Asus EEE PC 701 Reviews
The Asus EEE PC 701 was the very first netbook. Released in late 2007, it was revolutionary and Asus has now sold millions of units worldwide. This is the predecessor to the EEE PC 901.
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Do you own this netbook? Leave a user review below and help other buyers!
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6 Positive Reviews |
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2 Negative Reviews |
Average Rating:
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Ever since I bought this little beauty in May it has been my constant companion. It is light and small but the keyboard is excellent when you get used to it and I can type more quickly on it now than I can on any other. It is also a very beautiful shade of pale green and not shiny, so very practical.
It comes with almost everything you need installed (I have the Linux Xandros version) and my only reservation is that to install another language or to update Firefox is not very simple for a beginner. However, there is an excellent forum for this.
It has very good wireless and boots up in about 40 sec. so for travellers it’s ideal. My overall recommendation is: if you want something small, light, practical and cheap - go for this model!
i have the 701 4G now well over a year and it hasn’t lost it’s fascination.
the 701 is nothing special anymore, many new netbooks hit the market since and i have worked with quite a lot. but it still beats them all in terms of portability and price (less than €200). it is reliable end extremely robust since it doesn’t sport any moving parts (except the cooling fan). truly a great road warrior.
4 GB disk space doesn’t sound much, yet it is more than enough for the operating system and the software i’m using. data i carry with me on SDHC cards.
the Celeron M CPU is still up to the challenge and handles all applications i have ever thrown at it quite well.
the keyboard was quite a change compared to a fully fledged laptop but it didn’t take me long to come to terms with it.
i’m using the Eee PC mainly for network analysis, messaging, watching the odd movie and a bit of DJing, so i don’t mind the 7″ display. don’t expect too much from the internal speakers, there isn’t just enough space in such a small device, but they could be worse.
it’s good to see the 701 still around, so people don’t have to spend €350+ for a netbook that gets the job done.
Eee PC 701 is a great computer. It comes with Linux (cheapest) and Windows (personally, i don’t like Windows).
The original Xandros is very different of the other Linuxes, for example, it mounts all the drives in My Documents. Better install Eeebuntu Netbook Remix, that is based on tabs to.
The Eee 701 is a great machine for installing XP and run a lot of games (a lot of great games run, including The Sims 2, Vice City, Call of Duty 1 and much more). Anyway, you need to install all that on external drives.
Ok, Ok, this netbook is made for browsing.
It comes with a 7″ screen with a 800 by 480 resolution; a very small speakers, a good keyboard for kids, maybe not so good for adults. A touchpad with a hard buttons. 3 USB ports, a VGA port, an SDHC card reader (good for a $350 computer), an integrated microphone, an enthernet port and a camera.
The Asus Eee 701 has been one of the most useful devices I have ever owned. I bought it the very day it became available back in November 2007 so I have had it over a year. I cannot imagine not having owned it for all the good uses I have put it to. One thing I would recommend is if you have the Linux 4G like I have definitely upgrade the OS to the Advanced Mode because it is much more familiar and usable especially for people with Windows background.
What do I do with my 701? Everything. I go to coffee shops several times a week, use the units wifi to access the internet, I use logmein.com to access my desktop computers at home and elsewhere, I administrate my business remotely and make sales and take customer questions. It’s purpose as a low profile business machine is very underrated. I can get in and out of meetings and situations with my 701 that would be impossible for other laptops.
And further it is so small you can take it anywhere. It’s gone with me on vacations, to restaurants, and to events. When it is in its case it looks like you are carrying a small book so if you are walking the criminals don’t notice you like they would if you had the telltale laptop bag. It is so small in fact that if I need two hands to maybe put my hat on or get an umbrella, I can tuck it under my chin briefly and do what I need. With an 8GB SDHC card I never have memory problems.
To many good things to say about this computer. No plans to upgrade any time soon.
I bought the 701 4GB as soon as it came out, hacked it to Advanced Mode, remapped the right shift key and directional arrows, and used it as my on-the-go travel machine. While it is truly a transformative device, I just upgraded to an HP Mini 1000 and gave the Asus to my brother.
My biggest complaint about ALL Asus netbooks, and all the other netbooks that use the same, strange, cheap, keyboard, is that the right shift key is in the wrong place - not, as some reviewers say, because it makes me stretch my hand too far - that’s absurd on a tiny keyboard. But because, if you touch-type, it is incredibly annoying to keep hitting “page up” when you mean to shift.
The other problems with the 701 are that it won’t connect WPA, let alone WPA2. There are all sorts of threads about this with potential solutions but we could never make it work, period. Also, I had hoped to use it for rough photo editing on-the-fly but couldn’t really use it for that. I use a USB mouse so the trackpad isn’t an issue for me.
Finally, Celeron chips sip power, even when the machine is off, so you can’t assume that it is charged and ready-to-go.
These issues not-withstanding, I loved it for the 15 months I had it and am sure that my brother will get years of use out of it because it is virtually indestructible - and he’s a Luddite.
I bought an Eee 701 but sold it after a week because the keys were too small. I bought a Dell Mini 9 and am very happy with it. I originally tried to return the Eee but neither the store I bought it from or Asus would take it back, even after it locked up during a restore. The store’s website and support team said I had to return it to Asus because the store had an agreement with Asus not to accept returns “for any reason”. Asus would not respond to my requests for support or RMA and actually closed several requests, just entering “CLOSED” in the response block. Horrible tech support! I finally filed with the Better Business Bureau and after a couple of weeks the store I bought it from sent me an RMA. In the meantime, I managed to get it to restore and sold it on eBay at a huge loss. I will never buy an Asus anything again!
I recently bought the 701 2g version which I thought was the same with the 4g version but with less storage (didn’t mind that)and with the some 900M undeclocked to 570mhz instead of 630 mhz . When I got I realized that it had a different 800M seleron and there was not a way to overclocked it as the 4g model and “unlock” its true power. It isn’t bad at all I can do everything but play some games (N64 emulation for instance). Prefer the 4g one.
Not a bad little computer, but lacking in lots of ways. The keys are much too small, the screen is sharp and clear but also a bit small. The default Xandros OS is barely adequate - fine for kids or casual users but not for serious computing. The only other OS which functions well is a stripped down (NLite) version of Windows XP Pro. The SD slot will not reliably support SDHC cards and the SSD cannot be replaced. It will handle basic web functions pretty well, but others do it much better.