What to buy?

I've been looking at various umpc. But I still hesistate to pull the trigger and make a purchase.

Obviously I've looked at the aspire one and the eeepc. I've also seen the Dell mini. The msi wind exceeds my size expectation for a umpc so I'm not including that for consideration.

I'd like to buy the EEEPC 901 as it has the smallest size. But I cannot understand why the price is so high compared to the aspire one. It really makes no sense considering the aspire one actually looks visually more appealing.

Is it true that there is an issue of 'fan noise' in the aspire one? Does it generate heat underneath (i.e. does it get warm if you sat it on your chest or lap while sitting/laying down)?

Strangely, I must be the only one who would be willing to sacrifice battery life (3 cell) for weight reduction (6 cell). I think the more stuff you add to a umpc, the less of a umpc it becomes. I'd do away with an HD if I could and anything else for that matter to keep the weight down.

As I am an indecisive person, I figure if I can hold out till christmas season, the market will be flooded with umpcs and I'll have more variety to choose from (and no doubt more indecision).

 

Speaking only from my experience, my One is almost silent. I have (and often do) sit it on my bed while watching TV and run it from a full charge to no battery. In the time it takes to do that, usually about 2.5-3 hours with Wi-Fi running, it will only get somewhat warm. It would not be uncomfortable to set it on your lap for the entire time. Now that I have said that, there are reports of very noisy One's out there. There is currently some script being written to quiet them, maybe it is already finished? Do a search on fan noise here, and you will see.

You are certainly not! I completely agree with you! I actually wrote a bit earlier that the lack of shoulder pain is worth it to me if all I have to do is recharge a bit more often... :lol: Also, I have always wanted a SUPER simple, functional, no frills laptop. I have tried to turn 2 previous laptops into that, and it never worked. Too much software bloat. I haven't even activated advanced mode on this machine. I like the super simple, one click, Linux Linpus Lite layout. Also, I live in New Orleans and am a college student. I walk everywhere I go. I needed the most portable machine I could find, weight was a big factor for me. The One is the lightest out there, in my price range, with the biggest keyboard.

You can see some more reasons and raves about this little dude, from me, in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3310

 

Overall would you say you are happy with your Aspire one? It is porbably hard to be objective about it considering you have already purchased it but would you have preferred an EEEPC instead?

I'm torn as usual between buying and not buying.

I want the smallest size I can get as portability/weight for me is everything, next to price of course.

The EEEPC to me seems about 125 dollars over-priced.

 

very happy with my one. I was looking at the EEE 901 but way too overpriced here in comparison even with the extra features which don't mean that much to me (touchpad and wireless N and bluetooth).

The 3 cell one (with HDD is the one I have) is great, I am going to go with the 6 cell additional for sure though just to have the extra life when I will need it.

It does get a little warm but it's a tradeoff between fan noise and heat. Not uncomfortably hot.

 

My reasons for purchasing a One and not a EEE...

The BIGGEST reason I didn't get an EEE was because of the horrible overpricing. If I'm buying a simple, no frills laptop, I don't want to have to pay 6-700 dollars to get it. Also, I'm not gonna pay that much for a tool that is in its technological infancy. THere are bound to be tons of advances, really quick. I may want to upgrade as soon as next year, for the 400 I spent on this One, I may be able to afford to do that.

I also didn't get an EEE because of the really really small keyboard. I'm using the One to write papers with and take notes during class. The thought of cramping my hands to take really fast notes on and EEE freaked me out. I wanted a keyboard that was the closest to regular size without being totally full size (for weight reasons). Now that I am typing on the One, I couldn't imagine it being ANY smaller. I do make some size related mistakes, not often, but I do. Also, the EEE has some of the keys switched around. (the shift key maybe?) As someone who uses this machine to touch-type ALOT, I couldn't have managed to relearn where the shift key is.

OK- the EEE has bluetooth. the EEE does have a bigger screen, it also has more memory (I think)?
I thought I really wanted the bluetooth, if for nothing more than to send pictures from my cell phone to my puter while on-the-go. But now that I'm using my One, I am realizing that the bluetooth feature would have just complicated my precious simple machine... and I wouldn't have used it that much anyway, really.

Bigger screen? That might have been nice. But the EEE's screen is only bigger by one inch. I expect that the next version of the One will have a larger screen. As it is, I rarely have trouble seeing this screen. Only when I'm trying to read tiny writing. A zoom feature (which the MSI Wind does/will have would have been nice). But again, these are frills that have not been necessary to make/break the enjoyment I have of this netbook.

More memory... I haven't even upgraded the memory by buying an SD card for my One yet. I'm not using this thing for storage. Whoever expects to use it for storage of any kind has the wrong idea for what this is meant to be. I take notes/write a paper/whatever/ then I save it onto a memory stick or email it to myself. Then it gets warehoused into my giant PC or "mission control" as I call it.

The other big reason I bought the acer aspire One... it's the lightest in it's class.

 

In a dead quiet room you will notice some fan noise, like in a bathroom with the door closed, in which i noticed the fan noise the most. But to me it doesn't bother me at all, because most places have enough background noise that i don't notice it.

It does get warm but only noticeable if your not wearing a shirt when on your chest, i really don't notice it getting to warm on my lap.

Also as for the size, my hands are above average and the AA1 it just perfect for me, any smaller and it would be a problem.

The only negative thing i really hate about the AA1 is the touchpad buttons, im still not used to them and ive had my AA1 for 3 weeks now. If not for the touchpad buttons the AA1 would get a perfect score of 10/10, instead of 9.5/10.