An ultra-portable laptop with a battery life well over the three hour mark, stuffed to the vomit reflex with wireless connectivity. An ultra-fast 4Gb solid-state hard drive and all the productivity software your could desire. How much would you expect to pay for such a wonder?
£1,000? £800? Not even close. £220. Which for a fully functional little laptop is a bargain you rarely see this side of a cable TV shopping channel. So how good is it?
Very, very good. First of all, it's impossibly cute. About the size of a slim hardback book, and under a kilo. It's an extraordinary piece of engineering.
Some people may be put off by the merest mention of the Linux-based operating system - frightened to poke their nose out of the Microsoft safety zone - but it's immediately accessible to anyone who's ever picked up a mouse.
The bold, bright menu might remind you of a mobile phone interface, but it's got everything you could need in a truly portable computer. Firefox, OpenOffice, and Thunderbird, free and good open source alternatives to Internet Explorer, Office and Outlook are included; as is media and MSN-compatible instant messenger software.
That said, plug in an external CD drive and a copy of XP and your Eee can have Windows installed in a trice. And it works like a dream: especially following the handy little guide Asus include. Spend a wee bit more for SD card or flash-drive storage, or around £15 on a 1Gb stick of RAM, and Windows flies.
Handily this also serves to turn the Eee into a very happy retro-gaming machine, especially after a quick look around the Steam and SCUMM back-catalogue. Vice City on the move, anyone? What about Peggle? The screen is bright and clear, even if the 800x480 native-resolution screen is a bit limiting.
But there's more. The Eee has captured imaginations web-wide, and hacks and workarounds are being uncovered almost daily. A quick search and you can have the little panel running at 1024x768, enough for any game on that 7-inch screen.
It's also remarkably good for video playback, with an impressively loud set of stereo speakers, making it quite the all-round mobile entertainment package. Put that DS down. We have a new portable gaming king.
Adam Oxford
// Overview
Verdict
The perfect wireless laptop, on the move or on your sofa.
Too bad it looks horrible Why is it so many companies are incapable of designing a laptop that isn't ugly - I don't need a fashion item like the Macbook but ugly dark grey/blue designs with hard curves is a bit too much even for me.
Got one of these babies a few weeks ago and they really are awesome. Who cares what the thing looks like when you get such functionality and portability for such a silly price?
I'm running Ubuntu on mine and it flies. I'm also planning to use it for retro gaming, so any recomendations for stuff that I can run through Wine?
...ugly dark grey/blue designs with hard curves is a bit too much even for me.
What CVG don't say, or show for that matter, is that you can get the eee in 5 different colours. So If you don't like the dark grey/blue one, then go for another colour.
...ugly dark grey/blue designs with hard curves is a bit too much even for me.
What CVG don't say, or show for that matter, is that you can get the eee in 5 different colours. So If you don't like the dark grey/blue one, then go for another colour.
The black one looks great in the flesh. They are really sturdy and well built bearing in mind the price tag. www.eeeuser.com has loads of stuff about modding it and installing different OSes on it.
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Why is it so many companies are incapable of designing a laptop that isn't ugly - I don't need a fashion item like the Macbook but ugly dark grey/blue designs with hard curves is a bit too much even for me.
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