6 ms·

I have some design criticisms. To start with, look at the edge-on photo comparing the X101 to the Macbook Air. Now, in the graphics editor of your choice, re-

by cstross 15y ago

I have some design criticisms. To start with, look at the edge-on photo comparing the X101 to the Macbook Air. Now, in the graphics editor of your choice, re-colour that battery step at the back of the X101 in the same colour as the machine itself, rather than (nearly invisible in photos) black. Suddenly, it's twice as thick! Who'd have guessed? Yes, this machine looks like a Macbook Air competitor, but only because they used a user-removable battery, which means a big hunk'o'plastic sticking out of the underside. Next, look at the photos of the keyboard layout. In particular, look at the location and width of the right shift key. This is a particular beef of mine with Asus -- and most other far eastern vendors: the right shift is the size of a regular letter key and is positioned to the left of the up-arrow. If you're an English-speaking touch-typist you will end up hitting up-arrow half the time when you mean to type a capital letter from the left side of the QWERTY block. (I suspect Chinese, Korean, and Japanese keyboard mappings ignore the right shift key, hence it tends to be deprecated by designers who don't do their usability testing on American or European users.) Upshot: it looks gorgeous (especially for $200!) at first glance, but I'm pretty sure it would drive me insane within half an hour if I had to actually do any typing on it. Regardless of operating system.

moe 15y ago
keyboard layout I'm in the market for a netbook right now and have the same concerns. Currently I'm torn between the Asus X101 and the Lenovo S100 (both announced to launch this month). The Lenovo comes with an 98%-size keyboard that looks really promising on the photos: http://ces.cnet.com/2300-32488_1-10006040-2.html http://ces.cnet.com/2300-32488_1-10006040-2.html
- cstross 15y ago
  The Lenovo keyboard layout looks kosher for touch-typists. If I was in the market for a netbook I'd jump in that direction. (The right-shift-FAIL seems to be a bad habit of Asus and a few other Chinese/Taiwanese vendors; I suspect Lenovo still have some input from IBM.)
  - veeti 15y ago
    One thing that bothers me about IBM/Lenovo is that the Fn key is where control should be. I have an Eee PC with the same style of keyboard as the X101 and I can't really think of anything negative about it. It's the best laptop keyboard I've ever used and I've reached speeds up to 130 wpm on it.
    - gorloth 15y ago
      A friend of mine recently got a lenovo thinkpad and it had a BIOS flag to allow swapping of the Fn and control key, sadly the physical keys are different size so you can't swap them to match the new function but at least it's an option
  - jarek 15y ago
    Sad day for typists when the Home/End/PgUp/PgDn/Insert/Delete block getting blown up all over is considered kosher.
    - moe 15y ago
      Sadly that has happened years ago and I don't have much hope for them to make a comeback. I'm in fact worried about the day when apple stops selling their full-size desktop keyboards in favor to the crippled laptop-version. When you look at the whitespace (well, red-space) on the right side of the Lenovo then there is plenty room to fit a full-size Home/End/Pgup/Pgdn block. But it would look a little odd. And I suppose Soccer-mom doesn't buy laptops that look odd for sake of fitting keys that she doesn't use. Soccer-moms apparently prefer glitter over usable keyboards...
      - jarek 15y ago
        I also just noticed that laptop doesn't have a dedicated F12 key, it's Fn-F11. Tempora, mores, etc.
- Scaevolus 15y ago
  Have you considered the Thinkpad x120e? The keyboard, performance, and battery life are all excellent. It's a bit more expensive than what you're looking at, though.
gyom 15y ago
I'm with you on that black battery thing. We all know that Apple is a bit dishonest when they show their Macbook Air from the front and it looks as thin as cardboard (optical illusion), but when you look at a Macbook Air from the side it's actually kinda slim in reality. Now, that X101 with the red-black coloring looks slim if you trust the optical illusion, but if you look closely it's nowhere close to the Macbook Air.
spokey 15y ago
I have an ASUS (my second in the EEE line) with exactly the same keyboard. You get used to it, or at least I did. I actually think the chicklet-style keyboards on recent EEEs are among the best laptop keyboards I've used. A much bigger problem for me is accidently hitting the touchpad while typing. Depending on your OS there is usually a way to disable the touchpad while typing. On the thickness thing, do they advertise this as being as thin as the Macbook Air? I took that picture more along the lines of "here is the X101 compared to a laptop you're probably familiar with". The optical illusion created by the black plastic is a little sneaky though. Is there a site with reliable specs for this box? Googling around I've seen different numbers (e.g, a 16GB SSD vs. a 64GB SSD). What's the battery life? That's what appeals to me most about the EEEs.
- rimmjob 15y ago
  what os are you using? this was a problem for me before i set up hot keys to toggle touchpad on and off.
there 15y ago
Suddenly, it's twice as thick! Who'd have guessed? Yes, this machine looks like a Macbook Air competitor, but only because they used a user-removable battery, which means a big hunk'o'plastic sticking out of the underside. it's not a macbook air competitor, it's a $200 netbook with an atom processor. it just happens to have a slim profile that may cause some people to compare it to the macbook air. asus' macbook air competitor is their ux21: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/asus-outs-ux21-ultrathin-laptop-with-up-to-core-i7-cpu-video-ha/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/asus-outs-ux21-ultrathin-...
bane 15y ago
which means a big hunk'o'plastic sticking out of the underside. I have an old Acer Aspire One with a similar battery configuration. Turns out it's actually very useful at positioning the keyboard at a much more comfortable typing angle. I end up propping up the back end of my MBP with my phone half the time so I can type comfortably.

by cstross 15y ago

moe 15y ago

keyboard layout I'm in the market for a netbook right now and have the same concerns. Currently I'm torn between the Asus X101 and the Lenovo S100 (both announced to launch this month). The Lenovo comes with an 98%-size keyboard that looks really promising on the photos: http://ces.cnet.com/2300-32488_1-10006040-2.html http://ces.cnet.com/2300-32488_1-10006040-2.html

cstross 15y ago
The Lenovo keyboard layout looks kosher for touch-typists. If I was in the market for a netbook I'd jump in that direction. (The right-shift-FAIL seems to be a bad habit of Asus and a few other Chinese/Taiwanese vendors; I suspect Lenovo still have some input from IBM.)
- veeti 15y ago
  One thing that bothers me about IBM/Lenovo is that the Fn key is where control should be. I have an Eee PC with the same style of keyboard as the X101 and I can't really think of anything negative about it. It's the best laptop keyboard I've ever used and I've reached speeds up to 130 wpm on it.
  - gorloth 15y ago
    A friend of mine recently got a lenovo thinkpad and it had a BIOS flag to allow swapping of the Fn and control key, sadly the physical keys are different size so you can't swap them to match the new function but at least it's an option
- jarek 15y ago
  Sad day for typists when the Home/End/PgUp/PgDn/Insert/Delete block getting blown up all over is considered kosher.
  - moe 15y ago
    Sadly that has happened years ago and I don't have much hope for them to make a comeback. I'm in fact worried about the day when apple stops selling their full-size desktop keyboards in favor to the crippled laptop-version. When you look at the whitespace (well, red-space) on the right side of the Lenovo then there is plenty room to fit a full-size Home/End/Pgup/Pgdn block. But it would look a little odd. And I suppose Soccer-mom doesn't buy laptops that look odd for sake of fitting keys that she doesn't use. Soccer-moms apparently prefer glitter over usable keyboards...
    - jarek 15y ago
      I also just noticed that laptop doesn't have a dedicated F12 key, it's Fn-F11. Tempora, mores, etc.
Scaevolus 15y ago
Have you considered the Thinkpad x120e? The keyboard, performance, and battery life are all excellent. It's a bit more expensive than what you're looking at, though.

gyom 15y ago

I'm with you on that black battery thing. We all know that Apple is a bit dishonest when they show their Macbook Air from the front and it looks as thin as cardboard (optical illusion), but when you look at a Macbook Air from the side it's actually kinda slim in reality. Now, that X101 with the red-black coloring looks slim if you trust the optical illusion, but if you look closely it's nowhere close to the Macbook Air.

spokey 15y ago

I have an ASUS (my second in the EEE line) with exactly the same keyboard. You get used to it, or at least I did. I actually think the chicklet-style keyboards on recent EEEs are among the best laptop keyboards I've used. A much bigger problem for me is accidently hitting the touchpad while typing. Depending on your OS there is usually a way to disable the touchpad while typing. On the thickness thing, do they advertise this as being as thin as the Macbook Air? I took that picture more along the lines of "here is the X101 compared to a laptop you're probably familiar with". The optical illusion created by the black plastic is a little sneaky though. Is there a site with reliable specs for this box? Googling around I've seen different numbers (e.g, a 16GB SSD vs. a 64GB SSD). What's the battery life? That's what appeals to me most about the EEEs.

rimmjob 15y ago
what os are you using? this was a problem for me before i set up hot keys to toggle touchpad on and off.

there 15y ago

Suddenly, it's twice as thick! Who'd have guessed? Yes, this machine looks like a Macbook Air competitor, but only because they used a user-removable battery, which means a big hunk'o'plastic sticking out of the underside. it's not a macbook air competitor, it's a $200 netbook with an atom processor. it just happens to have a slim profile that may cause some people to compare it to the macbook air. asus' macbook air competitor is their ux21: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/asus-outs-ux21-ultrathin-laptop-with-up-to-core-i7-cpu-video-ha/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/asus-outs-ux21-ultrathin-...

bane 15y ago

which means a big hunk'o'plastic sticking out of the underside. I have an old Acer Aspire One with a similar battery configuration. Turns out it's actually very useful at positioning the keyboard at a much more comfortable typing angle. I end up propping up the back end of my MBP with my phone half the time so I can type comfortably.