The Asus Eee PC 701 may be the mini-laptop that helped spark the netbook revolution, but with its 7 inch display, smally keyboard, and tiny amount of storage space, the netbook might not be as attractive as newer clamshell devies with 9 and 10 inch screens. But you know what the Eee PC 701 still is? Cheap. You can pick one up for just over $200 if you shop around. And that makes the Eee PC 701 a great toy for hackers looking to build interesting things like cheap carputers or tablets.
We’ve already seen one attempt to not only build a tablet PC out of Eee PC 701 parts, but to market a retail netbook-to-tablet conversion kit. Now it looks like there may be a new kid in town. A member of the Mobile01forums has posted some pictures of a homemade tablet. And it looks pretty slick.It apears to have decent ventilation, spare for the speakers to hang out, and a series of buttons on the side of the device for launching applications or controlling a cursor, two things that can come in handy when you remove the keyboard.
The finished product is also a bit lighter than the original netbook. Right now this is just a prototype, but the developer is thinking about selling kits.
via Portable Monkey
Turning a netbook into a tablet is just one part of the story. What lacks is a proper operating system like the iPhone OS or Android for mobile devices with a touch screen. Running Windows on a tablet is just horrible.
However, I respect all the hackers out there who share their experiences. Now the big manufacturers have to come up with a good touchscreen OS.
what like this?
https://virtuallyshocking.com/2008/12/20/building-android-for-the-asus-eeepc-701/
running windows is horrible full stop
but i’m a smidge biased 🙂
Now if you could turn that Dell into a tablet you would solve the horrible keyboard issue. If you want to make a tablet, the 701 is not a bad deal because there are kits available. Until someone makes a kit for other units (have not heard about any) this will breathe more life into an older model.
Following a lead posted not long ago I got a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 for under $200. Even without the cited coupon refurbs started “just over $200”. That makes an Eee 701 “for just over $200” sound like a horrible deal 🙂 (Thanks again for the hint.)