Asus EEE PC, a smart cheap laptop alternative

While I find the Macbook Air to be well-priced, I understand that it's not affordable for everyone. The Asus EEE PC is what I dreamed existed when I was in college. It is extremely affordable, even for the college student, with the cheapest model at $299.99. It is extremely mobile at only 2lbs (only 2/3 the weight of the Macbook Air) and about the size of a sheet of paper folded in half (though of course much thicker). It also looks very durable. Unlike the Macbook Air, where I recommended all sorts of cases to protect it, the EEE PC is small enough and sturdy enough to simply toss into a medium sized purse or in the small pouch of a backpack.

Last week, my best friend and I tested this laptop out at Micro Center. It is very cute, though the disadvantage to the size was certainly felt in the keyboard and screen sizes. The keyboard was difficult to type on when we first started testing it, but it was pretty clear that it was something we could easily get used to if we owned one. Though those with chubby fingers should still be wary of this problem and perhaps steer away from this laptop choice. The screen seemed really small at 7", but the resolution actually wasn't bad, and the version of Linux loaded on the machine was very easy to use, along with the specific layout customized for the machine. Ars Technica did a review of the machine with a very good section on the loaded software and operating system.

The EEE PC comes with SSD standard on every model, though HD sizes only ranges from 2 gig to 8 gig. But thumbdrives have been getting cheaper (I got a 2 gig one from Micro Center for free when they opened), and larger options such as the Western Digital Passport external hard drive are sleek, portable, and reasonably priced.

It is certainly not a computer for performance, with less than a Ghz of processing power. But really, for goofing around in a lecture hall, surfing and using chat clients, how buff do the specs really have to be?