EEE-PC, Pricing a dissapointment...

[imported_falacy]

I was pretty excited when I read about the EEE-PC, but I had reservations about my excitement - somehow I knew it was just too good to be true. At first, the low end model was said to have a 4GB flash drive and 256MB of RAM with a 7" LCD and retail for $200, with the highend 10" 8GB model running for $399. Now, according to my favorite Canadian PC retailer, the prices are:

7" (800x480), 2GB Flash Storage Drive, 256MB Memory, 4-Cell Battery, 802.11 B/G, Linux Preloaded (Windows XP Compatible) - $289.95

7" (800x480), 2GB Flash Storage Drive, 256MB Memory, 4-Cell Battery, WebCam, 802.11 B/G, Linux Preloaded (Windows XP Compatible) - $329.95

7" (800x480), 4GB Flash Storage Drive, 512MB Memory, 4-Cell Battery, WebCam, 802.11 B/G, Linux Preloaded (Windows XP Compatible) - $429.95


Now, I paid $449 for my Dell Inspiron 1501, which has 1.8GHz Sempron, 1GB RAM, 80GB SATA drive, 15.4" LCD, wifi, SD card reader, DVDROM/CD-RW with Vista Basic just two months ago - knowing that for a new laptop, that was good deal. This laptop plays World of Warcraft at its native resolution smoothly, runs any office software, has 100% driver compatibility with Kububtu/Ubuntu linux (WoW runs like crap in Linux on it though... thanks ati...), has a full sized keyboard, and 4 hours of battery life when just surfing the net (more with the wifi adapter off).

That's a little perspective, eh?

With the Canadian dollar being so high now (equivilent to the US dollar +/- half a cent), I really can't see why these EEE-PC are so expensive up here. Unless, it really is impossible to make "the Nintendo DS Lite of computers" - a cheap, durable, portable and USEFUL device.

Optimally, I would have prefered to have a 10" portable computer than a 16" one, but that extra $20 went much too far to gripe about the physical size. Infact, the only reason I would (as a consumer) choose the highest end EEE-PC over a normal low end laptop would be if the EEE-PC was waterproof, which it is not.

Anyhow, I hope that something changes in the future that allows these little PCs to drop down to the $140 - $299 price points they should be at, considering their functionality when compaired to similarly priced laptops.

Arg! Why did Nintendo of America have to tell me they're not interested in making a DS Lite PC!? (Really, I wrote them a while back and they said they just want to be a really good game company. Commendable, sure, but they did such a great job with the DS lite and then the Wii...).

 

[frostedflakes]

Yeah you guys are kind of getting screwed there, I think that $330 model is supposed to be priced around $240 in the US. Now that the exchange rate is basically 1:1 even after shipping it's probably significantly cheaper to find a US retailer that'll send it to Canada.

But comparing it to a 15" laptop is silly in my opinion. EEE PC should be compared to other ultra-portables, most of which can't be found for less than $800. IMO even at the higher than initially expected pricing the EEE PC nicely fills a basically empty up until now market: Cheap AND ultra-portable laptops. Obviously if price and performance are more important to you than mobility go out and pick up a 15" notebook, they can easily be found for $400-500 these days.

EDIT: My mistake, it's the $290 model that's supposed to be $240 in the US. Still a bit more pricey but not as bad as I thought.

 

[asdftt123]

Ugh....it's not price that's the concern for me, but rather when this thing will actually get released. Asus has been disappointing many by constantly pushing back the release date time after time and I'm getting really sick of it. If there happens to be another revision of the 13" Macbook before the end of October I might opt to get that instead...I just really want a nice looking, small, and portable laptop for my schooling that I can carry around daily.

 

[frostedflakes]

Meh, overall it's only been delayed like a month or two, right? Not too bad IMO, although I think they kind of hurt themselves by missing an August release date and all the potential laptop sales around the time school started. But yeah I'm not too worried about it, hopefully it should be out mid- or late-October, that is unless they push it back again.

I'd rather they get everything right and release it a little late than put out a crappy product.