Asus Ea800

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

Anyone ever heard of these?
After I misplaced a notebook that contained an entire semester's worth of notes last spring, I've been trying to find a decent way to back up my class notes. I started by scanning and indexing my notes by date and that worked alright. Until my scanner stopped working...

So I decided to try one of these out.
http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Note/Eee_Note_EA800/

It got here today and I've had a little time to mess around with it outside of work. Seems like a really cool machine. Construction feels very solid.
The surface is super responsive to the pen input and it has a pretty natural feel. It doesn't have the grit that paper does, but my handwriting comes off as nice and clean looking.

My favorite part is being able to couple it with evernote. I can finish notes for a class, tag it by class name and date and immediately send that to my evernote account which I can open on my computer.


You can toss epub and pdf files on too and use it as an ereader, although I'm running osx which isn't supported, so adding files is kind of convoluted.

I'll give it a shot this semester and see if it's practical enough to use daily.

I got mine for $200 from a US seller on ebay. The native format is chinese, so you have to flash it for an english interface. Unfortunately it looks like a US release was just canceled but they can be imported from taiwan for about $250, shipping included.

[snoorkel]

I actually haven't really seen these before, looks awesome for taking notes in class and carrying around textbooks.

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

Took it to a progress meeting today for using as a notepad. Worked absolutely great for it.
Was able to send it to evernote right away and I emailed copies to my coworkers.

So far I've noticed a few things I don't like though.
-There's no two way syncing with evernote. So if I decided to delete the notes off the device, I couldn't retrieve them right from evernote.
-Adding PDFs and E-books is a fucking chore with osx. Or I'm just an idiot. One or the other...
-The tagging system is a little wonky and there's no "grouping" capabilities. Can't make "notebooks" to put relevant notes into. That's a bummer.

But, still, I'm really liking this thing. I think I'm going to look into getting a better pen for it though.

[strongbad]

Wow I kind of want one of these

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

So, I connected it to my pc earlier and installed the notesync function which works very well. Put about a hundred ebooks on it. The ereader functions works well enough, but I wouldn't call it a selling point or anything.

Another cool feature is being able to insert pictures right into the notes, even on the fly. There's a 2 megapixel camera on the back, so while you're taking notes, you can snap a picture and instantly place it on the page. You can crop and resize it as well as draw right on top of it.

An example of my, albeit shitty, handwriting and pen styles. The cropped picture was taken on my computer screen, so it looks like crap, but you get the picture. Get it?
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[?????]

So.. is your handwriting really that bad, or is it difficult to write on the device?

[snoorkel]

So.. is your handwriting really that bad, or is it difficult to write on the device?

My question as well. How responsive is the screen--does it lag behind the pen at all--, and is it/does it seem high resolution? Could it accommodate small messy cursive and not impact legibility?

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

So.. is your handwriting really that bad, or is it difficult to write on the device?

My handwriting is really that bad.

My question as well. How responsive is the screen--does it lag behind the pen at all--, and is it/does it seem high resolution? Could it accommodate small messy cursive and not impact legibility?

98% of the time the writing is completely lag free and fluid. After a few hours of sketching/writing, I've probably run into two or three instances where the device had to "catch up". The catch up took less than a second, but it was noticeable.  I guess it was worse before a recent firmware update. You will notice lag if you have a screen completely full of a photo or something and arm the largest eraser and go to town. In the video below, around the thirty second mark you can see one of those intermittent lag issues. The two or three instances I've run into weren't even as bad as the one in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsVEpoLzqa4


I guess it depends on how small you mean. There's a traditional college ruled notebook template and I can print legible (to me, hah) handwriting on the device using only half of the space between lines. The pencil works a lot better for smaller, messier writing.

I can't really speak for the resolution. Not really sure what to gauge it against.  It's a wacom digitizer, so the quality's very good.

[snoorkel]

Can it, by chance, double as a wacom tablet for use in Photoshop and things 

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

Can it, by chance, double as a wacom tablet for use in Photoshop and things  

Yep, if you're running windows you can.

When you plug it in via the usb to the computer, you're given a handful of options. You can access the sd card, use the notesync function or use it in digitizer mode.

In fact, here's a video of someone using it as one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfhvI3oe3_E&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLDC117267E5F7B729

I tested it earlier, actually, and it's probably equivalent (maybe better) to using a bamboo or something.

[snoorkel]

Yep, if you're running windows you can.

When you plug it in via the usb to the computer, you're given a handful of options. You can access the sd card, use the notesync function or use it in digitizer mode.

In fact, here's a video of someone using it as one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfhvI3oe3_E&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLDC117267E5F7B729

I tested it earlier, actually, and it's probably equivalent (maybe better) to using a bamboo or something.

Boo, that's a cool feature, but without OS X support useless for me.

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

Boo, that's a cool feature, but without OS X support useless for me.

Asus is still developing firmware updates for it, but with the cancellation of the us release, full support with osx looks sketchy.
There's a pretty good, small group of developers that have been porting apps to it, so if asus drops the ball, maybe someone else will pick up the slack.

[strongbad]

Reading this thread makes me want one more and more
2011 christmas maybe

[?????]

You should let someone with better handwriting use it and see if they have trouble with it.

Not gonna lie, that handwriting totally turned me off 

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

You should let someone with better handwriting use it and see if they have trouble with it.

Not gonna lie, that handwriting totally turned me off 

I can find someone who writes beautifully. My girlfriend has stereotypically delicious handwriting, but no matter who uses this thing, there's going to be a small sacrifice in quality, at least until you adjust to the slicker surface.

Regardless, I'm really enjoying this thing so far.