Rise of the Ultra-Portable Notebooks
Jul 16th, 2007 by Rob
I’m really excited by this new computing segment that seems to be emerging, defined by several new ultra-portable, inexpensive, low-powered notebooks. The next couple of months will see the launch of the Asus Eee PC 701 and the Palm Foleo, the first entrants into what I expect to be a rapidly expanding market.
The Eee looks like it will be a terrific device. It’s got a 7″ screen, a 900 MHz Pentium M Processor, 512 MB of RAM, choice of 8 or 16 GB flash hard drive, 3 USB ports, WiFi, and a built-in webcam. It weighs a diminutive 2 lbs, and boots up and shuts down in 10 seconds flat. The device will come with an easy-to-use custom Linux distro pre-installed, but is capable of running full-blown Windows XP. The best part is the device will start at only $250! That price point makes it accessible even to casual users, and makes the Eee a great first computer for someone who only needs the basics. I expect at that price, even hardcore gadget freaks will be tempted to pick one up to add to their stable of computers.
The Palm Foleo looks like an interesting device as well, although it will probably have trouble competing with the Eee. It is meant to be a companion to Palm’s Treo line of smartphones. In fact, it won’t work without one. It communicates with your Treo via Bluetooth, and allows you to do anything you might do on the phone, such as surf the web, handle email, and edit documents, on a larger, notebook like device. Like the Eee, the Foleo will run a specially modified version of Linux. Unfortunately, the Foleo doesn’t look to be as expandable as the Eee, and will only run its special operating system. To make matters worse, it’s going to cost $500, after a $100 rebate. This makes it much more expensive than the Eee, even before the required companion device, and puts it not too far below the cost of a full-blown laptop. I expect the Foleo will appeal most to those that already use a Treo for mobile computing, and are looking to make things a bit easier for themselves, without a significant new investment.
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of the notebook you can take anywhere, like the tiny Fujitsu LifeBook P7230, but was turned off by the price (approaching $2000). These 2 devices offer the same ultra-portable form factor, but without the hefty price tag. Now, of course, neither is anywhere near as powerful as the LifeBook, but they both look robust enough to handle your everyday computing tasks.
Asus Eee PC 701
Palm Foleo
Thanks Brian.
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Hey Rob,
Thanks for the great post. Got a question for ya if you don’t mind.
The Foleo was designed to “teather” to the Treo. How easy/hard would it be to connect to the Internet on the Asus EEE via a Treo?
Well, assuming you put Windows XP on the Eee, it would not be hard at all to connect to the internet via a Treo. There is a piece of software called PDAnet that lets you do just that. There is also a hack you can use on the Treo 700p that will achieve the same outcome, but for free. There may be an equivalent program for the Linux variant that runs natively on the Eee, but I don’t know for sure.
Would I be correct to assume if using PC Anywhere on the Eee I would be able to access all the programs on my home based desktop and would I be able to download photos by plugging in my cameras SD card into the Eee and sending to my desktops HD?
That sounds reasonable Bill. As of now, I don’t see anything preventing that.
Being able to do that would most certainly make this a great tool to take on vacations to access e-mail, on-line banking, accessing Quickbooks and saving all the photos. With that ability the need for a huge hard drive is negated. We have been spending a few months away from home in the winter and have been lugging my less than light and very expensive laptop. This would be a great alternative and I would buy one in a heart beat if I could do the remote access. Plus if lost or damaged its not a huge loss. I’m surprised this ability is not mentioned in any of the articles I’ve read on this type of computer or is it just assumed everyone would have thought of it.
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