ASUS: Reviewers & Users Get Different Battery

News
By Tuan Nguyen in Los Angeles
published

ASUS officially admitted that it provided better batteries to reviewers of its popular Eee PC 900 than those it shipped to actual customers. According to reports flowing in from Hong Kong, customers who purchased the new UMPCs on launch day complained that ASUS mislead consumers and reviewers. The batteries that were given to reviewers were 5800mAh batteries while consumers were given 4800mAh.

Officials at ASUS told reporters that the standard for the Eee PC 900 is a 4800mAh battery. The company said that it had plans to introduce a higher capacity 5800mAh model at a later date, but accidentally shipped those to reviewers instead.

Company representatives state that due to the confusion, it will consider a exchange program for users who have 4800mAh batteries — currently all of them at the moment. However, ASUS did not indicate to reporters if it will follow through with this program or when it would be available.

This is not the first time that companies have shipped "special edition" equipment to reviewers, which ends up skewing overall impressions of the product from actual models that are for sale.

Found: Gizmodo

Tuan Nguyen in Los Angeles
28 Comments Comment from the forums
  • spuddyt
    mistake my A$$
    Reply
  • ZOldDude
    This sort of thing goes on all the time.
    The only way to test any product is to get -retail samples- from different venders/shops over a period of a few weeks and insure all tests are run the exact same way.
    Reply
  • veritas_aa
    This is a typical case of lack of INTEGRITY. Things will be different if only ASUS admitted it first but it is still not to late for them to correct this "mistake" with exchange program immedidately instead of just "consider it". WHAT YOU SENT TO REVIEWER SHOULD BE THE SAME AS WHAT YOU SELL or it is called CHEATING.
    Reply
  • johnbilicki
    Asus does not RMA expensive/new items, it sends dead/used items to replace them. It was my first and last item I'll ever buy from Asus. It sickens me to see them get so much coverage here and at Maximum PC. They simply don't stand behind their products. It doesn't matter if a product trumps all others with a hundred times the performance without overclocking or anything special if when it does break you get not only used but broken replacements on $200+ parts!
    Reply
  • SvenBoogie
    "Asus would like to assure our customers, we never intended to get caught."
    Reply
  • Zoonie
    SvenBoogie"Asus would like to assure our customers, we never intended to get caught."
    LOL
    Reply
  • crash27
    "This is a typical case of lack of INTEGRITY. Things will be different if only ASUS admitted it first but it is still not to late for them to correct this "mistake" with exchange program immedidately instead of just "consider it". WHAT YOU SENT TO REVIEWER SHOULD BE THE SAME AS WHAT YOU SELL or it is called CHEATING."

    I disagree i think it's stealing.
    Reply
  • wrack
    Yeah right "Accidentally Shipped"! You got caught with your pants down and now you are trying to justify that.
    Reply
  • doomsdaydave11
    commies. How can a huge company "accidentally" ship different batteries, and not know about it. Either they have absolutely no quality control, or they just scammed a lot of people. Either way, I'm not going to buy from asus for a while.
    Reply
  • nukemaster
    SvenBoogie"Asus would like to assure our customers, we never intended to get caught."Priceless.
    Reply