the eeeNote - it’s a serious threat to...everything

[Ken Maltby]

Camera, WiFi, Voice Recorder, MP3 player, good resolution, higher quality touchscreen/
graphic tablet, 64bit grayscale, low power reflective display, good sized battery, 8" and
does epub as well as PDF. Not shabby, at all if they can meet that ~$200 price point.

Luck;
Ken

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by Scott Nicholson

Another game-changer? How many games are we playing?

[Nexutix]

Amazing! I would have bought it; but I don't want electronic litter as long as I can work with my readers.

[BoldlyDubious]

The Asus EA800 is available in Italy (from some retailers, at least). But its street price is 259 euros, corresponding to 355$!
I was waiting to buy one, then I chose the Sipix-based Asus DR-900 instead. The DR-900 has the battery life of an ebook reader (days) instead of that of a tablet (hours).

[pbarrette]

Hi all,

Several of us already own the Eee Note.

I purchased mine from a vendor in Taiwan with the intent of replacing the 3 paper notebooks I carried back and forth to work every day. For that purpose, the EeeNote has been an excellent replacement. It's primary function, as illustrated by its name, is note taking.

The Wacom screen is high resolution, pressure sensitive and recognizes Wacom penabled pens from other devices. While the 2 (yes two) pens included with the EeeNote don't have a built-in eraser, the Eee Note recognizes and properly responds to the erasers on pens from other netbooks. An added bonus is that the EeeNote can work as a normal Wacom tablet when connected to your PC via USB.

The device appears to be very durable, with an aluminum case and protective matte glass screen. It also comes with a leatherette binder which the Eee Note snaps into at 4 points and is difficult enough to remove that I don't think it will ever slip out accidentally. The binder also has a hole for the rear facing, 2MP camera. I haven't yet dropped mine, so I can't say exactly how durable it is, but another owner has purposely broken and removed the glass panel while keeping the LCD screen intact. A chinese site reports that the LCD panel is encased in some form of resin instead of the usual glass, which he suspects was done for durability.

The LCD screen does suffer from some lighting problems related to viewing angle and direct reflectance. I have noticed that this is never a problem in brightly lit areas or outdoor use, but is limited to low light viewing. There is a video circulating on YouTube which compares the Eee Note to a e-ink screen which makes the Eee Note look wholly unusable. I can attest that this is not the case. The video appears to have been shot with both devices nearly parallel to the camera angle, which exacerbates the issues which exist with nearly all LCD screens. While e-ink is certainly superior in contrast and viewing angle, the LCD screen on the EeeNote is perfectly acceptable to me. The fact that it is an LCD screen means that it is capable of following your pen strokes without the lag normally associated with e-ink.

There are 8 capacitive touch buttons on the bottom of the Eee Note display. The function of the top 5 buttons are variable depending on the application in use. The bottom 3 buttons are Left, Home, and Right. These buttons can be used for page turning in the book reader application. The buttons can be enabled or disabled from the top menu in any application. This prevents accidental button presses when resting your hand on the EeeNote while writing with the pen. In the latest firmware the buttons are automatically disabled upon entering the Notes application, though I wish they would re-enable when leaving the application.

The Eee Note has 4GB of internal memory and an external micro-SD card slot. The 4GB of internal memory is actually a 4GB micro-SD card in an internal, hidden slot. Both slots are capable of accepting SDHC cards and a few of us have replaced the internal card with a 8GB SDHC card, thus boosting the internal storage capacity to 7.5GB. Approximately 500MB of the card is used to hold the firmware.

The Eee Note uses an xScale based, Marvell processor (pxa303) and runs embedded linux as its operating system. The applications are built on a Qt/e framework with the main application acting as the windowing server and the other application as clients. ASUS has provided the source code for Qt and some other GPL sources, but have not yet provided the kernel sources. They have, however, provided the source code for their dictionary application which demonstrates how the application client/server messages are passed and handled. Someone with more C++ and Qt experience than I could easily create new applications for the Eee Note or port existing ones to it.

I was able to determine the firmware file format which allowed us to look into the OS without removing the 4 screws which hold the unit together and removing the internal SD card. Research allowed one user to determine that the EeeNote startup scripts attempts to run a script or application from the external SD card slot at each boot. This allowed us to install a telnet server on the EeeNote so we can play around with the internals as we please. This also allowed me to figure out how to convert our EeeNotes from a Chinese language interface to English.

I was also able to study the PC based EeeNoteSync application. From this, I created a PC based application which is capable of loading firmware onto the EeeNote from the built-in emergency bootloader. This allows me to reinstall the firmware onto the internal SD card even if the card is completely empty or unformatted.

I do think that the EeeNote will be a serious device in the coming months. I realize that the screen isn't e-ink and isn't in color. I believe that the note taking functionality with wifi based Evernote sync, basic web browsing and hackability of the device along with its relatively low price will make it a success. If not, then it's already a cult favorite for me.

pb

[MR. Pockets]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

I don't get why this is better than the Nook Color. Why is greyscale LCD supposed to be an advantage? I mean, doesn't the NC show books in B&W as well? It's not like it colorizes them...

Indeed, I remember back in the early days of PCs, people had Green and Amber monitors because supposedly they were easier on the eyes than B&W ones (Amber ones anyway). Though I doubt they actually were.

For $200, I would expect something a lot better. Aren't there already cheap B&W LCD e-readers? Like $100 or under?

Wait, I thought it was supposed to be $99... Oh well, so much for my hopes.

[BoldlyDubious]

Thank you, pbarrette, for the excellent review! And for what concerns hands-on experimentation with the device... I'm impressed. Now, if only someone would do the same with the (similarly Linux-based) Asus DR-900...

About the EA800: I, too, think that it is a very interesting device, though I yet have to try one personally. In particular, it looks like a nice tool for people with scientific/technical jobs: pdf reading and annotation, fast scrolling and page switching thanks to the LCD screen, note taking, high-resolution sketching, a browser, reasonably fast processor, large screen, acceptable weight. I certainly could use one :-)
I hope it will not remain an oddball product, and it will be the first specimen of a new category of hardware. Maybe for mass diffusion a color screen will be required; on the other hand, if and when electrophoretic displays will reach reasonably high frame rates (say, 10Hz), an EA800-like device equipped with such a screen would be a dream come true for me.

[Dulin's Books]

pbarrette thank you!

10hz dubious? thats what we can expect from samsung buying liquavista

[OtterBooks]

Nice. Take both the benefits of e-ink and the benefits of an LCD, then remove them. Then offer it at a price competitive with hiring someone to kick me in the stomach. Actually that's cheaper, and a better value. Just imo.

[Valentino]

grayscale LCD screen... serious threat to...everything (read in shatner's voice)

DERP...
man this is pretty funny.

I like ASUS but this is a joke.

[CazMar]

I was just posting about limitations of PDF files on my Kobo- then I saw this. I've been very happy with my Asus netbook for university use but this ereader is very appealing as a "textbook substitute" and an additional ebook reader. OK - I can't resist a gadget
With the note taking ability I can see this being used by people doing quotes, sales staff etc so perhaps that is one market Asus is targetting.

[pbarrette]

Hi OtterBooks,

I couldn't agree with you more.

- They removed all of the benefits of a 16 shade grayscale screen by adding 48 more shades of gray. If I wanted that much differentiation, I'd buy comics, not books, right?
- Then they gutted the e-ink refresh rate by making it nearly 100x faster. Slow down and smell the roses, I say.
- Next, they removed the sunlight readability problems inherent in LCD screens. How am I going to cloister myself indoors on the Facebook now?
- Removing the awesome backlights found on most all LCD screens sucks out yet another benefit of LCD. Now that my battery lasts well over a full work or school day in continuous use, what can I use as an excuse for slacking off?

Finally, the nail in the coffin, so to speak.. The bastards at ASUS did it all at a price well under half of all comparable tablets while adding a Wacom input panel usually reserved for tablets costing 5 times as much!

My god.. You're right! I may as well just hire someone to kick me senseless.

pb

[dapriuk]

Thanks for the extensive review pbarrette. ASUS are almost there, the Wacom sensor and SD card slot puts this ahead of most of the capacitive devices but the display is too small. I'd prefer an A5 format screen (10" and 4:3) for reading and notetaking. I'd also prefer an open platform that I can get 3rd party applications on and maybe develop software for.

[Dan de V]

I have been keeping an eye on the Asus EA800 because I was looking for another e-reader that was also a good note taker. I already have an e-ink e-reader (sony) and I read my books on my phone (htc legend) as well but with me taking lots of notes in my work and wanting to go fully digital I was hoping to find a way I could combine old fashioned "scribe" note taking with digital storage and look up. The Asus EA800 is a potential option. However I have to say that I do not think it will get far, especially with the recent launch of the HTC flyer:

http://www.htc.com/www/product/flyer/overview.html

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/15/h...-7-inch-flyer/

This looks to be scribe centric like the EA800 but colour and with all the connectivity you would want. Plus being HTC means a quality product with a proven UI. The killer question then comes down to battery life....until the Flyer reviews come in I will still be on the fence but it looks like the EA800 will not be taking over the world

I should also add that the touted compatibility with evernote out of the box with the HTC flyer could swing quite a few people. However, it is remiss of me not to mention the serious price differential which swings it fully back in favour of the EA8000. The HTC Flyer is looking seriously expensive but I haven't seen confirmed pricing yet

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by pbarrette

I do think that the EeeNote will be a serious device in the coming months. I realize that the screen isn't e-ink and isn't in color. I believe that the note taking functionality with wifi based Evernote sync, basic web browsing and hackability of the device along with its relatively low price will make it a success.

Please define serious and success.