formerly: Asus Eee Note EA800 (e-book reader/drawing tablet)

davkol

16 Apr 2016, 17:48

I have sold several Asus Eee Note EA800 tablets/e-readers: used or spare in NIB condition.

About the device itself (highlights; I've also posted a review in Czech):
  • a non-backlit monochromatic (remember old palmtops?) 8-inch LCD, that can fit A4 PDFs very nicely and refreshes like no e-ink;
  • a typical pen-operated Wacom digitizer (you can in fact connect the device to a desktop/laptop and use it as a graphics tablet, i.e., a pointing device);
  • an embedded Linux system with Qt (it's possible to run a shell and some Qt apps on it rather easily; an FTP server for more straightforward syncing is particularly useful).
It's awesome for reading math/science papers, even scanned or with complicated math/graphics, and note-taking (or annotating the PDFs).
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Last edited by davkol on 21 Dec 2019, 21:42, edited 15 times in total.

mjira

24 Jun 2016, 17:30

Hello. Is this still available?

davkol

24 Jun 2016, 19:13

Yup.

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vivalarevolución
formerly prdlm2009

27 Jun 2016, 15:30

If this is still available, I am potentially interested. Do you have a link to the full specifications for this device?

Nevermind, doesn't have a couple features I'm looking for, like backlighting.

vip

23 Sep 2016, 17:08

Hello
I am interested in buyng the Asus
Do you ship to Germany and how much is the shyping cost ?
Thank you

davkol

23 Sep 2016, 17:15

Yup, see OP.
davkol wrote: Asking €100 + shipping from the Czech Republic (tracked, typically €15 for partially insured or €20+ for fully insured package). PayPal preferred.
Specifically, current shipping cost is ca. €14 or €22 respectively. (Excluding PP/SEPA fees.)

vip

24 Sep 2016, 07:21

Hallo

Can you send it per "Nachname" that means that I pay to The Postman when he cams to deliver.
Better if you can send it per Nachname an der Packetstation that means to send it to a postbox where
I can geht your pacage als soon aus I can.
Send me please your Email so we can fix The transiction
Trank you

davkol

24 Sep 2016, 09:56

Cash on delivery actually isn't possible. pm'd anyway.

vip

24 Sep 2016, 19:49

Helle Dackel

Ok I wil pay with Paypal
Last edited by vip on 24 Sep 2016, 21:55, edited 1 time in total.

davkol

24 Sep 2016, 21:06

You probably don't want to post that publicly. Use the Private messages tab in your User Control Panel (the link "X new messages" in top right corner of the screen).

vip

24 Sep 2016, 21:52

:D

vip

06 Oct 2016, 10:36

Hallo davkol
Receiver The Asus thanks
Can you tell me how to get it out of the Poncho ?

davkol

06 Oct 2016, 12:52

Good to hear that; enjoy.

I've e-mailed you some additional info.

andrewjoy

26 Apr 2018, 11:06

It would be nice to have a large e-reader , i know sony made one years ago that just sold to business and was super super expensive , but a nice say 10 inch or 13 inch e reader would be awesome!

cml

26 Apr 2018, 15:52

andrewjoy wrote: It would be nice to have a large e-reader , i know sony made one years ago that just sold to business and was super super expensive , but a nice say 10 inch or 13 inch e reader would be awesome!
Totally agree. That's one of the products I'd buy if they existed for the consumer market.

Arakula

27 Apr 2018, 11:14

Not exactly an e-Reader, but close -
https://remarkable.com/

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chzel

12 Jun 2018, 11:20

That's remarkable...Far too expensive for me...

davkol

22 Jun 2018, 14:34

bump

julientaq

25 Jun 2018, 09:05

hey wasn't it sold already?

davkol

13 Jul 2018, 22:04

I actually got two spares back in the day, sold one in September and recently stumbled upon the other one, which is for sale now too, because the EA800 that I do use has held up fine over the years.

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Nuum

13 Jul 2018, 22:29

Hey, I'd be interested, just a few questions. I'd primarily use it to anotate PDFs, are those notes stored directly in the PDF, so I can view them on my PC as well? Seeing this device is from around 2010, are there updates or custom OSs avaliable that are still supported? How good is the choice of software (specifically PDF readers) in general?

And one final one: Could you do 110€ shipped (tracked and insured)?

davkol

13 Jul 2018, 23:48

It was released in 2011/2012 and Asus failed to keep the product line running/supported from the start, but don't worry: the software is built on top of Linux and Qt, and you can access it.

When you connect the tablet to a PC over USB, you can select one of several modes:
  • charging (i.e., you can use it while charging)
  • mass storage: access to the removable microSDHC card (for books/documents etc.)
  • mass storage: access to an internal partition with synchronization software and drivers for MS Windows
  • synchronization: primarily for the MS Windows application, but it's a network over USB, you can communicate with the tablet's OS over telnet (as an alternative to Wi-Fi, which is also supported)
  • digitizer mode (it behaves as an USB HID graphical tablet, but needs some calibration)
The default set of applications (reader, notebook, audio recorder etc.) is proprietary, although some people have modified it a bit (e.g., to get some effects in the drawing app). If you treat is an appliance and sync it with the Windows application, it's alright. You can also take "screenshots" of pages in books/documents/drawings as bitmaps (PNG or GIF I believe).

So far it's like a generic e-book reader, except with a non-backlit LCD (that's readable in direct light and updates faster) and a Wacom inductive pen/digitizer.

But you can install a bunch of other community-made apps there too (or write/port your own, if you know some Linux and Qt development), including a terminal emulator and a simple file manager (with access to the whole internal file structure)… if you're familiar with the environment, you can, for example, script file backup or run an FTP server to sync those files.

As for my personal experience, I've used mine (the primary non-backup one) to read lots of scientific articles and books mostly in PDF, take notes in math lectures etc. It's worked fine for me, while I can't say the same thing about e-ink readers that I've tried (high screen latency, problematic zoom in PDF readers) and I've run into problems with Android PDF readers crashing on me (which I haven't experienced with EA800).

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Nuum

14 Jul 2018, 16:34

Thank you for the very detailed answer! It sounds like a very interesting device, but I have nearly zero experience with Linux and it all sounds bit complicated to me, so I'm out, sorry!

davkol

14 Jul 2018, 19:05

Well, if you only use it as an appliance, it's super simple. Just copy the books/documents to the memory card, and you can read them or draw inside them with the pen…

Now, what if you need to export the annotations/drawings out of the device? The "Reader" and "Notes" apps have a "Snapshot" button that exports the current page to a bitmap (PNG or GIF) and saves it in the internal memory (unfortunately, not the removable microSDHC card). Then you need to move/copy those files to your desktop—there are two ways to do it: either use the official synchronization software for MS Windows, or take advantage of the fact that the device runs Linux.

I've always done the latter: moved them to the microSDHC card using command line (the community-provided terminal-emulator application), because it's natural once you understand the basics.

But it seems you'd prefer the former, and so I've just tried the official software for MS Windows too. I run it in VirtualBox and it seems to work fine: you can copy the bitmaps in bulk directly to your desktop. (random screenshot)

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It's kind of lame that those are only bitmaps, but someone has made an application that can take the annotations in bulk and merge them back to PDF.

All in all, I dare say the EA800 is fantastic as an electronic replacement for paper. It can display PDFs and you can write/draw on it with the pen; it allows you to take a screenshot of the page and you can copy that picture to your desktop. It can double as a desktop peripheral: tablet. So far so good…
It's other features that aren't very useful in practice: there's a camera and a microphone (neither particularly good), an experimental (read: almost unusable) web browser, limited options for combining different media in notes (kind of what MS OneNote does: mix text, drawings, pictures, audio/video, parts of websites etc. in one document)…

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Nuum

14 Jul 2018, 21:02

Hmm, ok, let me think about it until tommorrow evening.

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Nuum

16 Jul 2018, 13:52

Hey, I thought about it a little more and did a bit of research myself and I still have to pass. It certainly is an interesting device, but I think a normal Windows/Android tablet with digitzer would suit my needs more, especially since I could use it for other thias as well.

davkol

16 Jul 2018, 15:36

I'm curious what you can find. When I did some research myself, it didn't help that most were priced at €300+ (the most interesting being the new Chrome Pad, as Android for tablets has been basically unsupported for a few years now).

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Nuum

16 Jul 2018, 16:05

As of now I found some Windows 10 based Chinese tablets for around 200-300€, but I'm a bit doubtful about the quality at that price point. My best bet right now is a used Acer Switch 3 (Win 10) or a Galaxy Tab A SM-P580 (Android 7), which would be around 250-300€. A slightly more expensive alternative would be the Ipad 2018, but I'm not too big of an Apple fan. Microsoft Surface and the likes are far too expensive to me.

davkol

09 Nov 2018, 19:08

Right, those could work in the short term.

I've been really close to buying either (or something else from the same product line), but always decided against it because of hardware/software support. I know it might sound ironic in a thread about a long-abandoned device… the Eee Note lets me hack around, though, just like my 2011 OpenPandora and 2007 Nokia N800.

Anyway, back to modern Android and Win10. I can get over the fact that most Android apps aren't made with larger screens in mind (anymore) or that >10yo apps may not work with Win10 (anymore) respectively; that's just me and my weird demands. What really scares me, however, is cheap hardware with awful, unsupported drivers rushed to the market due to short product cycles. For example, there's a bug in the Bluetooth stack in recent Samsung Galaxy devices w/ Android, that prevents them from pairing with many keyboards (including Logitech's)… WTF?! Or the convertibles w/ Win10: they all have really weird UEFI implementations and I've read (and experienced) horror stories involving as "basic" stuff as audio output being sloppy with generic drivers. This sort of issues has made me wait for business products (such as ThinkPad Yoga) to drop in price or introduction of reference devices w/ ChromeOS (like some Google Nexus models).

/rant

So, good luck.

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stratokaster

06 Dec 2018, 11:37

Speaking of Chinese tablets: Chuwi devices are not horrible. Well, they are, but at least they are not 100% horrible. More like 90% ;-)

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