Asus to offer £10 battery upgrades on Eee PC

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 28 May 2008 at 16:03

Asus may offer British Eee PC owners a cheap battery upgrade to quell the fury that's erupted over the company's decision to supply lower-capacity batteries to British buyers.

British owners of the Eee PC 900 have been supplied with a 4400mAh battery, while laptops shipped in North America came with a 5800mAh battery. That's led to a flurry of complaints about poor battery life from British buyers, with many reporting that the laptop fails to last much more than an hour-and-a-half on a full charge.

Asus has publicly blamed the LG Chem battery factory fire for the situation, claiming that a shortage of available 5800mAh batteries forced it to put the lower-capacity model in British machines.

However, that excuse has failed to wash with many of Asus's customers, several of whom complained that they pre-ordered the machine on-spec, before they became aware that Eee PCs in Britain were being shipped with the lower-capacity battery.

Now, a member of the EeeUser forum claims the company is set to offer a cheap battery upgrade scheme.

"I actually got through to someone at Asus UK who has confirmed... that it is working on a rebate scheme whereby, for approx £10, early purchasers will be supplied with a 5800 battery," the forum member wrote.

"He said an official announcement will be made in due course but this won't be before it is able to secure enough 5800 batteries.

At the moment it does not have enough. I couldn't get a timescale out of him but he said it is definitely going to do something."

An Asus spokesperson told PC Pro that the company is in dialogue with customers over the issue. "For the £10 deal you are speaking about, we're not sure which battery it is yet," the spokesperson said. "We will do an official announcement in due course."

PC Pro's review unit of the Eee PC 900 did include the lower-capacity 4400mAh battery, and so remains accurate.