Marginalia
A miscellany of musings on the tech that crosses my path
Friday 19 December 2008, 11:01 AM
EeePC 901 on Orange mobile broadband
I've been playing with the EeePC 901 as offered by Orange for 'free' on a mobile broadband contract.
Now, I am not sure that tying yourself in to £24.47 a month for two years is necessarily a wise move. Two years is a long time in both mobile broadband and netbook terms. Actually, even a quarter of that is a long time.
Orange reckons the 'free' EeePC 901 is worth £350, but I found it on the web for prices around £250. Even that lower price is a lot of dosh in these constrained times, so maybe plenty of people could be lured by the all-in price, notwithstanding that for £14.68 a month you can get a USB dongle with the same 3GB usage cap and shove that into whatever notebook you choose.
A quick rough and ready reckoner says that over 24 months of the EeePC contract (the dongle is an 18 monther) the difference between the two contracts is:
24 (months) x £10 (per month) = £240
Enough, in fact, to buy an EeePC or shop around for something else.
Having said all that, I do rather like what Orange has done. The EeePC 901 with its 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 pixel screen, 1MB of RAM and 16GB of SSD storage isn't exactly a workhorse, and its keyboard, though well built, is cramped even for my little hands.
But Orange has made the best of it. This includes adding a PDF reader, Microsoft Works and Star Office to the EeePC right out of the box, and building a neat little SMS manager which works nicely and even rings like a telephone when a message arrives.
The Eee PC 901 itself is a neat little device. Weighing 1.1KG and supplied with a protective pouch it runs Windows XP with ease and has three USB connectors, microphone and headphones sockets, monitor connector, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
So yes, I like it, and it'll probably accompany me on my Christmas travels. But I'll also be taking my 'real' notebook, and therein lies the rub. Many of us still need a more powerful machine, and whichever way you do the sums, you're going to have to justify the spend on a netbook, with or without mobile broadband attached.
Now, I am not sure that tying yourself in to £24.47 a month for two years is necessarily a wise move. Two years is a long time in both mobile broadband and netbook terms. Actually, even a quarter of that is a long time.
Orange reckons the 'free' EeePC 901 is worth £350, but I found it on the web for prices around £250. Even that lower price is a lot of dosh in these constrained times, so maybe plenty of people could be lured by the all-in price, notwithstanding that for £14.68 a month you can get a USB dongle with the same 3GB usage cap and shove that into whatever notebook you choose.
A quick rough and ready reckoner says that over 24 months of the EeePC contract (the dongle is an 18 monther) the difference between the two contracts is:
24 (months) x £10 (per month) = £240
Enough, in fact, to buy an EeePC or shop around for something else.
Having said all that, I do rather like what Orange has done. The EeePC 901 with its 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 pixel screen, 1MB of RAM and 16GB of SSD storage isn't exactly a workhorse, and its keyboard, though well built, is cramped even for my little hands.
But Orange has made the best of it. This includes adding a PDF reader, Microsoft Works and Star Office to the EeePC right out of the box, and building a neat little SMS manager which works nicely and even rings like a telephone when a message arrives.
The Eee PC 901 itself is a neat little device. Weighing 1.1KG and supplied with a protective pouch it runs Windows XP with ease and has three USB connectors, microphone and headphones sockets, monitor connector, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
So yes, I like it, and it'll probably accompany me on my Christmas travels. But I'll also be taking my 'real' notebook, and therein lies the rub. Many of us still need a more powerful machine, and whichever way you do the sums, you're going to have to justify the spend on a netbook, with or without mobile broadband attached.
PreviousComments on this post
Sandra,
You say: "notwithstanding that for £14.68 a month you can get a USB dongle with the same 3GB usage cap and shove that into whatever notebook you choose"...
But I've been trying Vodafone's USB offering with an Acer Aspire One running Linpus Linux Lite and it doesn't work at all due to lack of support for Linux.
Should this be a factor in people's decision making for web on the move do you think?
Adrian
Always best to have a Total Cost Of Ownership approach when comes to fixed contract plans.
