OLPC vs EeePc

Ok so I am looking to get a UMPC *Ultra Mobile PC* And there are a few contenders on the market. But the ones in my price range are the OLPC *One Laptop Per Child Program* And the Asus EeePc

I am going to go into detail here why to pick one over the other first up the OLPC

OLPC XO

Ok first I need to give a little info so you know what OLPC is and what it does

OLPC was started to help people in 3rd world countries to get laptops to the kids so they can learn better and be able to get there hands on a computer where it would not be possible any other way. How it works is you spend the money and actually buy 2 of the OLPC XO laptops and you get one and one gets sent to a child in one of these countries. If you are not into specs/looks and are more into helping other people then this is the little laptop for you…

Specs/looks of this laptop

The reason I wouldn’t get this laptop is because of its specs and how it looks…it is to childish looking for my taste and the specs did not do anything to help it along. The reason it looks so childish is so that the kids will get this laptop and not the adults in the 3rd world countries. Now if you are buying a laptop for a child in your house and would like to help someone else out as well then stop reading now and go get the OLPC.

This is what the OLPC XO looks like

Now you can see what I mean by it looking like it is for a 10 year old.

Now for the specs

The OLPC has a 433Mhz AMD Geode Processor

256mb of SD Ram

1gig of flash storage

a 7.5inch Screen

Built in wireless 802.11

And comes pre installed with a custom linux

The real killer of this laptop is the specs. I understand that the specs were kept low to keep the cost of making them low but I think it could of been done a little better. Also with the 1gig of flash memory there is no chance of getting windows XP onto this laptop

Asus EeePc

Ok now this is the UMPC for the adult/teen crowd. The Asus EeePc is designed to be a small and powerful computer that comes bundled with some nice software such as FireFox Skype Pidgen*like Trillian* Some apps from OpenOffice.org for your word processing and other fun games. Now you wont get that warm fuzzy feeling with this one because they dont send one to a child in need. But if you need more specs than anything in a low cost UMPC then this is the one for you.

Here is what the EeePc *or EPc as it is pronounced* looks like

As you can see this is a better design for the adult crowd.

The Specs on this are decent for its size

The Processor is a 900Mhz Intel Celeron M

It comes with 512MB DDR2 that you can upgrade up to 2gigs

a built in 4gig Solid State Drive *includes a SDHC reader so you can put upto 8gigs more storage onto it*

7inch widescreen display

Wireless b/g

Ethernet 3 usb ports and a vga out port

the 4g also has a Built in webcam

There are going to be more options for the EeePc such as the 8g *has a 8gig SSD*

The 4g Surf that lacks the webcam and has a smaller battery

The 2g and 2g Surf that have a smaller SSD drive

Now this laptop comes with a custom Xandros Linux *correct me if im wrong*

But there are drivers from asus that are supported in Windows XP. Yes this little thing CAN run windows xp with no issues and can even play some games like Counter Strike 1.6 UT99 and some others. Its specs provide a good laptop for the price *$399.99*

Some other fun things that can be done with the EeePc is you can install Vista. And even OSX. Thats right there is a daring person out there that has gotten Mac OSX Tiger/Leopard running on a Asus EeePC. *google is your friend with that one*

Now as far as my choice I am going with the Asus EeePc because of its price and specs. But feel free to post your comments about this and if you already have a EeePc or OLPC let us know what you think of it.

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4 thoughts on “OLPC vs EeePc”

  1. Well i was all for the XO but after a little more research I too would go with the asus. The only problem? The price. $400 is almost as much as a normal laptop ( a cheap one but granted the specs will be higher ) and i would rather buy a full size, A UMPC would be nice but not untill hey come down in price

  2. Okay…okay…. all over the internet, people are talking about how they are adding to the available hdd…. BUT is it possible to replace that solid state hard drive? i have an 80gig sitting here on my desk gathering dust that would love a new home… and i swear it wants to jump into one of them fancy little eeepc’s… please help (im not buyin without more space)

  3. fatalfragger59

    I would not attempt to upgrade the internal storage of the eeepc

    Insted what I would do is get a external storage case weather it be 2.5inch or 3.5inch Then it will just plug in via usb and you can install stuff to it and store stuff on that drive. For a more portable option you can get upto a 16gig SDHC Class 6 card that will pop into the side of the eeepc and work great…any more questions feel free to ask

  4. Hi, I have both an eeePC and an OLPC. Trust me, go with the EPC. An adult cannot type on the OLPC–even one with skinny fingers. I love love love the screen on the OLPC and I love the handle and look and, well, everything except the keyboard, which is the worst I’ve ever used (because it’s made for kiddy fingers). If the OLPC had a regular keyboard, it would be my most used device.

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