Orange to bundle free Eee with HSDPA modem, airtime Orange will tomorrow offer Brits Asus' newly announced Eee PC 900 16G for... well... nothing at all. Orange will expect however, punters to sign up for a two-year, £25-a-month airtime contract. That package grants users up to 3GB of data transfers a month and up to 100 text messages sent from the machine. Asus' old Eee girl …
I use my HTC Hermes + eeePC together all the time while travelling- they're a great combination. And a 3GB data plan is pretty good for anything you'd want to be doing on the move (i.e. no porn marathons, no/limited youtubing, no multiplayer gaming, no torrenting, etc.)- I've got a mere 1GB and have never filled it (even including some of the above at times)
'The Eee 900 16G comes with an 8.9in display and 16GB of solid-state storage.'
...and a battery that lasts an hour if you're lucky!
Under average use my Eee 900 lasts a little longer than 50 minutes between charges. And, after charging, it loses some battery juice whilst still plugged in (you need to unplug as soon as it's topped up and take the battery out ASAP or you're losing precious charge)
Or alternatively you can buy the 16G from here:
http://www.shop.bt.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=5689
for £222, get the £15 a month Orange data option (which includes the USB modem) and save yourself £20 over the course of 2 years, and this only has an 18 month contract.
If you look around I bet you can even get a Data SIM only deal, buy the USB modem outright also, so saving yourself even more money, and not be tied down to any contract.
All in all, this seems a very poor deal to me.
Retailers have been offering free laptops (although the regular bulky sort) for a while - I was offered one in a T-Mobile store and CPW also have a range of laptops available (none that I took a fancy to last I looked). You can also get a free Eee (not sure of the specs) or Advent's atom-based Wind clone at PC World on a number of networks, or up to £400 off any laptop you choose depending on the length and monthly charge of the contract.
I'd' still prefer a built-in 3G adaptor, something Acer as supposed to be working on for the Aspire (and is already included with some Sony laptops that cost the earth).
I think Asus are trying to dump a big overstock of the 900 caused by everyone wanting the 901 instead. A friend who distributes Eees was offering me the same 900 / 16GB SSD model for a very cheap price yesterday, with the 901 costing a few hundred dollars more. Bit of a miscalculation...
@ AC - alternatively: Think your being a little unfair there, its not charging dramatically over the odds. £20 "Profit" is penuts on a £600 deal, and probably wouldn't cover cost of credit if you bought an EEE and paid it off over the next 24 months - which is effectively what your doing...
@ Good deal - Good Deal: You won't be torrenting very effectively anyway - Orange internet everywhere gives you a 10.x.x.x address range and nats you out, so you don't get control over inbound ports. This also scuppers any online gaming you might try (Although obviously there would be lag issues anyway) and makes some VPN a bit of a pain in the bum.
Would be nice to see one of the companys make an effort to get an intergrated HSDPA card into the EEE.
...it was properly marketed. I work in an Orange shop (hence the Anon) and frankly, our marketing of this promotion is rubbish. Before, we had a laptop accessing (a very limited version of) the Internet via wifi to demonstrate our home broadband.
Now, the eeePC (which in itself looks very good) is basically stuck to the counter with alarm cables coming out of it. The cables are *sellotaped* into place so that the alarms don't go off. I mean, come on! What's more, despite the wifi router next to it, the laptop has to get by with the "HSDPA" dongle plugged into it. Given we're in a shopping centre, I'm guessing the speed averages at 200kb/s. Great demonstration of mobile broadband... shocking.
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