9 inch UMPC at less than 600 bucks?

 The UMPC craze has caught the world by storm, courtesy of Asus with their eeePC. Many have rejoiced, buying theirs because it's portability on the cheap, and the techies are buying theirs to rip apart due to its affordable price, figuring out the modifications that can be applied to this miniature laptop to enhance usability. We've heard lots of user experiences and suggestions from our vibrant EeePC community and Asus has heard most of them while working on their next rendition of their fabulous brainchild. The EeePC 900 series UMPCs are thus launch, with huge improvements to the display, webcam, touchpad and storage areas. We will touch on these one by one as we bring you on a walkthrough for this mini wonder. We've heard that the Eee will be priced slightly below SGD800, which will roughly equates to USD$ 580, which is not bad at all for a 9" UMPC! Meanwhile as usual, some basic specification comparisons.

Eee 900.. in black! *gasp*

Model	Eee PC 8G	Eee PC 4G	Eee PC 12G Windows XP	Eee PC 20G Linux
Display	7" (800x480)	7" (800x480)	9" (1024x600)	9" (1024x600)
Chipset	Intel i910GML	Intel i910GML	Intel i910GML	Intel i910GML
CPU	Intel A110 630mhz	Intel A110 630mhz	Intel A110 900mhz	Intel A110 900mhz
OS	Linux Windows XP compatible	Linux Windows XP compatible	Windows XP Home Linux Compatible	Linux Windows XP compatible
Color	Pure white/ Galaxy black	Pure white/Blush pink Sky blue/Lush green Galaxy black	Pure white/Galaxy black	Pure white/Galaxy black
Ethernet	¡ñ Atheros 10/100	¡ñ Atheros 10/100	¡ñ Atheros 10/100	¡ñ Atheros 10/100
WLAN	¡ñ Atheros 5007EG 54mbps	¡ñ Atheros 5007EG 54mbps	¡ñ Atheros 5007EG 54mbps	¡ñ Atheros 5007EG 54mbps
Memory	1G (DDR2)	512 MB (DDR2)	1G (DDR2)	1G (DDR2)
Solid State Storage	8GB	4GB	12GB (4+8)	20GB (4+16)
Webcam	0.3MP	0.3MP	1.3MP	1.3MP
Audio	Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone	Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone	Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone	Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone
Battery	4 Cells, 2.8~3.5hrs*	4 Cells, 2.8~3.5hrs*	4 Cells, 2.5hrs*	4 Cells, 2.5hrs*
Weight	0.92 kg	0.92 kg	0.99 kg	0.99 kg

Comparison with the Eee 701

The two EeePCs remained largely similar in form factor and uses the same motherboard and most of the features are exterior components. The Eee 900 is available in two flavors, a 12GB SSD Windows XP version and and a 20GB SSD Linux, which will cost exactly the same. Will you trade 8GB of SSD storage just for an installation of Windows XP? Many might wonder if it is worth it, and we shall let the sales figure prove eventually.

The 701 sitting on top of the 900, the connectivity options on the left remains the same, except that the phone jack was removed. Hey, the jack never really functioned anyway =p

Looks exactly the same from behind.

Right connectivity looks exactly the same too.

Ah the major difference, a 7" screen compared to a 9" screen! the speakers are shifted to the bottom of the device on the Eee 900. There's a change in resolution too, from 800x480 to 1024x600. The screen also appears to be better in terms of clarify on the 900 compared to its predecessor.

The touchpad is significantly different, the 900's is very much more sensitive, bigger and more navigable, and comes with multi touch technology, just like what Apple advertised with the Macbook Pro and Air. Kudos to Asus for implementing this feature! Tactile feedback on the 900 is also significantly better than the 701's.

More Comparisons

The webcam, from 0.3 to 1.3MP!

The batteries, with the 5800mAh battery belonging to the 900 and the 5200mAh battery for the 701. The batteries are also cross compatible among the two models, although there's a slight change in voltage as well.

Update : The first batch of retail Eee PC 900 that hit the market will come with 4400mAh batteries instead so please take note.

The two adaptors. The 701's adaptor is actually bigger than the 9010s brick! Do note that although the batteries can be used on both devices, the 701's adaptor does not work on the 901; the sockets are the same, but the 900 will refuse to charge with the 701's adaptor.

As mentioned the socket and battery pins are exactly the same.

Difference in power draw due to the bigger screen on the 900.

Physical Dissection

The RAM and SSD mini PCI-E slot, nothing's changed from the 701.

The keyboard holder still serves as the heatsink for the 900.

Three blue thermal pads, not exactly the most efficient for thermal transfers, and the keyboard does get quite hot along the way.

The three brainchilds of the Eee; the A110 CPU, the Northbridge and the Southbridge.

The 8GB SSD.

The miniature blower and the speakers.

Brain Surgery...

Now to tear it COMPLETELY apart.

The mainboard in its naked glory, almost identical to the 701.

The 4GB SSD soldered onboard.

The ALC662 HD Audio Codec

Atheros 10/100MB LAN

Last but not least, the CPU soldered onboard.

A-Data compliments the EeePC with...

We've seen a whole slew of accessories launched specially for the Eee, from pouches to crystal cases, and recently, A-Data introduced two products to compliment the Eee PC, the S701 thumbdrive and the Eee PC SDHC Card.

Pictures courtesy of A-Data. 

A-Data dropped us a 8GB SDHC Class 6 Card.

Next to the Eee Card slot

A quick HDTach using the A-Data Eee SDHC card. There's a 2MB difference between my Buffalo Card Reader and the one onboard Eee. not too shabby, definitely usable!

Some additional information

Did I mention that the Asus changed the SSD controller onboard the Eee? Previously, we've seen Silicon Motion on the 701 and 702, and now Asus uses dual Phison controllers for the Eee, one for the onboard 4GB and another for the 8GB expresscard sitting in the mini-PCIE slot.

The device manager showing the Phison controllers and the Elantech Smart-Pad with multi touch technology.

A quick comparison between the controllers onboard the 4 different models of Eee PC. **Many thanks to Proximus for the 702 8GB screenie**

The Eee 900 is now clocked back to the A110's original 900Mhz! Yay!

and the RAMs runs at 100Mhz now instead of the 70 on the 701.

 

 

The additional 270Mhz makes a hugeee difference to SuperPi; thus, expect your applications to load faster on the Eee900!

 

and finally, your conclusion

Asus has definitely got themselves a winner with the Eee 900, it's a fantastic refresh of the 701! Your Eee will no longer need to span for programs that needs a minimum resolution of 800x600 to run (for instance, HDTach required that resolution -_-). Other improvements like the multi-touch pad provides a larger area for navigation, an improved webcam for high resolution videos and pictures and most importantly, a huge increase in SSD space over the 4/8GB 701s.

The EeePC is finally available off the shelves with Windows XP Home preinstalled, and at the same prices as the Linux version........hey wait, did we mention that the Windows version comes with a total of 12GB of SSD storage, wheras the Linux rendition of the Eee 900 comes with 20Gb of SSD Storage? We'll leave it to the individual consumers to weigh the pros and cons of the two different versions available, and meanwhile, we'll sum up this article nicely with our usual VR Marks.

 

 

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