Thank the sweet lord, but she needs to do something about those thighs, I thinka massage by a lonely internet nerd is in order :)

Does http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/01/21/la_eee_sm.jpg score as perhaps the worst "laptop with generic dongle" clip-art ever?

Why not use the bird?

Bloody things have got AZERTY keyboards.

(And why should I have to take out another subscription when I already have a 3G Voice/Data one!?! )

I think you should post a story on this Asus machine at least 2 or 3 times every month!

Good work, El Reg!

Cheque's in la poste!

SFR

C'est la blonde sur la plage avec l'ordinateur portatif encore!

"French ordinateuristes can now buy Asus' elfin Eee PC with integrated HSDPA 3G"

"Integrated"? Is that a mis-translation? I would have thought "bundled" would be more accurate, since the 3G dongle will dangle or stick out (a lot) from the casing.

Have tried a Voda 3G USB dongle with my Eee, and it works a treat (out of the box on shipped GNU/Linux distro, no additional drivers required). But it's a bit dangly.

John

So can we expect to see the eeepsie offered free with contract by one of the UK 3G networks?

nice eye fest makes a change from the usual pretenders living in Hollywood !

oh well now to put the eyes back in their sockets and roll up the tongue !

I've recently had a chance to try an Eee PC. I Really wanted one, and found a local dealer who had one I could try for a bit.

Lovely form factor. Very readable screen. Obviously built to the price though, because just using for 10 minutes I thought it was going to break on me. Really. Things moved and creaked on it when I picked it up, and it's really not heavy enough that it should do so. Then there's the keyboard. I have small hands, so it's about the right size for me. But it still didn't really work right. Some of the keys seemed to stick and not work when pressed. Others doubled up on their output. The keyboard is actually on a separate tray that isn't properly attached, and some of the keys had managed to find their corners trapped under the rest of the case.

It's cheap. Not "inexpensive". Cheap. As in shoddily built. Feels like a toy, but I've seen much more robust toys.

Which is really unfortunate. I was prepared to get one right there and then. I love the idea. The concept is quite good, and it's really very portable and could be really useful. Unfortunately, in this case, the execution left a lot to be desired.

I just wanna get one because at that price I wouldn't worry about dropping or getting it chav'ed off me or more imporartantly spilling 'beer' on it when i was looking at my wall-paper in the pub ... which will be that chick ... joke ... it has wifi right?

Coatage

The keyboard problems you experienced, keys getting stuck etc., I haven't experienced any of that with this Eee I'm typing on which I got last Nov, perhaps the build quality has dropped with production being ramped up to meet demand or it hasn't been treated well. I find the build quality of the Eee pretty good, I haven't been too gentle with it (it's slowly building up a collection of 'war wound' scratches) and nothing's getting loose or creaking badly.

The problems I've had with the keyboard are the actual layout of the keys with some in the 'wrong' place, namely the right shift is the wrong side of the up arrow, there's no right Ctrl key, the "\" is a sub-key of Z which only works when you press the Fn at the same time, and the worst of all is the "" key which for some reason they decided to place it to the right of Esc instead of underneath which means I've often mis-typed numbers because I expect them to be 1 key to the right of where they are. I have quite large hands and haven't found the small size of the keyboard a problem but actually really like it, when I go back and use regular sized keyboards they feel like over-sized comedy keyboards - the same with mice because I bought a mini-mouse for it which is about 1/3 the size of regular mice and I really like that too.

I have no idea what Anonymous John is trying to say, but I sure am glad to see the blonde on the beach with the laptop again.

It gives me a happy warm feeling. Oh and leave her thighs alone, nothing wrong with them at all....

Hi there

Like Haku I have not experienced the problems you have with my Asus EEE which I have had for a fortnight now.

It seems reasonably solidly built, with a slightly deformed space bar being the only key related issue. Yes the keys are somewhat smaller than my big mitts would like, but since I have written stories on a Psion 3a I can cope,

There are key placement issues, I keep putting it to sleep instead of toggling the Wireless, but that's something I'm getting used to

Maybe you had a dodgy one. I'd look again elsewhere and see whaty you think

"(And why should I have to take out another subscription when I already have a 3G Voice/Data one!?! )"

--

Well just buy a regular Eee, not the operator's bundle ?

You're not very smart are you...

Does an USB Dongle class as integrated?

If so, I've got an integrated colour laser printer in my EEEpc!

'Coatage'

Excellent!

:) Can we please get that added to the OED. :)

I take it you work for a competitor's PR agency and are trying to trash the eee.

I've had one (black) since before xmas and no problems, the case doesn't creak even after being dropped a couple of dozen times and spending plenty of time rolling about in a rucksack. No keyboard problems to speak of.

Nothing cheap at all about the build quality - it matches that on the toshiba and sony laptops that are kicking around here.

Then again anyone who can't afford to buy one to try at £199 would probably moan about anything and everything.