i think the eeeeeeeeeeeee pc is the crown in this market.

GenNove

@SpyderMS: Sorry for the double-post, but I forgot to add that there are plenty of reasons to buy an Eee PC that have absolutely nothing to do with it's cost. The low cost is simply icing on the cake. If you've read any of the many, many articles(?) here on the Giz about the Eee PC, and users comments associated with them, you would be well aware of this.

SpyderMS

@SneakerFiend: Maybe you should think less about affording that new computer and more about affording a decent education... Perhaps you could use that Eee PC after all Mr. McDuck... ;)

SpyderMS

@MrMaestr0: not this generation. theyre getting used to the textonscreen idea from growing up w/cells. give it 5 more years.

slumlord

Specs are okay for the segment, ugly shouldn't be allowed in any.

camo_r

that looks bad, really really bad. for the segment, specs are okay, but ugly shouldn't be accepted in any.

camo_r

@Hypenotist: Well, I agree on the textbook part, but I love handouts. Better than writing it ourselves. There's no point on just wasting time copying it down, while we can spend that time discussing about it, delving in to the details.

knvb1123

The handle in the back looks like a cheap airplane neck cushion from Lillian Vernon. Perhaps doubling as a floatation device...wow! No way Apple will keep up now. Takes that Steve Jobs!

MadiganLabRat

I thought OLPCs were dead...

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@rudeadly: If by "cooler" you mean "uglier" then yes.

Buran

way cooler than the air..

rudeadly

@Rob C: Why would you buy an eee pc in the first place???
IDK educational purposes ok thats for 3rd world countries.
Now for me that im upper middle class if not upper class i could afford to buy a new computer.
Nd best believe if im getting a laptop im getting the closest thing to a desktop that i can without the weight of a desktop.
Hopefully it doesnt run a 900mhz processor. Because instead of that we could all just send a whole bunch of xperia x1's to africa and let them have a cell phone, wifi, and WM6 computing goodness lmao!

SneakerFiend

Woah, no way could Apple, Sony, and others compete with that. The economy is in a recession, and will hardly spend on cool products. Who the hell would buy this?

JustEaton

@Hypenotist: I teach high school and I can tell you that for at least the last 5 years every one of the science books I use has a free cd-rom the students can take home instead of the text. The disc contains the entire text book in a searchable PDF. I would say over those 5 yrs. about maybe 10% take the disc instead of the text. Guess its just something about a text book at home.

MrMaestr0

I feel like making a toast to Intel for some strange reason

MrMaestr0

Now if textbook publishers would join the 21st century kids wouldn't have to tote around 7 different books or fill a locker full of wasteful paper handouts.

Hypenotist

It's for the classroom, but there's beer in the picture? My kinda classroom! Forget the rest of the specs, I think they finally found a way to get my kids interested in education!

Mandatory_Field

if its not running the new 'atom' procs, i'm out.

Bring on the updated EEE PC!

Rob C

It probably 'looks' thick due to its small size and horrible colour combination. I haven't seen that ugly grey in the world for a while...

EDENe

It's for the class room. Not for personal use. And what does intel know about style there the one's who think only the inside is what counts. They should be more like Apple...

ThatOneWeirdo

Looks pretty thick... maybe it needs to go on a diet.

Kobe_No_Means_No

Guys, seriously. You sound like a bunch of women here. Fashion over function. Look to what it is suppose to accomplish with a low attached cost not about the handle or what shade of gray is on it.

GhostofCharlesBronson

i didn't want a beer. then i read this post. then i wanted a beer. mysterious!

cpe1704tks

Well, right now the reason I don't forsee "the competitors" beat the Eee is its currently entrenched position. What the community has done for the Eee is a necessary part of adapting the tool for its market. They need to offer a machine with better specs, for the same price, and more importantly to look at what the community modded/adapted/installed/hacked on the Eee, and offer those things out of the box. People have replaced custom OS for more established ones (Ubuntu and XP)? Then offer Ubuntu or XP out of the box. People modded the machine to have a touchscreen? Sell it with a touchscreen.

These competitors aim to do the same thing Asus did. What they should aim for, is to do significantly BETTER than Asus. It might be difficult because Asus was willing to forgo a large profit margin per machine in order to get their name out there, while its competitors have typically kept the margins in this market high, but they'll have to adapt. Asus is no longer at the disadvantage it was before; the public that cares about laptop brands other than Apple and Dell have probably at least heard mention of the Eee by now. And most of the competitors are by even more obscure brands than Asus was; the general public has never heard about Acer, ECS, MSI, Everex, GeCube... They've heard about HP and Intel, but those are not brands the general public tend to have a strong opinion of (either for or against). On the other hand, if IBM, Sony, Apple or Dell came up with a serious competitor to the Eee, they'd have a good brand advantage.

Guizzy

@mikail511: Perhaps the companies hold out, just in case something is leaked, so they can deny the validity.

faabshaam

how come leaked pics never actually show the company's logo on the device?

mikail511

@mikail511: Indeed.

Nighthawkz

damn this is ugly

Jumep

Some are so stupid in their statement...

IT'S NOT A FASHION DESIGN, it's for school for Xsake !!!

Main qualities should be Roughness and usability, NOT fashion...

Dude27

@Dude27:
These are probably the same mouth-breathers calling the Toughbook out on it's styling.

Let 'em babble. They're clueless.

strider_mt2k

Looks like the old Compaq 9000 series. That aside in my opinion, users are looking for functionality over design. Purchase the laptop that you can afford, use it a couple of years, pass it on to friends or family, buy something new. Computers are commodity products, they all do about the same thing, for 400 bucks, I would love to have this as my school computer.

Tex1961

After all of the blingtastic crap-o-rama hardware encrusted with images of Hello Kitty, Mario and Zelda fanfare with their fruity colors and tasteless Liberace accessory appeal, THIS gets bitching?

I sort of like the goofy retro look of it. It may very well match my Napoleon Dynamite Moonboots!

Kaiser-Machead

I sure do like the inflatable handle.

gizmodohomepage

@MrMaestr0: Reading a text is a lot nicer than reading a screen.

monkeybars

I have no idea that is why I come to Giz. So is it?

BigViper

intel's laptop...from 1992?

bobvilla

It is sort of insane to see how everyone notes how "ugly" this looks when you have to think about how "ugly" the first computer must have looked and yet the fact that it could do so much was looked at as something amazing. The fact that there can be a laptop so affordable and usable for one's basic needs is what should be looked at. If anything, you can always design the laptop by putting stickers on the cover or something.

Anyway, I am sort of surprised it would have a 900 mhz processor seeing my first computer could probably handle half the size? I would love to see how the students use this.

orangepixistix

It's not that it has a handle on the back, it's that the handle is ugly as all crap.

In fact, much of it is.

That XP desktop looks pretty cool, though. Definitely an improvement over Vista.

cyborgtroy