Netbook questions Eee PC vs. Mini 9

[banjobacon]

I didn't want to start yet another netbook thread, but there are so many threads to read through, I couldn't really find one that answered my specific questions. If you're aware of a thread that answers one or more of my questions, please provide a link to it.

I'm considering a netbook, and I think I'd like to go with one of these two. It seems like most people are very satisfied with their Eee PCs, but I've been pretty happy with Dell products in the past, and I"ve read that the Mini 9 demonstrates their move towards making higher quality products. I would also like to support the operating system I'm probably going to end up using, Ubuntu, by buying from Dell. My questions:

1 - Is there a consensus regarding which of these two products is superior? I read this review (http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3399&p=1), which speaks very favorably of the Mini 9, but says the Eee PC is still slightly better. The review is a few months old, though, and I wonder if opinions have changed now that the Mini 9 has been on the market for a while. Certainly, the price difference between the two products is not as great as stated in the review (http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3399&p=8).

2 - Is there any brick and mortar store that would have a Mini 9 on display? I saw an Eee PC on display at Best Buy, but it wouldn't turn on (no power cord, battery probably drained). I'm sure look and feel is a large factor when deciding which of these small laptops is right for you, and I'd like to see the Mini 9 before making up my mind. I live in New York, by the way, in case anyone knows of a local store that might have one on display.

3 - What are the power cords on these things like? Am I going to have to carry around a power brick that weights almost as much as the netbook? Yes, I know the battery will last me a long time, but it'll certainly need to be recharged on long trips.

4 - The Eee PC's touchpad is multi-touch, while the Mini 9 has a normal touch pad, right? Does multi-touch functionality work on Linux, or only Windows? Will it work if I install Ubuntu or Easy Peasy?

[banjobacon]

I found the answer to number 3 in this review (http://portablemonkey.com/article/asus-eee-pc-901-vs-acer-aspire-one-vs-dell-mini-9/). The Dell seems to have the better adapter, in my opinion (and the reviewer's), being lightest, and the adapter is built into the prong, like Mac notebooks.

I guess another concern of mine is how quickly can I get one. I've read about there being delays in shipping Mini 9s, whereas I can just buy an Eee PC in a store or on Amazon.

[azangru]

4 - The Eee PC's touchpad is multi-touch, while the Mini 9 has a normal touch pad, right? Does multi-touch functionality work on Linux?

It does (at least in the default Xandros Linux), but I realized I never use it anyway.

[wmcbrine]

I use the Eee PC's multi-touch constantly, because a two-finger tap equals a middle-button click (X selection paste, open link in a new tab in Firefox), and a two-finger swipe scrolls.

I don't see having the adapter built into the prong as a plus. It makes it less likely to fit into a tightly-spaced outlet.

[banjobacon]

I use the Eee PC's multi-touch constantly, because a two-finger tap equals a middle-button click (X selection paste, open link in a new tab in Firefox), and a two-finger swipe scrolls.

I don't see having the adapter built into the prong as a plus. It makes it less likely to fit into a tightly-spaced outlet.

Are you also using the default Xandros installation?

At the moment, I can't imagine an outlet where it would be difficult to plug it in, except those found on some surge protectors. Otherwise, it would work well with most wall outlets, I think.

[garwaymatt]

It's only the 701 EEE's that had the plug in power adaptor, the rest use a small ordinary laptop style one. I had the 701, and the EEE's are good machines. I did find the keyboard quite small, but still usuable. The only EEE with the larger keyboard are the 10 inch ones. The dell has slightly bigger keys.

If I was buying another I would get the Dell, as it runs ubuntu out of the box as opposed to the xandros on the eee's, which is miles behind the ubuntu interface. It was good when it came out, but it is suffering from a lack of love from Asus.

Of course the EEEuser forums are excellent ;) Pop over there if you need any help.

[gn2]

You can't say "the Eee" because there are at least five different Eee notebook chassis.

IMO, the best one is the Eee901 and I would buy this in preference to the Dell.

BUT: if I were in the market for a netbook it would have to be an HP 2133, mainly because there so cheap (in the UK) now and have significantly better build quality and higher screen res.

[wmcbrine]

Are you also using the default Xandros installation?No, Ubuntu Eee.

[banjobacon]

So, I tried an Eee PC at Best Buy. They keyboard seemed okay, but when I held down keys, the result would be no different than if I had pressed an released it. This made scrolling with the arrow keys, or deleting a series of characters, kind of annoying. Is this a hardware issue, or just a setting on Xandros?

[wmcbrine]

Just Xandros. I dimly remember something like that from my time with it... anyway, no problem with key repeat in Ubuntu Eee.

However, there are still physical problems with the keyboard: sometimes keys don't register (I haven't hit them hard enough), and sometimes they register twice (not sure why). The spacebar in particular goes missing a lot. I don't want to overstate the severity of the problem, but it is annoying. Of course the keys are very tiny as well.

This is with a 900A.

[Therion]

Using an Asus eee 1000 with eeebuntu here. Like you I was tempted by the Dell Mini. Can't say much about it, since like you, I wasn't able to find one in the flesh I could play with.

As to your questions...

The power brick is just like any other notebook, it's just smaller; but a lot smaller.

The touchpad, using eeebuntu, is Multi-touch.

Your experience with the keys not auto-repeating when held down is a Xandros oddity. I have perfect key-repeat under eeebuntu (as I did under Easy Peasy, I just prefer eeebuntu).

One thing to look at when comparing is battery size. The eee 1000 comes with a six-cell battery and I get five hours easily on a charge. It stuck in my mind that the Dell has a four-cell battery (at least in the "default" configuration). I don't know if that's a big issue for you or not, but I thought I'd point it out. Also, I'm going by memory, so I could be wrong about this. Still, don't ignore battery size when comparing.

The eee has a dedicated and very active forum; not sure if the Mini 9 does or not.

[super breadfish]

I've got an Eee PC 901, which is awesome. Fast, flexible and very sturdy. I was honestly surprised by how much it could handle, I bought it for email and note taking, but I now take it LAN parties.
The power supply is tiny, little bigger than a pocket matchbox and lighter than a feather. Great battery life too, 6-7 hours.
Multitouch is nice but I wouldn't say it's a killer feature. I usually use the arrow keys on the keyboard.

I'd say the Eee has the edge, but they are fairly close. If you want Linux pre-installed the Mini 9 might be the better choice. The default Eee PC Linux is awful. I dual boot Windows XP and Xubuntu (Yes, on a 4GB SSD).

[billgoldberg]

I didn't want to start yet another netbook thread, but there are so many threads to read through, I couldn't really find one that answered my specific questions. If you're aware of a thread that answers one or more of my questions, please provide a link to it.

I'm considering a netbook, and I think I'd like to go with one of these two. It seems like most people are very satisfied with their Eee PCs, but I've been pretty happy with Dell products in the past, and I"ve read that the Mini 9 demonstrates their move towards making higher quality products. I would also like to support the operating system I'm probably going to end up using, Ubuntu, by buying from Dell. My questions:

1 - Is there a consensus regarding which of these two products is superior? I read this review (http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3399&p=1), which speaks very favorably of the Mini 9, but says the Eee PC is still slightly better. The review is a few months old, though, and I wonder if opinions have changed now that the Mini 9 has been on the market for a while. Certainly, the price difference between the two products is not as great as stated in the review (http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3399&p=8).

2 - Is there any brick and mortar store that would have a Mini 9 on display? I saw an Eee PC on display at Best Buy, but it wouldn't turn on (no power cord, battery probably drained). I'm sure look and feel is a large factor when deciding which of these small laptops is right for you, and I'd like to see the Mini 9 before making up my mind. I live in New York, by the way, in case anyone knows of a local store that might have one on display.

3 - What are the power cords on these things like? Am I going to have to carry around a power brick that weights almost as much as the netbook? Yes, I know the battery will last me a long time, but it'll certainly need to be recharged on long trips.

4 - The Eee PC's touchpad is multi-touch, while the Mini 9 has a normal touch pad, right? Does multi-touch functionality work on Linux, or only Windows? Will it work if I install Ubuntu or Easy Peasy?

3. no, it's a small battery, that ways close to nothing.

4. yes it works. I just used it.

Forget Ubuntu or Easy Peasy, you'll want Eeebuntu.

[MysticGold04]

I just got an Eee 1000HA a few weeks ago. I love it! I compared it to the MSI Wind and Lenovo netbook. The Eee won out, because of the 6 cell battery and other minor things. The MSI Wind and Lenovo had 3 cell batteries. Check and compare them on newegg.com. I tried both eebuntu and easy peasy, but they weren't for me. I installed Ubuntu 8.10 and got the wireless and other ACPI scripts working perfectly. IMO, get the eee, you wont be disappointed.

[sefs]

Don't forget to also evaluate the Acer Aspire One as well.

[Fenris_rising]

I have an eee pc 904HD with easy peasy OS. It's brilliant! The build quality is very good. Keyboard is fine once you get used to the slightly smaller size and the multitouch works perfectly. I also use cruncheee OS on a 4G SDHC card and fluxflux on a 4G usb stick. you wont be disappointed :D

regards

Fenris

[Daisuke_Aramaki]

Have been using eee pc 1000h since a couple of months. runs on gentoo perfectly and its very fast! have had no issues with it so far! :p The only screwup is the positioning of the shift and up keys. But i am kinda used to it now! :D

[banjobacon]

I think I'll probably go with the Eee PC 901.

The idea of the power adapter, no matter how small, dangling between the wall and myself bugs me, but with its longer battery life, I can hopefully avoid using the cord in uncomfortable situations.

What's the difference between Easy Peasy and Eeebuntu?

[banjobacon]

The Eee PC just arrived. I snap the battery in and plugged in the power cord, turn the thing on, and there's this really high pitch sound coming from the computer. I decide to take the battery off, and the sound goes away.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I'm going to let it charge before I play with it some more, but I find it very weird that the battery is making noise.

[rotwang888]

OK- I have a (stupid) eee 901 question. Why am I having such a hard time finding one? I want the 1.6 Atom with 20 Gb drive, Linux and black. I keep running into vendors that are sold out, only have the XP version, only have white, or want crazy money ($500+). Amazon has the 900 in stock with free shipping, but that has the slower processor. Will I notice? Anybody have experience with the 900 vs 901? Or know a good source for a Linux 901?