Asus EEE 701 Replacement!

David333

I have a tiny 7" Asus 701 laptop, which is nearing the end of its life. Two or three letters are becoming less and less responsive, which makes it difficult to write anything on. All I use the laptop for is to write. I need Word, Zotero, and Dropbox. What I really like about the Asus is it's so tiny, so it fits in my bag and is incredibly light to carry. However, the 7" screen is perhaps slightly too small.

I'm looking for a replacement, although my budget is a maximum of £200. I don't mind second-hand. In the old days, they used to be called netbooks, but I'm not sure what they're called now! I did look at a Chromebook, but I feel more comfortable with Windows and knowing where things are saved (a copy on my hard drive, one on the cloud through dropbox, and another on my office computer through dropbox again). A SSD drive always used to be recommended.

I did see this online (although it's out of stock): http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/refurbished-laptops/hp-pavilion-touchsmart-10-e011sa-refurbished-10-1-touchscreen-laptop-21895179-pdt.html Would it fit my needs?

So, really I am looking for something light, a reasonable battery life (four or five hours of word processing maybe?), running Windows, maybe SSD. Any suggestions as to what's available nowadays?

esuhl

If it's just the keyboard that's gone, you can replace it for about £10:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/asus-eee-pc-701-keyboard

abibee

If you're going the new route, an HP Stream might fit your needs well.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/hp-stream-11-d007na-11-laptop-blue-10075697-pdt.html#cat-0

David333

esuhl wrote: »

If it's just the keyboard that's gone, you can replace it for about £10:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/asus-eee-pc-701-keyboard

I didn't know it was so cheap. I don't know if it's the keyboard itself or something else. It's the A and the S that you have to hit just right, and intermittently the N! Common letters unfortunately...

Tempting to have a shot at replacing it. Also tempting to upgrade...

David333

abibee wrote: »

If you're going the new route, an HP Stream might fit your needs well.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/hp-stream-11-d007na-11-laptop-blue-10075697-pdt.html#cat-0

Thanks. I saw that on the PC World website. Unfortunately I live in the middle of nowhere, so it's difficult to go into a shop and try it out. Do you have any experience of one? The specs seem decent for the price.

abibee

David333 wrote: »

Thanks. I saw that on the PC World website. Unfortunately I live in the middle of nowhere, so it's difficult to go into a shop and try it out. Do you have any experience of one? The specs seem decent for the price.

No I have no experience of them personally. They look like Chromebooks, only Windows. Not much onboard storage, but it's meant for cloud storage which seems to be the buzz these days.

The free Office 365 could be a clincher for some.

David333

abibee wrote: »

No I have no experience of them personally. They look like Chromebooks, only Windows. Not much onboard storage, but it's meant for cloud storage which seems to be the buzz these days.

The free Office 365 could be a clincher for some.

I don't need a great deal of storage. I won't be using it for films, music, or photos, just documents. However, I'd prefer to store documents on the hard drive and sync them online, rather than relying just on cloud storage. Seems to be 16GB, which is more than enough.

Office 365 is about £100 a year, so definitely a good deal. Although for the second year, I'd have to find a cheap version of Word.

The reviews seem pretty decent, mentioning its good keyboard and reasonable battery life.

David333

Anyone have any thoughts on the Asus X205 (http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerm/asus+x205.htm#pdpFullProductInformation)? Seems to be the replacement for the EEE 701! Specs seem similar to the HP Stream, but, according to the Argos website, it's half the weight and the battery lasts twelve hours (!). However, HP Stream has a SSHD and a 2.16GHz processor; only 1.33 in the Asus.

esuhl

David333 wrote: »

Tempting to have a shot at replacing it.

It should be fairly easy. There are three latches at the top of the keyboard (near F1, F6 and Pause). Press them all in, and the keyboard should lift out. Then carefully unclip the ribbon cable.

boatman

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/ipad-tablets-and-ereaders/tablets/linx-8-tablet-16-gb-black-10100241-pdt.html?

Maybe get an 8" windows tablet with a bluetooth keyboard. They come with full windows 8.1 and some come with Office.

Or
http://www.tesco.com/direct/acer-aspire-es1-111m-116-laptop-intel-celeron-2gb-ram-32gb-ssd-black/336-9409.prd?

David333

I didn't realise tablets were so cheap!

That second link looks very cheap. Any idea how it compares to the Asus x205...?