Cogito, ergo sum... (I think, therefore I am)

Monday, December 03, 2007

New toy: Asus EEE 701

I have just returned from a belated honeymoon trip from Malaysia. The trip itself was really amazing, and really special for me, but the real reason for blogging after this long is what I got from the trip. A new toy. The Asus EEE PC 701 4G. Big name for a small powerhouse!

Those who know me know that I am a complete gadget freak, and a really big believer in portable devices, specially the UMPC platform. I had planned to get a UMPC device in Jan 2008. I was really hooked on the Fujitsu U810 aka Darth Vader. During my trip, I stopped at a shop called MTCS in Pavilion in Kuala Lumpur. I asked the salesman whether he had any UMPC, and he told me that he had a Fujitsu UMPC. Turned out it was a Fujitsu U1010 (aka Storm Trooper). I immediately took it and sat down in a chair and started playing with it. The unit they had was for 1200USD, which is a little steep, considering that the U810 with a better battery is avilable for 900USD. I matter of factly asked the sales guy whether he has any other devices, and he said he has a new Asus device. I asked him whether it was the R2H, but he said no it was the EEE. I was excited, already knowing that it was supposed to be a really exciting device, but wasn't of too much interest to me since I was interested in a tablet device, and the EEE didn't have a touchscreen. However I decided to take a look. It seemed a pretty interesting device for 400USD, so much so that I thought of buying i. My wife said that I should buy it but I said I would never buy sucha device without reading extensively about it. So we left the store, and that night I read quite a few EEE reviews. All of them mentioned that this was a paradigm changing device, and I wanted in!

The next day, I arrived at the same shop and asked for a unit to buy, but some other sales guy told me that it was all sold out! I asked them if their was any other place where I could get any more, but the guy said that this was the only shop in KL which was selling the EEE, and they would get more stock in Jan. I was really disappointed, but kept bugging them to look again. Meanwhile, the guy who had showed me around the previous day arrived, and I bugged him continuously to do something, even sell me the display unit they had if they could. The guy went into the storeroom, and came out with an unpacked unit! He said that this was supposed to be sold, but the person who had asked for it didn;t show up. And that is the story of how I became a proud owner of the Asus EEE!

The model I have is a 4G, with 4GB SSD HDD and a webcam. In the coming entries, I will discuss how I found this device. My impressions until now can be summed up in one word: AMAZING! This is an almost perfect device for me.