Asus EEE PC 4G - Review

You may have heard of One Laptop Per Child or the Intel Classmate, two attempts at a charity-friendly budget laptop, but you may not have heard anything about the Asus EEE PC in the news. This tiny 7" laptop is Asus' alternative to the Classmate or OLPC projects and unlike those two, it is available to the general public through select online vendors. It is one of the most interesting attempts at unique laptop design around and is absolutely irresistible with its $399.99 price tag.

The Stats:

Alright, let's get down to it. The Asus EEE PC comes in both a 2gb and 4gb version in the form of a solid-state hard drive. It has a full keyboard that has been scaled down a bit in order scrunch in all the keys (no keypad, of course), a 7" screen running at a resolution of 800 x 480, a 900 mhz processor, touchpad, built in wi-fi. It is also bundled with an AC adapter, standard battery, and a nice little smooth black-nylon carrying case. It comes with a custom-version of Linux made especially by Asus. It has 4 USB ports, a monitor output (being used in the picture above), an SD HC slot (especially useful for expanding storage space), ethernet port, modem, headphone jack, microphone input, two speakers set to the sides of the screen, and a webcam set above the screen. It weighs under two pounds also.



The Review:

This laptop is just about as ultraportable as it gets without falling into the cell phone or mp3 player categories. I have had these laptop for about the last 4 months and I have used it far more than I thought. This thing is small...I mean really small, the entire thing is roughly the size of a trade paperback book or maybe a little bigger than my hand when spread out. It looks cool and it's not just available in black but in white, pink, green, and blue as well, so it has its girl-friendly and smurf-friendly sides as well.

But how does it perform, you ask? Well, I must say that the Linux it comes bundled with is extremely so easy to use, so much so in fact that your grandmother or your five-year old daughter (in my case, my mother) would be able to use it with ease in minutes. It's a five tabbed systems that breaks the computers roughly 30 programs down into easy to handle categories like Web, Work, and Play. It also comes bundled with the full OpenOffice suite which is handy little open source application that opens and saves any Microsoft Office file types. It's great if you are in a bind for cash or are just doing basic word processing and slideshow presentations. Check it out: OpenOffice.org That aspect aside, it also includes Skype, a calculator, a few games, and some other nice little things.

I'm a Windows man myself though, so I used a guide on another great site EEEuser.com I threw my copy of XP on there and managed to grab the drivers off of the Asus site fairly quickly. The EEE pc performs great for basic tasks like web-surfing, youtube video watching, word-processing (yes, the keyboard is fairly comfortable actually), even some older games run really well on it (starcraft, diablo, etc) and the site mentioned above includes countless overclocking programs, upgrade guides, and hacked drivers to get the most bang for your buck out of your EEE pc.

It is hard to find any real flaws in this machine other than its obvious lack of strong processing power, but most people are going to accept that going into it. You'll be hard pressed to find anything near $400 that is this small, compatible with Linux (Ubuntu even), Windows XP (Vista's possible, but I wouldn't recommend it), and even OS X, grabs people's attention endlessly, works as a great Personal Video Player, and is so endlessly customizable because of its hacker-style fanbase.

Some individuals have thrown touch-screens on these things, as well as internal bluetooth, GPS, and tracking devices. One guy even built this thing into the dash of his car as a homemade GPS device with turn-by-turn directions. If you ask me...that's epic.

The Bottom Line:
+ Great for basic computing (office work, web browsing)
+ Extremely Portable (paperback-book sized)
+ Tons of Customization and Overclocking options (courtesy of its DIY fanbase)
+ Attention Grabbing (mostly unknown in the U.S.)
+ Dirt Cheap
- Attention Grabbing (distracting while trying to write a paper!)
- Keyboard is slighty cramped
- Low Storage Space (easy upgradeable through SD though)

If you are looking for a new, on-the-go laptop that works great at Starbucks, in class, or even in the car, there is simply nothing more affordable and more useful than the Asus EEE PC.

9 Befuddled Passerbys out of 10

In other news, Asus just announced the EEE pc 900: 8.9" screen, Windows XP or Linux, Touch Screen, 12gb-20gb capacity. Check it out: Asus EEE pc 900