The netbook challenge

Tomorrow (January 17th, 2009) sees the start of “The netbook challenge” for Sam, our Head Editor.

Here at bitcolumns we thought it would be funny to see if Sam, who is a self confessed computer addict and heavy user, could last a whole week only using a ASUS Eee PC S101 instead of his standard Dell XPS laptop.

Sam will be keeping a diary of the week as it happens, on the S101, and hopefully we will see if it is possible for a heavy user to move entirely to the new platform.  Unfortunately, we have had to make 2 exceptions to this:

• Sam may use his XPS for editing the video for the bitcast (but all research must be done on the S101)
• Sam may use his normal computers when at work, to not stop the running of the school.

These exceptions make sure everyone continues to run smoothly as we transfer to our new design, and features.

Day 1 (Saturday)

I have to say that today was an easy day for this challenge, with me being at work for most of it. But… the S101 did come into it’s own during the day. I took it to work with me, so was easily able to turn it on (very quickly, I must add) and do some writing whilst eating lunch. On my normal laptop this would be awkward due to the size, and battery life on performance mode. The small size of the S101, and ridiculous battery life, allow this sort of thing to become normal.

The evening was strange though, as I am used to sitting at my desk working on the latest bit of writing, but as I write this, sat on the sofa in my parents’ lounge, I am quite easily able to enjoy the comedic stylings of Michael McIntyre at the same time. (In fact I laughed so much at one point, I almost dropped the machine.)

Day 2 (Sunday)

Today was the first true test, as I was not at work. This meant lasting a whole day without any other computer. The morning was great again, being able to sit in the lounge with my family whilst working, but the screen got a bit annoying when it came to checking my Twitter feed. As those of you who use Twitter know, the site relies on scrolling down to read the ‘tweets’.

On the 1920×1200 resolution of my XPS M1530 this is really not noticeable, as most of the posts appear at the same time. And even on my iPhone it is not agravating, as the interface is intuitiave. But the Eee PC S101 has no scroll bar (that I could find) making it frustrating to have to keep moving the mouse between the scrollbar and the links in the posts. I had to give up on persevering, and changed to the iPhone.

Spending the rest of the day watching films and comedy DVDs meant that is all the use the S101 got. Oh well, let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Day 3 (Monday)

The first day back in the IT office after starting the challenge, and I have taken the S101 to work. The guys in the office love the machine, or at least most of it. The slender, stylish design appeals. but they are slightly taken aback by the price (we just bought loads of higher spec, 15.4 inch Toshibas for about £250 each).

As the rest of my work has to be done on the desktops in the office, the Eee PC went away after about half an hour. The S101 was so easy to just place on top of my desktop’s tower, to keep it out of the way. I have to definitely mention this machines portability and ruggedness. No problems at all with carrying it around with me whilst doing this article. Admittedly I am carrying it in the protective sleeve in the bag I use for all laptop’s.

Home time means a return to using the netbook. I am getting more used to it’s layout, but trying to type a long piece of work is interrupted every so often by me having to rewrite a sentence. Not because of the size of the keys, but the awkward placement of the laptop’s Shift key (to the right of the Up arrow). This irregular placement leads to me writing new words in the middle of previously finished sentences.

Day 4 (Tuesday)

Tuesday is always a busy day for me, and today is no exception. It is the 20th of January, and the return of the bitcolumns radio segment after the break for Christmas. I spend most of the day travelling between destinations, and researching the topics and news for the evenings show. I find myself sat in an on campus Cafe at 16:00, drinking a cup of hot chocolate (It was very cold outside), and typing up the ‘script’ for the evening’s show, when Andy joins me.

As some of you may know, Andy loves the Eee range (ussually becuase of their use of open source software), and this time is no exception. The only problem he can see is the running of Windows XP on the device (something I prefer).  Soon it is time to head to the studio, and the laptop slips easily into my bag, concealed from everyone. But it was nice to see a ‘Mac’ and a ‘PC’ sat in the corner of the cafe talking to each other.

Day 5 (Wednesday)

Today saw even more travel than yesterday. I agree to meet Guy (who presents on CSRFM) at 1200 so he can have a quick look at the S101, and give his opinion. Instead, I get a phone call at 0945 asking if we can meet at 1100 instead, as Guy has to drive to the west country. Not one to argue, or even question it, I drag myself out of bed and bomb it to Canterbury (maxing at 70mph of course).

I meet Guy at, a very unbusy, Starbucks in the city centre. Leaving him with the device to get a drink (another Hot Chocolate), I return to find out he has already ‘written’ a review in his head. Agreeing with myself on the fact it looks good, and is very fast for what it is, he also brings up some bad points I missed.

His first is the how attractive to fingerprints the outer shell is. It can easily get greasy, and start to look unclean if used a lot. He also points out a slight wobble on one of the hinges, we assume is from the number of people who have been carrying it around and reviewing it, but hope is not a sign of the build quality. Unfortunately we are not able to do endurance and quality tests on the build of the machine, but we hope that this is a one off.

Another point discussed is how attractive to thieves the SD card at the back of the machine could be. All it takes is a slight distraction, and people could walk away with a 16GB SD card. Hopefully this will never happen, but it is something we took into consideration.

Guy’s full opinion can be seen in the full review of the S101, coming very soon.

This afternoon saw us recording the first episode of the bitcolumns podcast (or bitcast, as we prefer to call it). We used the S101 to write the discussion points for the show, and you may even notive them as we show off the device on camera.

Day 6 (Thursday)

After a normal day at work, I had to get down to editing the bitcast so it is ready for broadcast. This of course had to be done on my XPS laptop, as the screen and processing power on the S101 are not quite enough for the heavy duty task of editing. This unfortunately means that I spent the whole evening on my XPS, even using the internet and MSN, etc. It seems that although the S101 is a good piece of kit, I could not resist the use of my standard machine, and therefore I failed the challenge. Oh well, 5 days is good enough. Isn’t it?

Conclusion

The Eee PC S101 was a pleasure to use when on the train (before the challenge started), or in a confined area. Giving enough power for tasks such as web browsing, IMing, word processing, and the like. But, and it never was going to, it does not have the power for tasks such as image editing and video processing, and this is where the XPS system really drew me back.

I would definitely recommend a netbook, not necessarily the S101, to anyone who travles by public transport a lot, or for long periods of time. The ability to work on the move without needing a dedicated table or worrying about charging is a definite plus, and stress relief. I would not recommend it for those of you who like to be able to do powerful tasks on a mobile machine.