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Asus Eee PC 900
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 18th April 2008
EEE-by ‘Eck
So, what’s new with the Eee PC 900? Well, the first and most obvious change is the screen itself – it’s certainly a hard update to miss when you stand the Eee 900 next to the older model.The original Eee PC 700 was often criticised for having such a tiny screen – it measured only seven inches diagonally, having an awkward resolution of 800x480 that made it occasionally difficult to play games or view websites on.
Personally, I always thought those complaints were a little illogical – the small screen was another way to shave the cost down after all. However, once I started using the Eee PC 700 regularly I came to appreciate how much of a pain the tiny screen was. The new screen then is probably the biggest boon that the Eee PC 900 has received.
The new screen on the Eee PC 900 is a drastic improvement over the Eee PC 700’s. It fills out the top half of the Eee much more fully as Asus has moved the speakers to parts unknown. The new screen then measures just shy of nine inches when measured diagonally and has a vastly better resolution of 1024x600, which makes viewing websites a hell of a lot easier.
Click to enlarge
One of the things that always puzzled me about the Eee community was how much effort people put into getting games to work on the Xandros-based laptop even though it clearly isn’t very capable as a games machine. The low-power architecture and cheaply produced hardware didn’t hold people back though and within a few weeks there were dozens of games getting ported or tweaked for the Eee PC. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is probably the most-seen example of Eee gaming, but it was also possible to get classics like Planescape: Torment going quickly.
Hell, you could even run Half-Life 2 or The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion in a semi-playable state.
With that in mind, it seemed like a little gaming was the best way to stretch the legs of the new screen. The Eee PC is definitely not a gaming rig though so, while we could get something like Sauerbraten running, it isn’t really a fair test of the Eee. There is a Java based RPG I’ve played on the Eee before though, called Fabled Lands. Fabled Lands is an excellent way to test the screen space as the game makes use of a good number of different windows that the player must switch back and forth between regularly.
Now, Fabled Lands isn’t meant to be a comprehensive test of the gaming abilities of the Eee because, frankly, the Eee doesn’t have any real gaming capabilities aside from the handful of games which come bundled with it – and even Penguin Racer runs a bit jerkily. What it will do though is show you the difference that those extra inches can make when you have multiple windows open – something you aren’t realistically going to be doing with many other programs on the Eee.
The same screen on the Asus Eee PC 700 (above) and the Eee PC 900 (below), click to enlarge
As you can see then, the extra size does make quite a huge difference – and these images are actual size if you click through to see the big picture as they are taken using the Eee’s in-built screen capture software.
Now, normally we’d probably say something along the lines of “whether the increase in size is needed or not depends on your personal needs”, but when it comes to the Eee PC that explanation is a little bit weak. The original screen was so small that even the smallest of increases is hugely important, making the new screen of the Eee PC 900 definitely worth the extra cost.
There’s been a lot of speculation about the screen as well – whether or not it will be a touchscreen, how it will enlarge the chassis and so on. Let’s address those points; no it isn’t a touchscreen, yes the chassis is bigger. Don’t worry though, it’s only bigger by the smallest of increments—less than half a centimetre—and even that seems to be more to do with the improved webcam than the screen itself.
Speaking of the webcam, let’s move on and look at what else has changed with the Eee PC 900…
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