it installed its easy to switch from the standard tabbed interface to the full desktop interface when you need more flexibility. If you are looking for a very portable laptop with good battery life and a great screen this would be a great choice.

*Update*

Having had the Eee for a while I have to admit that it is difficult to touch type on. I find myself making a large number of typing errors, but given the overall size of this laptop I didn't assume this would be like a full size keyboard. If you are planning to use this as a primary laptop just keep in mind this is a small keyboard. Go to your local retailer and see if they have one of the older models as a display and give it a try. That should give you an idea of what it is like to type on the 900.


*Update* (July 2008)
The battery life seems to be about 2 hours, that is with wifi enabled and 90% of the time spent surfing the net (email, Firefox etc). We realized early on that you cant really charge up the battery with the Eee turned on so every night we shut it down and charge it over night, it is always ready to go 1st thing in the morning, but I think it takes about 4 hours to charge the battery from 10% to 100%. My wife uses it as her primary email and internet machine, it is used at least 5 days a week draining the battery almost everyday. We have yet to see any decrease in the life of the battery

*UPDATE* (Nov 2008)
Well the Eee had to be sent in to Asus for service, the webcam just stopped working and the left mouse click stopped working. The webcam is just not recognized by the Eee and the mouse button still clicks but only registers about 10% of the time. I called up Asus and they gave me an RMA number to send it in. When we get it back I will post how long it took to fix and what that actually did to resolve my issues. At this point I would give it 4 stars, we use it daily as we would a normal size laptop so it is showing signs of wear.

*UPDATE* (Dec 2008)
So Asus opted to send me a new Eee vs fixing the issues with the one I sent in. I would have thought this was a good thing, but this one has a similar issue with the left mouse click and seems to be a bit glitchy. I put windows XP Pro on it thinking that might help things but not so much. I may call up Asus and see what they have to say about quality control issues with the mouse click.

*UPDATE* (Jan 2009)
After about a 2 week wait we had a new little Eee waiting to be put back to good use. Asus just sent out a new one vs fixing the one we sent in. Unfortunatly this one has a similar issue with the trackpad click right out of the box, it must be a design flaw or something. I still think givin the size and versitility of the Eee it was a 4 star product. My wife and I both have trouble touch typing on it so dont pick one of these up to write a book on, but it seems to make a nice email and internet machine.

*Update*(July 2009)
So the new Eee has the same issue as the 1st one only worse, I am guessing it was a major design flaw or something along those lines... its not the most well designed computer I have ever owned. I'm not sure its worth calling ASUS because they might just send me yet another one with the same issue. All things considered at this point its a 3 star laptop.

I've been waiting for years for a laptop like this one to come around and from the huge success of the first model I can see I was not alone. I didn't buy the first model because I wanted to hear how well this little laptop held up to daily use - plus the second generations of products usually fix most of the shortcomings of the first one.
Then the Eee Pc 900 came out.
At first I was one of those people that thought the 900 was way overpriced. I had decided that the 4G model for $399 was a much better deal...

and then I did the math!

After you spend 400 bucks on the 4G model (with web cam) the first thing you do is spend another $30 to get a 1G ram stick so you can upgrade the unit. (I've read that if you don't upgrade the ram videos are choppy sometimes). Next you spend another $80 to $125 to get a 16G SD card because the 4G supplied in the machine is worthless. When you are done you've spent around $500 and end up with a unit with pretty much the same specs as the 900 - only you still have a 7" screen and tiny trackpad. For me, the 900's bigger screen and trackpad are worth the extra 50 bucks!

I just got my 900 and I love it! I'm sticking with Linux I already own a laptop with XP and I don't plan on using my 900 as my main machine. Linux will do everything I need for travel.

I just got this 900 Asus laptop and love everything about it.All the talk about the keyboard size is lame. After 30 minutes of typing I don't even notice the difference in size from a regular keyboard. Linux works great- especially after unlocking full desktop mode(which takes only a couple of minutes)It works much faster than my Dell laptop with windows on it that has twice the memory and faster processor. And like somebody mentioned above- I don't have to worry about viruses wiht linux( it's been known to have only 20 written viruses for the OS verses millions for windows)And I got almost 3 hours battery life on my first test drive, downloading music,listening to music and surfing the net at the same time.
I recommend it to anybody.

I purchased the Linux version of this incarnation of Eee PC. I can honestly say that it surpassed my expectations in all aspects. I have ordered my Eee PC 900 20G online, without ever actually seeing a demo unit. Needless to say, one of my main concerns while placing the order was the material quality. I was afraid I would receive a lightweight and flimsy-feeling toy and boy was I wrong! The material used in making this device is on par with the material used in manufacturing regular laptop computers, if not superior.

On the software side of things, all the research and development Asus invested in putting together the Eee PC software seems to have paid off well. The simplified front-end they created for Linux works for me on multiple levels, but I think this front-end's success mainly boils down to this: Gone are the bells and whistles of contemporary operating systems that do little more than distract you. By minimizing distractions, they were able to create a much calmer environment so to speak, which makes it easier to concentrate on work and getting things done.

Then again if you are a Microsoft devotee, you could install Windows XP on this device but I understand it takes a little bit of tweaking around. Instructions on how to do this as well as all the Windows drivers needed come with the product. Keep in mind though, once you have Windows XP on there, you will also need to install a firewall and an antivirus. Again, you will need to download updates every so often which will consume your valuable disk space.

In my opinion Windows' requirements may be quite taxing on a device with these hardware specifications and would take away all the fun out of owning a device that was, from its conceptualization, meant to be trouble-free and robust. Relative scarcity of malware written for Linux almost obviates the need to install an obtrusive antivirus. Asus' rolls out whatever updates I may occasionally need via their dedicated update servers. Staying with Linux, at least for the time being, feels safe and makes good practical sense. Therefore, I think I will stick with the Linux that came pre-installed on my Eee PC for quite some time.

I am really impressed with the form factor, though I must say that the smaller keys on the Eee PC takes a little getting used to. This however is a flaw I am willing to easily oversee. After all, this is the first portable computer that I purchased I may actually use as a portable, as opposed to a desktop replacement.

I think many people have unrealistically high expectations of this computer. I was very apprehensive about buying a model I'd never physically tried out but since I couldn't find one in the local stores I bit the bullet and ordered one.

Now I will say that I am somewhat of a Linux geek so I can get around in the OS better than a lot of people (once I disabled "Easy Mode"!) but this little machine is everything I was looking for. I think the WiFi "issues" are a bit overblown; I haven't had any problems yet in finding and connecting to hotspots. One time the network applet seemed to hang while connecting to a network but I simply closed it out, turned wireless off and on, and it worked fine.

The keyboard does definitely take some getting used to; the minuscule right-hand Shift key is right next to the up-arrow which I keep hitting by mistake, and on my unit the "R" key is very touchy so it often gets hit more than I meant to, but once you use it for a while you can learn to work at a productive and relatively error-free (although slower) rate.

And to reiterate what several others have said, this does indeed come with the higher-capacity 5800mAh battery, and although I haven't performed my own "drainage" test, based on my current usage and battery levels I'd expect to get the advertised 2-1/2 hours or so of usage.

If you're not sure yet whether the Eee PC 900 is for you, you may want to hold off a bit since this market segment is very new but expanding very rapidly with new models like the MSI Wind and the Eee 901 coming out fast and furious. I expect by this Christmas, there will be many makes and models to choose from anywhere in the $300-700 range.

But if (like me) you don't want to wait any longer, you certainly can't go wrong with this model. If you're new to Linux, the installed version is very easy to use and there is a great user community at eeeuser.com to help you out with any aspect of the device you could possibly imagine.