Jump to content

RM Asus miniBook review

Dos_Box

By Dos_Box
in Hardware

 Share

Recommended Posts

Dos_Box

Dos_Box

Posted
Posted

If you missed the conference then shame on you. You missed something rather special. We got our hands on the only RM Asus miniBook in the country. Pleaseead the first impressions review on the document attached, as it has the screen shots attached. the text is below.

 

At first glance the Research Machines (RM) Asus miniBook doesn’t seem like much, tiny at 22.5 cm wide, 16.5 cm deep, just 3.5 cm high, and all less than 1KG in weight. Coupled with a white plastic chassis, 7 inch screen and what seemed to be keyboard keys far too small to be used comfortably, it looks more like an oversized PDA or advanced digital photo frame.

 

It’s only once you switch it on and use it for a few minutes that you begin to realise your jaw has dropped without you even knowing. The miniBook is something rather special.

The version we played with (the only one in the country as far as we know) was powered by a 900Mhz Celeron-M and having 512MB of RAM it runs the custom Debian Linux core and applications all running from a 4GB RAM drive with almost zero effort.

A quick look around the chassis reveals a plethora of ports and connectivity that makes it better supported than some of its far more expensive big brand sub notebooks. It has 3 USB 2.0 ports, 802.11b/g wireless, as well as a standard LAN port and a modem to ensure that you can connect from almost anywhere. A VGA connector, SD card slot and headphone socket fill up the remaining space around the chassis. There is no CD or DVD drive on this device, and to be frank, it doesn’t need one. It also has 2 speakers mounted either side of the screen to assist the miniBook in video conferencing with its inbuilt webcam and with multimedia functions, of which the miniBook is very well equipped.

When you fire up the miniBook the first thing you really notice is the boot time, or lack of it. In fact, you will probably shut it down and reboot it just to make sure you weren’t bringing it out of sleep mode it is that fast. The 4GB RAM drive is ideally suited to this kind of device.

 

Once the OS has loaded you are presented with what can only be described as a tabbed desktop with a taskbar at the bottom of the screen. The tabs, labelled, Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings, Favourites, and of course Help are all stuffed with icons enabling you to perform almost any task you can think of. Selecting the settings tab reveals access to a host of features from the mundane volume control to the useful ‘Add\Remove Programs’ which uses a graphical apt utility to automatically download and install any extra applications you require. Unfortunately we did not have time to see this in operation. Other bundled apps include Open Office 2.0, an anti-virus package, media and music players plus Thunderbird as the mail client and Firefox as the default browser making everything in this little powerhouse as familiar as the icons being used to launch any of the miniBooks’ applications.

It is obvious from the very moment you start to use the miniBook that a great deal of time and effort has gone into its development. Nothing is hidden (well, we couldn’t find a terminal, but we only had it for an hour or so!) all of the available features are easy to find and it is obvious that it is aimed at guiding Windows users without losing them. Connectivity too has been closely looked at with a built in Skype client, Gmail and Hotmail connectors a multi platform instant messaging client.

What is not clear is exactly what type of device it is and where it sits in the PDA, laptop chain. Dave Leach from Research Machines gave us a presentation where RM firmly place it as an ‘access device’ rather than a productivity tool. And access it can. We successfully had it connected to a Sun Secure Global Desktop Connection over a wireless link. For mobile users it may possibly be ideal lightweight thin client.

 

Seeing the miniBook displaying and operating a remote Windows desktop seemed to many to be the icing on top of the cake.

As I have said earlier, we only had it for an hour or so, but our first impressions are very strong. Research Machines tell us that the first batch are mainly destined for the governments ‘Computers for Pupils’ initiative where the most disadvantaged children are given computers and internet connections in a bid to bridge the digital divide. This is the ideal device for it. With two models, the highest spec costing only £200 and lowest £169 it is cheap, exceedingly well thought out and above all, usable from the word go.

Providing no build gremlins creep in, we suspect the miniBook is destined for a huge user and fan base, and more importantly, this could be the way that Linux finally emerges into the UK education sector at user level in massive quantities. RM Admitted to us that the profit margin on these is not very large, but boy, they are going to sell a lot of them.

russdev

russdev

Posted
Posted

@MrHappy

 

Quite tough if I had though about it would of got some vids of it with my phone (I have some of the presenatation).

 

If want should be getting mine in next werek or so when it comes will do a video review of it.

 

Russ

contink

contink

Posted
Posted

It sounds good but by nature I'm cynical (not, old, just cynical :p) and thinking of some awkward questions.

 

Has anyone looked at this from the admin' point of view, ie: installing updates, providing net access, shared folder (home) access on a domain, etc...

 

What sort of tie in's are there, ie: is domain support going to be through the RM networking products or could we expect more generic support (if any).

 

Granted we're not going to be deploying MSI's and the like (t'is linux after all) but I'm curious as to where it might fit in, within a normal school IT setup.

russdev

russdev

Posted
Posted

As was said by Rm this is pitched similar kind of way that PDA's are. If you have problem with pda aka major problem you reset the machine back to default.

 

Remember it is not a laptop. As for updates has a handy auto update etc. Also you would not been adding this to domain anyway as login domain pc. Idea behind this product is a anytime quick and easy access device.

 

But on that note they are looking to put it on cc4 network is my understanding and just be like any other linux machine logging into windows network.

 

So you want device that appears on wireless/network that can access things like thin client/vle etc. Then a quick device that turn on and sit say off network and do some 'office' type work aka word processing, spreadsheets etc etc

 

Network Access is via dhcp etc so no major issues there.

 

Application deployment would be same as any other linux based system and sure can do central install on linux like gpo's etc so wouldn't of thought be tough to setup.

 

Russell

deano

deano

Posted
Posted

I have purchased one these a few weeks back with RM conducting a trial in school with some of our students. We have 100 PDA's at the moment given to pupils in school for 24/7 learining as part of the Learning2gGo project.

 

The PDAs/EDAs are good but have limitiations in terms of software, so we are always looking into new technologies. The ASUS is XP compatible so once we have one, we have a program that strips down XP, which we will then load to the MINIbook. If works, we buy an XP Home licence, incorporate it to the schools licensing agreement and install Office!!!

 

JOB DONE

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


×
×
  • Create New...