I was in Toys R Us the other day on a toy hunt, when I thought I’d wander over and drool over the EeePC again. Granted, the one they’ve got on display has a busted keyboard, and was switched off (battery seemed dead), but it still lets me marvel over the size of the thing.

Then one of the shop staff saw me looking at it, and helpfully pointed out that there was two versions available. The one on display (4Gb, Linux OS, 7″ screen), and they also had a new version. The new version turned out to be the 12Gb, Windows XP variant of the EeePC 900. Sadly they didn’t have it on display, but it’d be interesting to see.

What I found really interesting though was that it was the two extremes. You could either get the really cheap 4Gb Linux version, or the £320 Windows XP EeePC 900.

Its the first time I’ve seen the EeePC offered, and it only served to re-affirm a worry I’ve got, that stockists will favour stocking the XP version over the Linux version of the 900. Granted, TRU isn’t a computer shop, so I’d hope that Curries, Comet and the like (sticking to the high street) will maybe have all the variants (specifically Curries, since I’ve not seen the current models in Comet).

For myself though, I reckon that when I get one, it’ll be the 4Gb EeePC with the 7″ screen. While it’d be nicer to have the bigger screen and 20Gb storage, I just can’t justify the £320. At that price, the portability loses some of its attractiveness to me, in favour of just getting a better speced laptop. The £220 version ticks the boxes for me in terms of size and cost. (Although I’d also be investing in a healthily-sized SD card to bump up the storage.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 10:04 and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.