What's the modern equivalent of the Eee netbook?

Kevin108

Explorer
I've used and loved my Eee 701 for many years. None of the diminutive ergonomics were ever an issue, but the low-res screen, 4 GB SSD, and 630 MHz Celeron are a useless combo for current web browsing and modern software. (For those that don't know, the Eee was slightly bigger than a DVD case, but slightly smaller than a hardcover book. I also have a 900 and 1000H, but the 701 is still my favorite.)

eee.jpg


I'm now in the market for a new device in a similar form factor. I need a Windows device for my preferred photo editor and some other software I use for maps. It will often be used offline for writing and watching MKVs in VLC. I'm okay with a notebook,or a tablet and keyboard combo, but I've not found anything in a similar size with my feature requirements. Any suggestions on what might work for me?
 

Kevin108

Explorer
Eee 701
Body: 8-7/8" x 6-3/8" x 1-1/4"
Screen: 6" x 3-5/8"
Letters and numbers: 5/8" x 1/2"

Eee 900
Body: 8-7/8" x 6-3/4" x 1-3/8"
Screen: 7-11/16" x 4-1/2"
Letters and numbers: 5/8" x 1/2"

Eee 1000H
Body: 10-1/2" x 7-9/16" x 1-3/4"
Screen: 8-11/16" x 5-1/8"
Letters and numbers: 11/16" x 5/8"


The 900 is really ideal for me, but has never been particularly stable. The 1000H is too big.

The big selling point here is how well the Eee fits in a Maxpedition Versapack. I have one that's 10 years old and still looks like brand new. It did not occur to me until just now that finding the right sized computer is unlikely but finding the right size bag probably won't be too hard. Guess I wasn't seeing the forest for the trees here. I feel a bit foolish.
 

Xhado

New member
Chromebooks have overtaken netbooks. You won't be able to find a windows PC that small these days.
 

spagthorpe

Observer
Which really sucks, as Chromebooks aren't even in the same league. When I first hit the road for a while about 10 years ago, I sold my hefty desktop, and just took my Eee. There were times when I had that thing connected to external keyboards, monitors, scanners, printers, doing all kinds of things with it, and it never let me down. The Intel Atom didn't handle virtualization well, but that was about the only issue I had.

To the OP, if I had to do it now, I'd probably end up with a Macbook Air. I assume you can run bootcamp on it, and just install Windows if you need it. There are some nice ultrabooks out there as well, but cost considerably more than the Eee did. They were basically disposable.

I still have my 1000 somewhere in a box. I'm sure they are available on Ebay for a song.
 

Kerensky97

Xterra101
I was looking for a replacement EEEPC and went to Chromebook, after a learning transition period of a week I haven't looked back. The chromebook has more processing power than my EEEPC did and has almost killed off my Nvidia Shield tablet as well, I'll probably be selling it soon.

I thought I needed windows but realized that was holding me back more than anything. I'm not using it as a desktop replacement and 90% of what I need when away from the desktop is browser or app based. Once you get away from Windows, battery life and free memory are available by the ton. I compared my $280 Chromebook to a $700 lightweight Windows 10 laptop of similar dimensions and it was far more snappy. The win10 laptop was using 50% of it's memory at idle just to run the OS, to get those things running decent performance with a 10" size you need to be spending thousands of dollars.

So I tried to go back to my old EEEPC with win98 to keep the performance decent and it turns out you can't even load Google Chrome onto Win98...

I needed:
Basic Photo Editing and uploading
SD Card support (for picture transfer from camera)
HDMI output and Video playback (for those nights at hotel rooms)
External mouse support (built in bluetooth is a bonus)
Music
Basic browsing for local POI.
Maps (obviously)
Good battery life

Recently Chromebooks have gotten the ability to load all Android apps and that tipped the balance. I use Lightroom for photo editing and the tablet CC app does all the edits I need for on the trail editing. Even $3000 laptops don't have the editing power of my desktop so I'm not doing full edits on a mobile.

I can load all the movies I want on a USB and watch movies at night if I want. I just connect the HDMI to the hotel TV and watch my own stuff instead of their crap.

The only difficulty so far is getting the chromebook to pass GPS data from the chromebook to the Android emulation for BCNav.
But I usually use my phone for the mapping and nav up on my dash anyway so this hasn't been a problem yet. I just use the chromebook maps for large screen planning while in camp.

I also like when they fold backwards to a touchscreen tablet or to an A-Frame. Mine was usually on the passenger seat and now it props itself up for easy viewing and swiping to the next song.

This is the one I got:
http://amzn.to/2sn2r7q

But I think I would rather have had this 10" now, even though I would need to use a USB-C adapter for all the ports I wanted.
http://amzn.to/2Bq04DG
 
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