Asus Eee vs Acer Aspire 4315

It was my mom who texted me one day and told me of the existence of this laptop. My mom said that it was small and it was a very nice laptop. I was at first skeptical about the said laptop and decided to do some research about this wonder laptop called the Asus Eee PC.

I would have to say that for a small laptop it actually has very good features. And you would get these features at a very small cost. So how much will it (Asus Eee PC 701) retail in the Philippines? 17,999 pesos! At the said price, it is actually cheaper than the announced price of USD $399, if converted using 44 pesos to a dollar. It’s cheaper to get the Asus Eee PC here in the Philippines!

But don’t get your hopes up yet guys. Just check it’s specifications so that you can judge for yourself what this so-called Asus Eee really is:

· Processor: Intel Celeron M ULV 900MHz

· Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA 900 GPU

· Storage: 4GB of Flash-based storage (SSD) (there is also an 8GB version)

· Memory: 512MB of DDR2 RAM (667MHz)

· OS: Xandros Linux (Asus customized, preloaded with OpenOffice, Skype, and google applications)

· Screen: 7-inch screen with 800 x 480 resolution

· Ports: 3 USB 2.0, 1 VGA monitor out, headphone jack, microphone input, SD card reader (SDHC compatible), Kensington lock slot, Ethernet 10/100

· Webcam (0.3 MP)

· Battery: 4-cell 5200 mAh 7.4V Li-Ion (rated at 3.5 hours)

· Wireless: 802.11b/g Atheros

· Input: Keyboard and Touchpad

· Weight: approximately 2 lbs with battery, 2.5 lbs travel weight with AC adapter.

· Two-year warranty

In my opinion, the Asus Eee Notebook would be a great toy for children. It is also a very good laptop for students and people who will only use it for research and word processing works. Don’t expect to play games in this PC or be able to install programs like Windows XP and Photoshop with the very limited 8GB storage memory.

It’s a good thing that I researched the specifications of this laptop first rather than quickly agreeing to get this laptop. Although Asus is a well respected brand, it’s specs doesn’t suit me at all.

So I’m still hanging on to my dream of getting that Acer Aspire 4315 with much better specs but for a much higher price of course. But the Acer Aspire is pretty much worth it with these specs:

• Intel® Celeron® M Processor 530SR (1.73GHz, 1MB Cache, 533MHz FSB)
• Mobile Intel® GL960 Express chipset with integrated 3D graphics, featuring Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) X3100, up to 358 MB of Intel DVMT 4.0 (8 MB of dedicated, up to 350 MB of shared system memory), supporting Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0
• 14.1" Wide XGA CrystalBrite (200 nit) Color LCD supports 1280 x 800 pixel resolution and dual display via Acer GridVista
• 80GB SATA HDD
• 1GB DDR2 RAM
• Integrated 56Kbps modem & 10/100 Mbps LAN
• Integrated 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
• Integrated DVD/CD-RW combo drive
• Two built-in Acer 3DSonic stereo speakers
• 6-cell Li-Ion Battery Pack (2.0 hours battery life)
• 3xUSB, 1xVGA port, ExpressCard/54 slot, S-video/TV-out (NTSC/PAL) port
• 344 (W) × 246 (D) × 37/42 (H) mm
• Weight 2.6kg
• 1-Year International Traveler Warranty
• Acer Designed Carrying Bag
• Genuine Microsoft Windows XP OS

For Php 32,000 the Acer Aspire 4315 is a great buy indeed!