The Asus EEE PC was highly successful during the Christmas season and Amazon sold close to one every 6 seconds! So, I was highly anticipating to see it in India. I had read earlier in the Financial Express that Asus would be bringing the EEE PC to India in Jan 2008 and today, was my chance to look at it and use it. I saw the EEE PC in Mumbai, India and it will be on the shelves for sale in the next few weeks.
I have to say I'm was a little surprised to see how small it actually is. I had read the reviews online when it was launched in the US last year, but looking at it in reality it seemed a little smaller than I thought. The 7" screen is a little too small for me but I guess its "ok" when you think its a UMPC and not a full-fledged notebook. Its truly lightweight and portable with a weight of just 0.9 Kgs. It has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of SSD (i.e. Flash-based harddisk). It has a webcam and a mic. It also has Linux installed (some Gnome like GUI) and also comes with drivers for Windows XP, incase you want to install XP by yourself.
I couldn't take a photograph of it nor was I allowed to benchmark it. But I tried running a H.264 movie and it did struggle getting the speeds continuosly up. Thus, I realised it was just meant to surf the web with the Wifi connection it provided. Its a very basic computer and the low price with portability as its main selling point. According to the shopkeeper who showed it to me, it will be sold at 16000/- or more, with the price being 20k in the first month. He was extremely optimistic that the EEE PC is the perfect product for Indian market. I agree somewhat at his observation and I think it will be a hit among non-tech buyers. It looks cute and sleek and is cheap.
Will surely try to convince the shopkeeper next week and get some benchmark done on this cutie. Although somehow I don't expect much from a Celeron M processor and an archaic integrated GPU.
12 comments:
Thanks for the great article Saptarshi. I checked out a few of your other articles and liked what I saw, so I'm now subscribed to your RSS feed. Looking forward to reading your articles. Thanks, Mike (Orlando, USA)
Thank you for the nice comments... I also looked at the different blogs that you are starting...
Where in Mumbai did you see this? Could you recommend a store?
have you seen ACI's 15000 rupee sub-laptop ?
no haven't seen the ACI's 15000 sub notebook?? But I have seen some of the newspaper advertising that they do... I think the UMPC market is going to hot up... I dont think much of a MID (Mobile Internet Device) market in India coz the GPRS, Wifi and wireless internet even in a major city like Mumbai sucks!!
in case you get your hands on both the Eee PC and the ACI ultra-mini, please try to do a comparative review. we would like to know the screen resolution, graphics performance etc. of these sub-notebooks. thank you
most probably the ACI ultra-mini is a kohjinsha.
check this out:
http://www.kohjinsha.com.sg/products/sh610bs.htm
Hi Saptarshi. I got myself a black eee PC 701 (4G) last month in BKK. Great little machine! Now my wife wants one... Hope the launch in India happens soon!
Hi, Was googling to find where I could get a hold of the Eee in India \ Mumbai and cane across your blog which is well written and well presented.
Please respond to an earlier question from Pranab about where you saw the Eee.
Prakalp.
Just saw the EEE PC in Croma Juhu today. The ASUS guys were setting the display up. They said that it'll be for sale starting next week. Only the 4G 701 model (in Black & White) (4GB SSD, 512mb RAM, wifi, web cam, etc) will be sold initially. The 2g Surf, 4g Surf, and 8G models will follow later. Expected selling price will be between 16.5-17.5k.
By the way HCL's MiLeap X & Y series are now being sold by Croma
The EEEPC will be on sale from Tomorrow i.e. Monday at a lot of places, although the launch will be on 29th Tuesday as mentioned here.
You can also order online at the EEEPC Official site
I saw swami laptop selling one basic model (which is available for $150 in the US )
http://www.swamilaptops.in/laptop/asus/asus-eeepc2gsurf.html
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