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The Eee From Asus is one of the most outstanding and revolutionary products in the notebook market since rechargeable batteries. It is an Ultra-Mobile PC, meaning it will easily slide into almost any purse and can be carried in your hand as well as any book can. I have yet to find anything it can't do and for the price tag, it's unbeatable. This little notebook starts at only $299! That's right, an entire PC that you can carry with you anywhere for less than 300 bucks. And it's surprisingly powerful. Check out the details below.

Size and Aesthetics: ... People are going to think it's a toy.

The Eee is not the smallest notebook on the market, but it's damn close. It's so small and attractive that I quite literally mean that people will walk up to you and think it is a toy, or even a portable DVD player. It's that small. The Galaxy black is a dark and clean color, it's not grayed at all, and with no glossy finish it doesn't leave smudges or fingerprints and the Pearl white is, I dare say, as pretty as a Mac book (But without the price tag or crappy OS). You will probably want to pet it the first time you see it, but resist the urge, it gets no satisfaction.

Honestly, though. Don't expect to get a lot of work done with it in a crowded place any time soon. People will never leave you alone! Every ten seconds someone will come up to you and say "That is the most adorable thing I've ever seen!" Their jaws will drop when you tell them it is a fully functional computer. The portable DVD player was a good example actually, it's got a 7" screen just like a portable DVD player and has about the same footprint.

And there is a little extra room inside the case for some modding if you like. I've seen people install permanent flash drives in there for some extra storage. I think they would have made it thinner (and eliminated that space) if it didn't HAVE to be this thick to fit an Ethernet port on it. That's the only reason I can see the need for this depth. It is only as thick as the LAN port is tall.

Hardware: ... What do you mean 2002?

It's pretty much the same as a laptop you would have gotten in about 2002. The processor is a 900mhz Intel used in several ultra mobile PCs. It uses little power and creates little heat, a great choice for something like this, but obviously the power is limited. And it doesn't help that Asus lowered the FSB (Front Side Bus) clock speed from 100mhz to 70mhz (the processor has a 9x multiplier therefore clock speed goes from 900mhz to 630mhz). So basically its a 630mhz processor. You can bump the speed back up with a certain revision of the BIOS, but why? this consumes less power and makes your battery last longer, plus it runs much cooler and is therefore more stable, and I promise, you won't need more speed than that. Why would you? You aren't really multithreading, you can only have one program open at a time because you want everything you are doing to be maximized or you wouldn't be able to see it. If all your doing is typing, surfing the internet, checking your e-mail, and maybe having an IM conversation (All that this machine is really made for) then the machine is way more than fast enough.

The hard drive (well not really, its a Solid State Disk, which is flash memory so less power and no moving parts to break) is only 4gb (in mine). It comes in 4 different models, the 2gb Surf (2gb SSD, no webcam, shorter battery life, 800mhz processor) $299, the 4gb Surf (4gb SSD, no webcam, shorter battery life) $349, the 4gb (4gb SSD, longer battery life, webcam) $399, and finally the 8gb (8gb SSD, longer battery life, webcam, 1gb RAM) $499. This space problem is somewhat of an issue, if you get the 2gb your version of Linux is missing some packages that are non vital and you have very little free space, installing Windows XP on this one would be very difficult, near ridiculous, but possible. The 4gb versions have plenty of space for the Linux OS. You have about 1.3gb free space after the OS is installed, and this is also enough room to wipe the drive clean and install Windows XP without a hitch. Like I said, I bought the 4gb and couldn't be happier. I invest $30 for an 8gb SDHC card and leave it permanently in the card reader, and I also have a 4gb flash drive and a 500gb external. So there is plenty of memory on my desk at home, and I have 16gb for on the go now, should be enough. I think the 8gb is not worth the $100 extra. You can get another 512 ram for about $15 and a 4gb SD card for the same $15. That means they are charging $100 extra for $30 worth of stuff. If you don't need the extra battery life either the 4gb Surf is my favorite version, but I liked the idea of 3.5 hours instead of 2.5 (and these battery life predictions are near accurate, I average about 3, very satisfied).

The lack of cd drive is sometimes troublesome, but where would you want them to put it? I just move anything I would need onto a flash drive and use it from there, but if you really need one, there is no problem with USB cd drives, you can even install operating systems from them. My only real complaint with it is the power of the wireless card. The internal wireless card is not the best I've ever seen, don't get me wrong it's not bad, but there is a signal at work I usually leech off of and it won't grab it, I had to buy and external USB adapter with an antenna. No problem really, what do you expect. And 512mb of RAM is more than enough for anything you are doing with this little machine as well. We all know we aren't video editing on it, or playing real video games. It should be more than acceptable.

Finally, the much hated Keyboard. I don't find it much of a problem, but I have heard many people complain about it. Yes, the keys are small, much smaller than that of a normal keyboard, but nothing like trying to type on a cell phone. You can still keep your fingers in their normal positions, you just don't have to move them around as much. I find it less tiring actually. You do have to hit the keys firmly though, usually you can just tap them on a laptop, but then they sometimes won't register. If you have really big hands (are you a basketball player?) or sausage fingers you might have an issue, but otherwise, with some getting used to, you will be fine. One beware of statement though. The up arrow key is where your right shift button should be, and the shift button is moved over one. This is very confusing for typing question marks and parenthesis (that is usually the only time I use that shift key, I use the left for everything else).

(after thought: The speakers are LOUD and CLEAR! The sound is better and about 10 times louder at max volume then my 17" laptop and these ones are only about the size of a dime. What kind of magic is this? I don't know, but no complaints, it's like carrying a portable boom box)

Price tag: ... MP3 Video Player or Full Laptop? How will I choose?

Yes, the price tag on this little machine is about as much as a nice MP3 and Video player, Of which this machine does both (but probably not in your pocket). It is remarkably powerful for it's price and size. If you look up ultra-mobile PCs, the average cost is $2000, this is a fifth of the price and more attractive in my opinion. How can you justify buying a $2500 Sony that is the same size, but has a little more processor power, a little more RAM, Windows Preinstalled, and a 16gb flash drive. Let's add it up:

• $399 Eee PC 4gb
• $80 Windows XP Home OEM version
• $35 2gb RAM
• $60 16gb Memory Card
• Total: $584

Yes, $584 for a machine that is nearly identical to the one they are selling for $2500. The processor is less powerful and I'm sure theirs has a touch screen and a nice way to hold it in your hand, but still, look at the price difference and this one still travels anywhere. We didn't make any modifications to it's size. This little computer is well worth the money. And if you hook it up to a 19" monitor (which I had lying around) and external keyboard and mouse, and also to the 500gb external hard drive, you actually have a fully functional computer. It's rather scary.

Software: ... Linux?

Yes, it comes preinstalled with a very heavily modified version of Xandros Linux. Which is easy enough to learn and to use for e-mail, web surfing, IM conversations, Skype video calls, Wireless networking, Office type applications (word, excel, PowerPoint), and to play old arcade and console games on (I carry Pokemon Blue with me everywhere.. yes, it's a game boy game... and yes, I used to be ten, alright? drop it. it's a good game). Unless you need some special application (or just like to tinker) I would leave that operating system on there. I didn't find a need to remove it. I was going to put Arch Linux on it, but this one is more than enough for all my tasks (I did switch to the advanced KDE mode, instead of the easy desktop mode with all the pretty icons, but no taskbar) and I tried XP on it using an external hard drive. It should work for almost everyone. I couldn't find a reasonable situation where I would need something different, so don't sweat it.

Conclusion: .... GLORIOUS!

This is the best little piece of engineering genius I have ever had the please of sleeping with (so I sleep with my electronics, why are you judging me?). It does everything I expected and more. It is even more portable than I would have guessed, and the whole system boots in literally 30 SECONDS! It is ready to go whenever I am. I can't say enough nice things about this machine. If you want a computer to just shove in a bag and carry with you, this one is cheap enough and works great. I don't feel bad when I don't use it because it cost practically nothing, but I know it's there if I need it. Honestly, had mine a month, and it is my favorite purchase of all time. I would highly recommend this to anyone with decent eyesight (800x400 display, got to have sharp eyes) but it's not too big of a deal. I love it! Buy it! That's all I have to say.

http://www.eeeuser.com/ - Best resource you will ever find for this machine, from mods to software and hardware issues!