Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play- the Asus Eee laptop that is today’s best selling notebook on Amazon.com is certainly worth a look as a second laptop for travelers, or perhaps a first laptop for kids--one you won't be afraid to leave in accident-prone hands. the laptop weighs 2 pounds and measures 8.8 inches wide by 6.5 inches deep by a little less than an inch thick. In all, the Eee PC is about the size of a trade paperback book; it can fit in a large jacket pocket without too much trouble. We can find a QWERTY keyboard, 7-inch screen, and preinstalled Linux operating system. (This laptop is also compatible with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system although 4GB isn't a lot of space for a primary partition. A typical XP/Pro installation will run about 2+GB. Some users have reported installing XP in less than 1GB but it's not entirely clear which pieces they've left out. By the time you add the programs that don't run well from a secondary drive, there's a good chance that, even if the drive is not full, there won't be enough space to allow the computer to hibernate, which requires as much disk storage as the computer has memory ) You'll be able to stay connected to email and the Internet easily thanks to the Wi-Fi LAN (802.11b/g). Because it uses flash memory instead of a hard drive (with 4 GB of storage), the Eee PC is optimal for weathering rough handling and sharing space in overstuffed bags. The Eee PC comes with a powerful selection of software to maximize personal productivity--over 40 built-in applications. Asus has wisely decided not to tinker with its infinitely simple-to-use user interface, which hides the Xandros-based Linux operating system. Six easy-to-understand tabs (Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings, and Favorites) offer fast access to some rich applications, including OpenOffice, Pidgin, Skype, Thunderbird, Wikipedia, and quick links to the most popular Web-based e-mail services. Asus also tosses in a handful of edutainment games starring the Linux penguin. This only-what-you-need desktop is refreshingly free of clutter and bloatware. It's a good choice for young students, with a built-in Dictionary that's great for homework, and it includes two modes of intuitive graphic user interface design to accommodate both experienced and inexperienced PC users. The Eee PC handles well your digital images, movies, and music as well as Internet radio. Compact and highly portable at just 32 ounces, the Eee PC 4G has a 7-inch wide color TFT LCD with an 800 x 480-pixel resolution (WXGA). The monitor though at this resolution, is surprisingly bright and crisp. The extra space around the screen serves a purpose: a webcam sits above the screen and tiny speakers reside on the left and right sides of the display. We'd happily trade the thick screen bezel for an extra inch or so of screen real estate and a 1024x768 resolution, even if it meant we'd lose the Webcam and would have to get along with even smaller speakers. Under the hood is a 900 MHz Intel Mobile CPU with integrated Intel graphics processor, 512 MB of RAM (not expandable), and 4 GB of solid-state flash memory. With three USB ports, a VGA out, and standard headphone and mic jacks, the Asus Eee offers decent connectivity. FireWire is the one missing standard element, aside from the obvious absence of an optical drive. The SD card slot offers a good opportunity to boost the hard drive space, allowing you to pop in your own flash memory, easily doubling the system's 4GB drive (only about 1.3GB of which is actually free), with your own 4GB SD card, which you can get for around $50. The Eee PC includes software for Web browsing (Firefox), email, OpenOffice 2.0 for creating and editing word processing documents and spreadsheets, and a suite of other productivity software to help keep you on track. The Eee PC measures 8.9 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches, and it weighs 32 ounces. The 4-cell, 5200 mAh battery provides up to 3.5 hours of battery life (depending on usage). It's backed by a 1 year warranty for parts and labor. Cramming all the things one expects from a laptop into a package this small presents some difficult design questions, and the Asus Eee answers most of them about as well as can be expected. The biggest challenge is the keyboard. Tiny keyboards, as on ultraportable systems such as the Toshiba R500 or Sony VAIO TZ150, are hampered by both Chiclet-size keys and unfortunate compromises in key placement and double-mapped keys. There are no Caps Lock, Num Lock, or Scroll Lock indicators. However there is an excellent freeware utility available on the Web that places indicator lights in the system tray. The tiny touchpad measures 1.75 inches by 1.25 inches and works well on the whole, but there's only a single mouse button--click on the left side for the left mouse button, and the right for the right mouse button. Now a conclusion: The good: Small, light, and inexpensive; solid-state hard drive is fast and efficient; well-thought-out preinstalled software package. The bad: Cramped keyboard; very little hard drive space; low screen resolution. The bottom line: For less than $400, the Asus Eee PC 4G offers an impressive package for portable Web surfing and basic productivity, as long as you keep expectations tempered. The incredibly approachable price outweighs any shortcomings; it's a near perfect choice for a highly portable second or backup laptop. And given the capabilities of the device, the price is excellent. If you're comfortable with technology and are willing to spend a bit of time learning to use Linux, you'll probably enjoy this device very much.
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