Eee Note EA800
Introduction
The Asus Eee Note EA 800 is one of the few devices of 2010 that aims to carve its own niche. Targeted at a specific reading market comprising of students, writers, and businessmen, the 8-inch monochromatic slate directs its effort at refining one task: note-taking. It is, is, in essence, a digital notepad.
Deciding to perfect one function is surely wiser than doing half-baked several things at once. What remains to be seen: has Asus succeeded in its aim?
Features – Hardware and Software
The construction of the Asus Eee Note EA 800 feels solid without being bulky. Overall, the device measures 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.43 inches. Relative to its size, it’s hefty; it weighs exactly a pound, the same weight as the 9.7-inch Kindle DX. The top of the device includes a slot for holding the stylus.
The Eee Note EA 800 uses a glass display tempered to 3H pencil hardness to make it extra durable. However, this caused the display to look matted so it’s terrible for reading. The glass is also covered with an anti-glare coating in order to improve viewing angles (images are viewable from any perspective). Text is sharp; after all, the display comes with 1024 x 768 pixel resolution and 64 grayscales (that’s 4 times more grayscale than the Kindle 3!). What’s lacking is the option to adjust brightness.
The display is highly responsive to pen input, and writing accuracy is one of the best we’ve seen. After all, the device employs a whooping 2450 dpi and it recognizes 256 levels of pen pressure.
The Asus Eee digital notepad and eReader comes with 14 applications, including Camera, Text, and Sudoku. It’s central feature, however, is the Eee Note. This app features a notebook-like page that can be used to write notes on or draw. While you can save your notes on the device, there’s no way you can store them in the cloud. In the event your Eee Notepad goes dead, your notes go with it.
Asus markets the Eee Note EA 800 as a great tool recording lectures or meeting conversations, too, but this is where the device falters. The microphone’s range is actually limited; what you get is a recording whom quality ranges from poor to slightly incomprehensible.
There’s an experimental web browser and it connects to the Internet over WiFi network. This one needs improvement, too, as appears to be sluggish in loading web pages.
The Asus Eee Note EA 800 uses an unnamed proprietary processor and houses a 4GB internal memory, an SD card slot that can handle up to 16GB cards, 2MP rear-facing camera, and a headphone jack.
The 3700mAh battery lasts up to 13 hours of reading and writing with wireless off and 10 hours with wireless on.
The device natively supports ePub and PDF files only, but a built-in conversion tool allows you to import and read txt, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx documents, too.
The Bottom Line
As a digital notepad, the Asus Eee Note EA 800 is sure to please digital handwriting enthusiasts. However, if what you’re looking for is a great reading device, well, the $200 Asus Eee Note is no Kindle.
Pros The Asus Eee Note EA 800 is one attractive device; it sports an elegant-looking brushed aluminum black casing. Also, the device’s simple, well thought-out UI and highly responsive touch display makes it fun to use for writing and drawing. Cons Some features still need some tweaking to improve their performace. On top of the list is the device’s lack of ability to store notes in the cloud. Also, Asus needs to include a desktop software that will let users transfer, view, and edit notes on a PC. The device’s accelerator works with the web browser only. When using other apps, only the portrait mode works. The Asus Eee Note EA 800 responds to stylus input only. You can’t use your fingers to navigate the device.
What’s in the box: • Asus Eee Note EA 800 • Stylus • USB • User Manual
Main Features • 8-inch, 64-grayscale monochromatic LCD with anti-glare covering • Dimension: 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.43 inches • Fine-grained display with 2450 dpi • WiFi connectivity • 250 pen pressures 10,000 eBooks or 20,000 pages of notes • 4GB storage can hold up to • Up to 13 hours battery life Key Features • A digital notepad and eReader • 14 built-in apps • Over 50 built-in templates
When will it be available in Europe? And why are Taiwan having it first? Makes no sense……