Download drivers to make Asus EEE PC on 1024x768

Anyone who has used the Asus EEE PC will know that the 7" screen does get small at times. During those times, you wish you had a larger screen or sometimes you want to increase the screen resolution. The default resolution on the EEE is very small and would be great to have it increased to 1024x768. I had seen videos on youtube showing off the higher resolution, but couldn't find how to do it.

Today I found a driver which is able to increase the resolution to 1024x768. Its a Win XP driver and will scale 800×600 and 1024×768 down to the EEE PC’s native resolution. The site also specifies for the newbie how to install the driver and get the higher resolution running.

You can download the drivers here.

*Disclaimer* If your Eee breaks for some reason its not my fault TRY AND YOUR OWN RISK

Asus EEE PC Vs HCL MiLeap X

The Asus EEE PC has made its mark around the world. Yesterday I was reading Stephen Fry's blog post about it and I realized that Asus EEE PC is now a gadget for adventure. Since most people can't get the OLPC/XO (even after donating one to a child), its good to use the Asus EEE PC. I happened to be among the first to see the Asus EEE PC officially in India and it was an interesting experience although not a "Wow" one...

Asus plans to sell lots of these laptops in India and to compete in this new market of small laptops, India's largest manufacturer of hardware, HCL has released its own version of small & cheap laptops. The HCL MiLeap X Series is a direct answer to Asus's EEE PC and I happened to use one just today evening at an HCL workshop.

              

The following is a comparison able between the HCL X and the Asus EEE PC:

	HCL MiLeap X Series	Asus EEE PC
Processor:	Celeron-M (900 Mhz)	Celeron-M (900 Mhz)
Chipset/GPU:	Intel GMA 900	Intel GMA 900
RAM:	512 MB	512 MB
Display Size:	7"	7"
OS:	Linux	Linux
Harddisk:	2 GB SSD	4GB SSD
Weight:	1440 gms	920 gms
Price:	Rs. 14000/-	Rs. 18000/-

From the above comparison chart you can see that both the products have the same configuration with the difference in harddisk space and price. The 2GB on the HCL X seems a little less, but then the price is also about Rs. 4000/- less. If you will not be installing any other software other than those pre-installed, then it doesn't make much sense to have more space. Normal avi and divx works well but h.264 video stutters on both the machines. The speakers on both the machines isn't very good and hence you can't expect to load too many songs into either of the laptops. The HCL MiLeap X has slightly better trackpad compared to the EEE PC, but the Asus EEE PC had a better interface, not that the HCL UI is bad!! HCL also has been selling its laptops with Linux instead of windows for sometime now and hence Linux support from HCL has been there from the beginning.

After looking at the HCL X, I can say that its a worthy competitor and it saves a few bucks. You can always fit in your USB drive and get more space. I'm not sure about HCL's service, but in that sense Asus partners haven't done very well in its motherboards service and support. The build quality is an important criteria for ultra-mobile laptops, but I can't comment on this factor since I haven't owned any of these laptops for a considerable period of time.

Now to the conclusion: Which machine do I think is better?? Personally in my frank opinion, I don't think much of both these machines. They aren't as powerful as I would like them to be. I'm not saying that these are bad products. On the contrary, I think cheap portable computers are extremely necessary and both these machines have special capabilities and are great designs. But I would rather run a slightly more powerful machine, with a touch interface and more RAM and disk space, which does not need to be kept on the lap for typing. May be a UMPC with Origami 2.0 and Via Isaiah CPU and these features is more my type!

Asus Doesn't Think India As A Market

While I was reading this interview at the Inquirer, I couldn't stop thinking of Asus' state of affairs here in India. The interview is with Asustek President, Jerry Shen.

Asus has no doubt been an excellent company in terms to product innovation and business growth, but there are few questions about its service to customers. Jerry Shen being outspoken doesn't bother to mince his words about other companies like Nvidia or AMD. But when he talks about those points, I think he forgets that atleast in India (and the reactions on Inq tells more) the service for Asus products hasn't been anywhere close to even "Satisfactory".

The customer troubles can be read at different forums like techenclave.com, thinkdigit.com etc. But if anyone is expecting any improvements in the service then read the interview again!! Jerry Shen mentions only about US, Europe and to some extent Japan and China as his markets. Although the Indian PC market is growing enormously, Asus seems to have completely ignored India as well as other Asian markets. Maybe he mentions, high-end to be his interest and India is not a high-end market. But then it somehow reflects the ignored state of Asus products and service in India.

Even after all that, Asus has the largest market share of motherboards in India. The products that Asus has in the market are wonderful and top-notch, but I wish, they didn't completely alienate the Indian consumer...