With Asus now doing the right/sensible/inevitable (depending on your point of view) thing over the Eee PC 900 battery brouhaha in the UK, we’ve discovered some rather interesting information about just how big a deal this is for owners.

An anonymous source at Asus tells us that the number of complaints they’ve received about the Eee PC 900 battery being sold with a 4400mAh battery (rather than a 5800mAh one) is literally no more than a handful. And that’s a bit of an over-estimate – again, according to our source.

Now we wholeheartedly accept that this could be a fib in an attempt to play down the story and judging by the heated debate taking place over at the EeeUser forums (Tech Journo Top Tip: referring to your readers as “nutters” is never the best idea…), we assumed that a fair few owners had complained.

The Eee PC 900 battery upgrade program kicks off on 10 June (more details to come), so it will be interesting to see just how many owners take it up – assuming Asus will tell us, of course. In the meantime, let us know in the comments if you’re going to be sending your old battery back and we’ll see how the numbers stack up.

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Adam Elphick  - Asus is LYING   |03/06/08 8:30 PM If you want to go over to http://forum.ee euser.com/viewt opic.php?id=271 40&p=1 you will see that they have got a lot more than a 'handful' of complaints! ToysRus have confirmed Asus changed specs AFTER the POS was supplied by them, ToysRus then had to stick stickers over it when they found out the battery issue problems! If so FEW people have complained how comes Asus is actually doing anything? In HK and SG they had to replace the batteries free of charge due to so many complaints too! They should be doing the same for UK - not CHARGING us for their mistake! The original offer told over the phone by Asus staff was approximately 'Pay a tenner and get a spare 5800mAh battery from us' - which has considerably changed - probably only to put off as many owners as possible! yet they have the cheek to say in the press release for the offer that it shows their 'Unique Customer Service' - yep Asus it's sure Unique! Reply | Quote

Dave   |03/06/08 8:42 PM Funny it's only a handful, there was a poll on the eeeuser.com forum. Out of 108 responses 93 were not happy with the battery life. Reply | Quote

Col   |03/06/08 8:45 PM As a heads up, the number of people that take up this offer from Asus will be a fraction of those that are unhappy with the situation. Taking up the offer means having to pay Asus more money than we intended (we bought a UMPC expecting that it would offer reasonable battery life) at a price that was agreed with our supplier. To correct the situation in which we now find ourselves (through no fault of our own), we are now expected to pay more money to Asus, and be without mobile use of the eee900 while we wait for Asus to take delivery of the 4400mAh battery, and post the replacement 5800mAh battery back to us. Since the majority of us are unhappy with this offer from Asus, it is unreasonable to infer the level of dissatisfaction based upon how many decide to return their batteries. If we deem the offer unreasonable, we are unlikely to take advantage of it! Let's turn this around. If only a handful of people respond to this offer from Asus, this suggests that Asus have failed miserably to respond to the legitimate concerns of their customers by making a reasonable offer. Reply | Quote

BenJG  - Battery Exchange   |03/06/08 8:55 PM People interested in this should go to the eee User forum and read the threads, but for the record I for one will be exchanging my battery. Reply | Quote

Adam Elphick   |03/06/08 8:56 PM Good points - hey why doesn't this site run a poll on how many annoyed 900 users there are? All the complainants from the forums can log the complaints then on an unbiased site?! We can point to this from the forum to ensure that users know the poll exists... maybe Asus won't be able to say we are lying then! Reply | Quote

roamingstudio  - Complaints... ask their servic   |03/06/08 8:56 PM Perhaps if you asked Asus to review the number of service report tags complaining about batteries the numbers would be different. I guess it depends to *whom* the complains were addressed. Reply | Quote

Disheee  - muddy the waters   |03/06/08 8:58 PM As an Eee 900 UK owner I will most certainly be sending my sub-par battery back for the upgrade. The crux of this for me boils down to the fact that the manual categorically states, "A fully charged pack will provide several hours of battery life". Several hours meaning more than 2 or 3, whereas the reality of the situation is you'll be lucky to get 1.5 hours life out of the 4400mAh battery (with tweaking!). So come on ASUS get it right. Reply | Quote

Disheee  - SHAME!!!   |03/06/08 9:05 PM The way ASUS have behaved regarding the UK battery issue is beyond a joke. Being luck to get 1.5 hours life out of the 4400mAh battery means I'll definitely be sending it back for replacement. Reply | Quote

WhatNoReply  - Complaints via service reports   |03/06/08 9:11 PM A lot of people were complaining about batteries in the early weeks by generating support requests; especially where the battery power did not seem to last to expectations. Only within the past 2 weeks was it escalated from service engineers to managers (who were so exasberated they produced a standard reply). I still have my service request tags. Im sure many more do as well. If you are to have an open poll... then let it be open to everyone and not selective filtering. Reply | Quote

Disheee  - Whats with the....   |03/06/08 9:13 PM Whats with the, "now you see it, now you don't", comment system? Reply | Quote

Marc Lawrence  - Being fair with complaints   |03/06/08 9:27 PM It is easy to just fire off and complain about the battery issue, and reading the net there are clearly a many annoyed users. So how big are the real numbers? How many generated service requests to identify what is wrong with their usage? (i.e. under 3 hours). How many are happy with bios which underclocks the chip to get better performance? At the end of the day the 900 is a nice machine and with a larger battery incredibly useful, and worth getting. It may be a storm in a teacup; but for UK buyers it does seem to be a big storm. Within Europe the 900's have only just started arriving (non-grey import), along with news of price breaks and different battery sizes. Everyone accepts the fire created a shortage; but _please_ ASUS, be up-front about it and make packaging, documentation and reviews clear. Reply | Quote

Adam Elphick   |03/06/08 9:27 PM How odd - they appear - they dissapear then a few minutes later they appear again! What a very strange comment system! Reply | Quote

Red Death  - Why is Asus briefing against i   |03/06/08 9:44 PM Seems extraordinary that Asus would be so stupid as to brief media outlets against its customers, particularly about something that has not been made official yet. I can well believe that Asus UK have only had a handful of phone call complaints (no email seems to be available to contact Asus UK), but that does not take into account the rather larger number of people that have contacted Asus through their Technical Support Dept who know nothing about the battery replacement scheme or those who have complained to retailers direct rather than Asus. Reply | Quote

Red Death   |03/06/08 9:45 PM PS I will definitely be sending my battery back for replacement. 1.5 hours with no Wifi and low screen brightness is pathetic. Reply | Quote

Julian Prokaza  - Comments problems..?   |03/06/08 9:52 PM Comments shouldn't be vanishing - or at least no one is deleting any... Are any still missing? Reply | Quote

Dave   |03/06/08 9:55 PM Truth be told, Asus seem to have nothing but contempt for it's users. Why else would pro-Asus stories on CNET suddenly start appearing calling any user who complained a "nutter" ; and then when people complain to the editor of CNET the story is changed, but the new title becomes "Shut up, get over it"! Have a look: http://crave.cn et.co.uk/laptop s/0,39029450,49 297180,00.htm Asus have had their chance, there is plenty of competition coming, the MSI Wind, the new Dell Mini-Inspiron, the new Acer mini. There are PLENTY of other mini-laptops coming on to the market to buy. Asus couldn't have screwed this up any worse. What a bunch of ............. Reply | Quote

Dave   |03/06/08 9:59 PM The link to CNET hasn't worked in the above post. This should go straight to the story http://ti nyurl.com/45shw e Reply | Quote

Eggie   |03/06/08 10:01 PM As a 900 owner I can confirm that I have complained to Asus about the battery life that I get with my machine. I purchased the 900 after reading favourable reviews on various websites indicating approximately 3 hours battery life. I find that I'm lucky to get 1.5 hours on a good session. I have contacted Asus support who have been no help. I have emailed my complaints to Jerry Shen (Asus Tek CEO) with no response, even a confirmation of receipt. Asus appear to have been sticking their heads in the sand and hoping that the battery issue goes away. There appears to be mixed messages being released by Asus, none of which are appearing on their website or forums which I find extremely strange. For example: Asu s: It?s the retailers fault ? they can choose between the 4400 version and the 5800 versions. Rubbish. Its been now stated that there is only a single 4400 version available in the UK. Asus: It?s because you get a 2 year warrantee in the EU, because of this you get a smaller battery.  Asus: The 4400 battery is standard in the EU. Lies. Italy have received 900?s with 5800 batteries and France have received 5200 batteries. Both of whom are in the EU (well last time I looked anyway!) Asu s: It?s Toys R Us?s fault ? they chose to advertise ?around 3 hours battery life?. Completely false. Toys R Us were provided with specification details prior to release and the Asus reduced the specs. Now Toys R Us have stuck over the advertisements with ?around 2 hours battery life?. Asus: A number of people have taken up the battery offer. How?!?! The battery offer hasn?t even been put on the table yet. There are numerous different websites and forums stating different things! I for one shall neverever be purchasing anything produced by Asus again. I will be recommending to friends, work colleagues and clients that they do not purchase Asus products due top the poor customer support. I am extremely annoyed that Asus appear to be using your website and others to portray themselves in such a glowing light and to downplay the frustrations that current UK 900 owners have. Asus have shown that they can be dishonest before by providing machines for review with larger batteries than they are going to release to the public. I can honestly say that your ?Anonymous Asus Source? with their ?number of complaints received is literally no more than a handful? is a blatant liar too. I?d suggest you consider running an independent poll to verify or obtain an accurate figure of those 900 UK owners who are displeased with their 900 battery life and see how accurate Asus ?handful? is?.. Reply | Quote

Dave   |03/06/08 10:02 PM still not right, should read http://tinyur l.com/4ng9d3 Reply | Quote

Adam Elphick   |03/06/08 10:07 PM They have re-appeared seemingly after random time periods - it's very odd - thank you for replying Julian Reply | Quote

Molly   |03/06/08 10:22 PM not only the customers buying a 900 model getting screwed. the 701 4G was spec'ed with a 5200 mAh battery, now they're shipping with the same 4400 mAh battery as the 701 4G Surf. meaning, customers are paying a $50 premium for the 0.3 MP webcam, an article ASUS is buying for few cents. ASUS is either blatantly greedy, unbelievably stupid or, and this is what i believe, both. Reply | Quote

Julian Prokaza  - Comments & polls   |03/06/08 10:28 PM Disappearing comments are probably the result of a quirky comment system - nothing is deleted (unless it's spam), but comments sometimes fail to successfully post (like this one is now doing...). If that happens, copy your comment, refresh the page and try again. If posted comments are coming and going, let me know and I'll look into it.  I've also dropped a poll on the site - see the right-hand column. Finally, please note that the 'handful' quoted by my Asus source in this article refers to actual complaints it has received by email. They didn't mention phone calls or service requests. And no, I haven't seen the emails. So, if you complained to Asus about the Eee PC 900 battery by email before this deal was announced, feel free to forward a copy to editor(at)mobil ecomputermag.co .uk (in confidence) and I'll add them up, and see how they compare with my source's figures. Oh and @Adam Elphick - In case you're wondering, I've now deleted some of your duplicate posts just to keep this comment thread manageable. Reply | Quote

Halk   |03/06/08 10:26 PM Sending back, and forgeting Asus in the future Reply | Quote

Adam Elphick   |03/06/08 10:42 PM Molly is raising a good point - they are generally offloading 4400 batteries due to the fire at the LG battery factory I think! the 701 always shipped with 5200mAh batteries - now all of a sudden 4400 as well? Hmm smells mighty fishy to me! P.S. Julian - I have forwarded you my 'Asus emails' and other forum members will be doing so for your perusal. Reply | Quote

Col   |03/06/08 10:50 PM It appears that the vote is also having problems. I've just voted, and when I viewed the results afterwards, only one vote was counted and it was not the vote I made. Maybe it is just a delay as with the comments. Reply | Quote

Col   |03/06/08 10:55 PM Ooo, er, my last comment has disappeared now too! No doubt it will reapper, like the others before did. I've just rechecked the vote, and the one registered vote was about 20 minutes before my vote, so I guess there is a delay. Please check the votes are not being lost. The only vote I can see was made at 11:29. I made my vote at about 11:48 (at a guess). Reply | Quote

Dave   |03/06/08 11:10 PM I can see 13 votes on the poll. Reply | Quote

Colin Wards - AKA Shade 360  - it's meee - one of the "hand   |03/06/08 11:17 PM handful of complaints.. t hat makes melaugh - also most as much as Asus ignoring the fact they misled UK buyers with "3 hour battery" claims.. I don't care about the number on the battery - I wanted 3 hours.. after about 40 emals, and 20 or so phone calls to varous people at Asus, they said theres NO compensation for misleding buyers -since they NEVER said to ANY UK reviwer about the battery life being 3 hours.. shame I have a list of reviews / cnet / stuff pc pro who have all stated in emails to me that Asus spokeperson or documents said "3 to 3.5 hours usage" 3 hours.. Asus' advice?- pay for it- or return it to the store for a REFUND... gues s what I'm doing? refund. .. why am I giving up? my RMA for a faulty keyboard was refused to due the serial number not being a UK machine...even though it says so on the box - and was confirmed UK stock by TRU.. none of my calls have been returned today - and I really can't be bothered fighting so no warranty for Shade360 - wonder why? Reply | Quote

Colin Wards - AKA Shade 360  - vote not counted?   |03/06/08 11:18 PM my vote also didn't count? I voted for 1, refund due to Asus passing the buck to retailers.. I feel sorry for the store - its all down to Asus.. Reply | Quote

Colin Wards - AKA Shade 360   |03/06/08 11:22 PM forgot to say - I could be considered the "ring leader" I started the whole eeeUser.com thread, emailed reviewers to carry stories on the battery problem and provided plenty of evidence to Asus about their misleading claims in the UK - all of which they ignored and that could explain Asus' lack of commuication with me over the past few days... but surely they are not that petty? Reply | Quote

Jack Elliott   |03/06/08 11:28 PM If the offer goes ahead as planned, Asus will receive my battery back, along with the rest of my Eee. Reply | Quote

Rogrobin   |03/06/08 11:48 PM I also sent 2 emails and a writen letter to Asus about this. Oh and I cant vote on your poll even tho I ve turned cookies on -for the record I want to send my 900 back for a refund. Screw Asus. Theyve lost my custom. Reply | Quote

sb  - Nonsense   |04/06/08 12:21 AM What rubbish - there's dozens of people who have complained, you only have to look at the eeeuser.com site I've sent them two complaints and just got useless form replies back saying nothing. Reply | Quote

A Lyle  - Another complainant   |04/06/08 4:55 AM I have emailed Asus support and sent the same complaint by letter to Asus UK - at the time I bought my Eee 900, reviews and articles on UK websites were stating that the 900 would be supplied with a 5200mAh battery. My feeling is that Asus should either a) Replace the 4400 battery free of charge with one capable of giving the running time originally stated at the time of purchase (as they would if the battery were faulty), or b) Offer a discounted 5800 battery and let us keep our 4400s I will be taking up the offer anyway, as otherwise Asus really will be able to claim that customers aren't that interested. Reply | Quote

Eggie   |04/06/08 6:25 AM If there is such a small handful of people complaining why have Asus decided to roll out a full battery replacement scheme? Sure ly its easier and cheaper to give those complaining few what they want and then it'll disappear....?   Its because the complaints are more than a handful, because they know that they have been deceitful altering the battery specificiations for review copies and onsale machines....   ASUS is either greedy, stupid or probably both.... Someone needs to step down from their ivory tower and actually look at the damage this is causing to their reputation.... Reply | Quote

Jassen Payen   |04/06/08 8:06 AM Just like to say, I also sent an email complaining about the battery, and the fact that I got on average about 1.5 hours with the relevant energy saving precautions (brightness minimum, power saving, update bios to 601, no sound and wireless off when unneeded) Also cited contracticing sources to asus about the battery life claims, and areas of the EU such as Italy receiving 5800mAH battery. I got a reply saying something to the extent of the battery shortage from the fire being the blame, and that 5800mAH batterys being sold in the future :-/ Also some garbage about competitors using lower rated batteries, which I don't care about, it doesn't solve the issue many of us are experiencing! It funny how they carefully avoid the issue and spin it back around! They're going to have many refunds on their hands. Reply | Quote

duckface   |04/06/08 9:21 AM I get around 1.5 hours use with screen on a quarter, onboard lan disabled, sound disabled, and onboard card reader disabled. Takes me longer to charge it. Not very practical or portable. Mine's going back. The great hype has completely sucked people in and it's now leaving a bad taste in their mouth. Asus claims that they never published the spec of the battery, but all the hints and indications made by the reviewers stated that it will most likely get the bigger battery. Asus sold us a car that they say can do 0-60 in 6secs. But they didn't tell us that you can only achieve that if you had the v8 engine, which we're not getting in the UK. Fair? I think NOT. Reply | Quote

Jeremy   |04/06/08 9:55 AM one and a half hours doing anything thats worth doing..pathetic !im so fed up..getting my money back from pc world.if they wont refund ill just stick a couplke of bare wires onto the terminals and plug it into the grid....damn you for rippin me off asus after all the mobos ect ive bought off you Reply | Quote

Jim Jeffries   |04/06/08 1:41 PM I will certainly be seeking the Battery upgrade, as it is not acceptable that UK buyers should be expected to put up with a lesser specified device. The battery on the EEE900 as sold here is actually smaller then that supplied with the earlier, less power needy then its earlier EEE701 model. Reply | Quote

Matt Siviter  - I complained too   |04/06/08 3:43 PM I think it's really underhand of ASUS and the battery life is pretty crap, I complained to them today. My first eee 900 didn't even boot! Matt Reply | Quote

Warren   |04/06/08 6:51 PM +1 for the battery going back...I love the machine and will keep it, but I hope they don't want to take the old one. Reply | Quote

Dave   |04/06/08 7:11 PM Check the poll, in less than 24 hours there are 67 unhappy Asus 900 owners. Hardly the "handful 4; of "nutters 4; Asus are so quick to portray. Reply | Quote

Ian   |04/06/08 8:44 PM My battery is sub 90 mins. If you charge it the day before it is less than this. Come on Asus - nuce product but the battery life is an absolute joke. My original email from them ackowledged the problem and implied they would be sending a replacement out "once agreed with management" Now they seem to have changed their tune and having a laugh at our expense. Reply | Quote

Jimmy K  - No one notified me   |05/06/08 4:15 PM I emailed Asus regarding the battery issue about 3 weeks ago. I got reply from Mrijke Baron saying that no decision has been made. Now I'm reading that there'll be a replacement scheme? Why haven't Asus contacted me again? There's nothing on their website! I'm only get about 1hr30mins with that 4400mAh battery. Not happy! Now we have to fork out £10 more to get the battery US customers have been getting with their cheaper EEE 900? Reply | Quote

Col   |05/06/08 7:58 PM Jimmy, join the discussion at eeeuser.com. Many of us feel similarly about the - so called - '£10 offer'. Plus, you can register your disatisfaction here - there is a poll being run to the right on this page. You are right - there is no reason for Asus to have not post anything about this at the Asus website. Pretty sloppy, but then Asus has handled the whole situation sloppily from day one. Reply | Quote

Duncan   |05/06/08 8:20 PM I've not yet managed to get anywhere near 2hrs battery life, let alone 3.5hrs, and this is running the new V601 firmware. I have to say ASUS could have handled this a problem a lot better than they have, I'm now considering either the new ACER or MSI Wind. Reply | Quote

bazza   |06/06/08 2:17 AM Complained to ASUS about the battery,(it only lasts about 1 hour 20 minutes when using WiFi) they offered to sell me another battery of the same size (4400mAh) for £59! as a spare. They then tried to blame the resellers for requesting the smaller batteries. Seems they have eaten humble pie and are going to replace eee pc900 batteries for a small fee. Asus are suggesting that customers send back their batteries with the replacement fee. However, I wonder what Asus suggest I run the laptop with until the new battery arrives? Reply | Quote

stumpypete   |06/06/08 10:39 AM I have two Eeepc 900s, and the batteries from both of them will be send for upgrade. Reply | Quote

PM  - Lack of batteries available   |01/08/08 9:38 AM I'm trying to track the batteries down. Asus have supplied three UK vendor names, two don't list the batteries and the third supplies a non-asus brand battery rated at 5200mA. I have to say that whilst I like my 900, I'll look to replace it with another brand product when the time comes to upgrade. Reply | Quote

Marc Lawrence  - Misco, Ebuyer   |01/08/08 10:55 AM Misco and Ebuyer have them - but you need to phone through, or use a direct link (pages 72-75 from the eeepcuser forum on battery issues). The company doing the battery replacements is complaining that it is a massive fiasco - the numbers of returned batteries is in the high hundreds if not more. Definitely not the 'storm in a tea cup'. Reply | Quote

Dave   |03/08/08 10:40 PM Took the idiots of Asus so long to sort it out that by the time the email to arrange the battery swap arrived I have happily been using my Advent badged MSI Wind for almost a month. I doubt I will be buying another Asus product, I got a good price for my EeePC 900, and the Advent was a good price at PC World. I couldn't be happier now, the Advent/Wind is a jump in performance, worked exactly as it should from day 1 and is much easier to work with having the 80GB HDD. Asus, you are the weakest link, Good bye! Reply | Quote

Colin  - Not likely to make much difference?   |15/08/08 2:32 PM Only got to this website after deciding against Expansys' '3hrs today only' special offer on the 701 , and deciding to look at the 900 instead. Gla d I followed the link to these reviews as the battery life effectively makes the 900 completely useless! How ever, I think everyone is missing a critical point: 5800mAH vs 4400 MAH is only a 30% increase (and, being a Li-Ion, the relationship will indeed be linear). If you're having to disable wi-fi and use 1/4 screen brightness to just get 1 to 1.5 hours useage, then this battery upgrade is hardly going to make any difference. I would EXPECT 3 hours use with wi-fi always enabled and full screen brightness. Absolutely useless otherwise. W ill wait to see what the 'mini-Dell' looks like, as my Inspiron 17" 9300 is superb, and I wanted a smaller version to browse internet and IM/Skype whilst watching TV! Reply | Quote

V Farrell  - It's just out of order.   |07/09/08 5:45 PM Why should we have to pay to get something we already thought we had paid for. I do not think that any of us should have to pay for any new battery and I think that we should all be getting an apology from Asus, and until then I'm going to continue to complain. Reply | Quote

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