The update to the popular Asus Eee PC 700 arrived over a month ago. The Asus Eee PC 900 adds a bigger screen (almost 9 inches). There are only minor differences in the Windows and Linux configurations.

Both versions are slightly larger and heavier. They have 1GB of RAM (as opposed to 512MB) and weigh 2.2 pounds. The larger screen now has a resolution of 1024 by 600 instead of 800 by 480. The processor has not been upgraded though, and is still the same 900MHz Celeron processor.

One of the more remarkable improvements is the touch pad. It is larger and supports a handful of gesture controls. Images can be pinched (or un-pinched) with the thumb and forefinger to zoom in and out, and two fingers can be used to scroll up and down Web pages (sounds familiar doesn’t it?)

Now we come to the difference between the Linux and the Windows XP versions. The Linux version has a 20GB SSD hard drive, while the Windows XP version only has a 12GB SSD hard drive. This is presumably to pay for the license of Windows XP. In a perfect world the Windows XP version would have the larger flash hard drive, as it needs more space.

Price wise, the new models are over $500, which does not seem as much of a budget buy as the first models.

In my previous blog I referred to the Psion series 3. The earlier Psion Organiser (Organiser not Organizer, as it was the name given by the British company Psion in the 1980s) is considered to be the first PDA , according to this Wikipedia article.

From the same article, “the term ‘PDA’ was first used on January 7, 1992 by Apple Computer CEO John Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, referring to the Apple Newton.” By then Psion had already released the first of the Psion 3 range of personal digital assistants, which featured a QWERTY keyboard and a database, a word processor, a spreadsheet with charts, world times and more. Unlike the Newton, the Psion series 3 was a clamshell device.

Jumping ahead a few years, Microsoft also had a Clamshell PDA, the Handheld PC. It was not called a PDA because it could not actually fit in a pocket. Wikipedia says of the Handheld PC:
“A Handheld PC, or H/PC for short, is a term for a computer built around a form factor which is smaller than any standard laptop computer.”

Several of these devices are still in use today, and I found this one for sale on Pricegrabber – the HP (Hewlett-Packard) Jornada 720 PDA. Among its specs is this gem: Microsoft Office (including Access database).

The IdeaPad U110 is another ultraportable notebook from Lenovo. This time it isn’t a ThinkPad, but a consumer-focused IdeaPad. It is smaller than the ThinkPad X300. (For a rundown of the X300 see “Think Ultraportable“). This comes at the cost of a built-in optical drive, although Lenovo does include an external USB DVD drive. They also include two batteries.

The specs are as follows:
1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Low Voltage CPU with Intel integrated graphics.
2GB of RAM (expandable to 3GB).
4200rpm 120GB Hard Drive.
11.1 inch (diagonally) LED backlit display with a default resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels.
Operating System is Windows Vista Home Premium.
Dimensions of 10.8 in width by 7.7 in depth by 0.72 in height.
Weight of 2.4 pounds with the four-cell battery and 3.1 pounds with seven-cell battery.
An integrated 1.3-megapixel Webcam, which can be used with the included face-recognition software for logging into Windows.
There are three USB ports, a FireWire port, an ExpressCard 34 slot, Ethernet, VGA-out, and a 6-in-1 media card reader.

The U110 has an Red or Black aluminum cover and magnesium-aluminum case. The keyboard and touch pad sit in a flush surface, with the keys close together but slightly concave. Reviewers said that typing on the keyboard was comfortable although it took a good half hour to get used to it.

Lenovo’s latest ultraportable notebook, the Lenovo ThinkPad X300, is only slightly wider and thicker than the Apple MacBook Air, but can still fit snugly into a manila envelope. The ThinkPad X300 tops the MacBook Air by packing in a built-in DVD burner, a removable battery, and multiple USB ports. The weight of the ThinkPad X300 varies from 2.9 pounds with a 3-cell battery and no optical drive to 3.3 pounds with a 6-cell battery and DVD Burner.

The X300 has a 13.3 inch screen with a 1440 by 900 native resolution. It has a full sized keyboard, the same keyboard found on Lenovo’s 14- and 15-inch models, as well as both the red eraser-head Track Point pointing stick and a touch pad. It has a fingerprint reader (after seeing the price you’ll be glad there is one!). There is also a 1.3-megapixel webcam and a noise-canceling digital microphone for Web conferencing.

There is no hard drive option on the X300, only a 64GB solid-state drive. (If you choose Windows XP Professional instead of Vista, you’ll still have some space left for your own applications and files) It has 2GB of RAM, upgradeable to 4GB.

As for connectivity, the ThinkPad X300 features 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi), Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, Intel UWB, GPS and Verizon WWAN (EV-DO).

Does it make a difference whether an electronic device has a user-replaceable battery or not? By “electronic device” I’m including everything from a Bluetooth headset to a Laptop.

When buying a Bluetooth headset, the fact that its battery will eventually go flat and cannot be replaced is no big deal. By the time that happens better ones will probably be available anyway.

How about the MacBook Air Notebook? Apple’s ultra-thin notebook is really impressive. However, it does not have a user-replaceable battery (See Engadget’s article “MacBook Air doesn’t have a user-replaceable battery“) After paying well over $1500 for a notebook, when the battery eventually goes in 2 to 3 years time you won’t be able to replace it yourself. Instead, according to Engadget’s article”MacBook Air battery replacements: $129, free install!“, you would have to send the MacBook Air into Apple, and for the price of $129 for a new battery, they will replace it for free.

So as not to only bash Apple, most Portable Media Players, including all iPods, do not have user-replaceable batteries. Even for manufacturers who used to make Portable Media Players with user-replaceable batteries, the trend also seems to be towards batteries which are not user-replaceable – SanDisk is one example.

Handheld computers seem to be split at the Palm/Windows Mobile line. Apart from their smartphones, none of Palm’s handhelds have user replaceable batteries. Windows Mobile devices generally do. Cellphones have user-replaceable batteries of course, except for the first Treos, and the iPhone.

The cost of replacing a new battery is not much when the device was designed to have the user replace it. Although you can buy a new battery for the Palm Tungsten C, it is tricky to replace it yourself. and you could damage it if you are not careful. I have an old Dell Axim X30, and I’ve replaced the battery once, simply by buying a replacement battery like the Lenmar Replacement battery For Dell Axim X30. Apart from proper disposal, it is not much of a problem when the Axim X30’s battery no longer charges.

Watching Significant Other go through the process of buying her newest computer gave me some insights I’d like to share.

Give the person on the phone or in the chat some room to wiggle. By turning down the offer of the free printer, SO gave the Dell representative some space in which to find other, more meaningful ways to reduce the price of the entire transaction.

Don’t be fearful about expressing how much you want to spend. Because SO stated her price limit upfront, the rep could direct her to some practical computing options.

Figure out what’s most important in the purchase. In SO’s case it was that non-glare screen and a specific version of Office. Yes, she wants a machine with good performance. Yes, she wants some obvious equipment — a DVD burner, a large hard drive, a mouse, wireless. But those are almost foregone conclusions these days. By sticking to two items that were absolute requirements, she could reduce what she spent on the other components.

Accept the fact that you may make an impulse purchase or two. In her case, that was the pink case for the notebook computer and the webcam for me.

For each decision that pushes the price up, ask how the price might be brought down. Make it pleasant for the rep to help you.

Be mentally prepared to sign the deal if you get what you want. Otherwise, you’ll be starting from the ground floor in developing a relationship with a new rep on the phone or in the chat when you’re really ready to finalize the deal.

What have you learned about shopping for big ticket items lately? I’d like to hear your advice.

That pink mouse was when negotiations on price began in earnest. Here’s how it played out.

After agreeing that a pink mouse would be lovely, the chat rep asked Significant Other if she’d like the computer to come in pink too. Doing so would cost a bit but not a lot.

Then the rep asked if she’d like to consider having the laptop come in pink as well. That would be an extra $25. SO hemmed and hawed. OK. She was sounding a bit disengaged from the deal.

Problem was, the price kept going up bit by bit, and pretty soon it would be way beyond the $1,500 price limit SO had set for the purchase, based on the size of the gift her father had sent her.

So SO mentioned all the discounts plastered around on the Dell website. What could the rep do about that? Without missing a beat, the rep offered $150 off the total, which brought the price down below $1,500.

That certainly helped.

And what about the shipping and tax and the rest of it? Tax was what it was. And there was a charge for a California state environmental disposal fee paid up front to cover the monitors. But the rep could provide free shipping. But that was a standard deal with Dell, wasn’t it, said SO. Sure, free shipping was standard, but not two-business-day free shipping. And that would apply to each of the components — computer, mouse and monitor — which would ship separately.

The rep said somebody else would call by phone to go over the complete order and take credit card information. And that’s what happened.

But even then, the deal-making wasn’t done. Suddenly, my SO realized that it would be nice to have a webcam eyeball built into that computer. (My small contribution to her decision-making.) So she called the phone rep back and said she’d like that added. The rep replied, the price would be an additional $25. SO asked if there was any way to get it for less. The rep didn’t hesitate. Yes, she could add it on for only $10.

When the final invoice came back, the tally was $1,596.55. I figure that extra $97 over the original goal will be my graduation present.

Next: What I’ve learned about getting a great deal on computers right now.

So, Significant Other tried out Dell’s live chat function. This function on Dell.com allows you to talk with a rep from the company to get your questions answered. Her primary question was, how can I get a laptop that has a non-glossy 15-inch screen? She likes the idea of working outside, especially during the summer, and most glossy screens, which seem to predominate on notebooks these days, become almost invisible. She has the same problem when she’s working in her too-bright office.

With that bit of information in her hands, the Dell rep led her on a journey of her options, helping her to make choices at each phase of the buying experience. For example, she explained that none of the 15-inch-plus displays came in anti-glare. She’d have to go with a 14-inch display to get that — a tidbit of information she couldn’t discover strictly through Dell’s shopping function.

My sweetheart was quite adamant about staying under $1,500 and told the rep that. Not a problem, was the reply.

She recommended the Inspiron 1420. Seemed like a solid option. That has the Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 processor. She specced it with 2 gigabytes of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce TM Go8400M GS video card with 128MB of graphic memory. (SO isn’t a game player, but she does work with DreamWeaver, so this seemed sufficient.)

Best, it included a 14.1-inch anti-glare widescreen display.

The rep mentioned the free printer offers that Dell pushes everywhere these days. No interest, said my SO.

But she did want to find out what it would cost to add an external flatscreen monitor too. Would doing so keep the price under the limit? Pretty close! The rep added on a 19-inch Dell UltraSharp 1908FP,Wide Flat Panel. But suddenly, the barrier was breached.

Then came the software. Yes, Vista Home Premium Edition was fine, and she wanted Office 2007 Small Business Edition to go with that.

From there, the shopping covered the hard drive, a 250 gigabyte 5400 RPM no name hard drive, which could have been faster for sure, but helped SO keep the price down. And she needed a DVD with read-write.

Plus, she wanted blue tooth to start taking advantage of all of the great wireless gear out there — though the gear itself would have to wait until a later date. So she settled on a simple wireless mouse. Then the question came up: Would she like that in pink?

If you knew my SO, you’d know that it was just the right thing to ask in the buying cycle. Suddenly, she was emotionally hooked to that computer. A pink mouse? Wow! She did some quick surfing to check out customer testimonials, and the recommendations were almost uniformly positive — except for one reviewer who said the pink was redder than preferred. Best, the price was the same, no matter whether the mouse — from Logitech — was black or pink. Problem was, shortly that pinkiness would help push the price tag well above $1,500.

Next: Negotiations in Earnest!

Significant Other just received a very generous check from her dad as a graduation present to apply to the purchase of a new notebook computer. (She’s getting a master’s in accountancy, a degree she’s been plugging away on since 2005. Yay!) So she went shopping all last week, online of course. Should she go with HP? Should she choose Dell? Was there another company out there people were talking about? Could she find what she wanted for that much money?

Here’s what we learned: Companies are willing to make great deals right now. If you pay sticker price, you’re probably paying too much.

Over the next few days, I’ll describe her shopping journey, in case there’s something useful for your next consumer jaunt too.

Since SO had mostly satisfactory experience with both HP and Dell, she felt comfortable going that direction.

As you probably know, it can be a lot of fun to spec out a dream machine on the HP and Dell sites. You start clicking this radio button over those, specifying this component as an add-on, that application suite over the other one, and as you go along, you get to see the price tag adjust itself.

But it can also be overwhelming. You have to decide if you’re going to shop through the business side or home & home office side of a company’s site, when it’s a machine you’ll be using at home but for business reasons. Then you have a myriad of laptop choices, depending on weight considerations, screen size and a slew of other details.

Plus, those shopping tools don’t always help you get what you’re really looking for. In her case, she wanted at least a 15-inch display with anti-glare.

Next: Live Chat to the Rescue!

The Mini-Notebook is causing a buzz in the PC market. Asus has just started selling the Asus Eee PC Notebook with Windows XP Home installed, and now HP has announced a series of mini-notebooks called the “HP 2133 Mini-Note PC” (see “A Student PC under 3 Pounds and $600“). If I did not already own an Asus Eee PC I would really be tempted, as I own several HP computers, from Pocket PCs to full-size desktop PCs. HP has seen that there is a market for light and cheap notebooks, with around 500,000 Eee PC’s sold last year, according to this article “PC Makers Race to Market With Low-Cost ‘Netbooks’” from the Wall Street Journal.

So what is the attraction of a mini notebook? I’ll use the Asus Eee PC with Linux installed as an example. The biggest attraction next to price is probably size and weight. It is easy to carry around, and ideal for traveling. Connecting to the Internet via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable is a snap. The web browser is Firefox, which only differs from Firefox for Windows in the menu layout, but this is a general Firefox for Linux difference. Because it uses a solid state drive for a hard drive, the Asus Eee PC Notebook runs surprisingly quietly. The fast start up and shutdown (with Windows XP it will probably be a slower) is really great. It also supports SDHC Cards, which are up to 16GB, with 32 GB cards on the way – but the latter will cost more than the Eee PC!. There are three USB 2.0 ports available for USB devices. In my experience, using USB Flash drives (for transferring large files) on Windows and using them on the Eee PC is basically the same. If you are not going to do much more than word processing, writing emails or web browsing the Asus Eee PC is ideal. The trade off of course is that the keyboard is small and takes a some getting used to. The 7 inch screen is small, and sometimes requires scrolling to see an entire webpage or a dialog box.

Mini-Notebooks like the Asus Eee PC and the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC are called “Netbooks” (see the “Thoughts on Netbooks” article on the Technology@Intel Blog).