InGeniusBlog.com

I recently picked up an Asus eee PC, a tiny wonder of a PC. $399 at www.pccyber.com here in Ottawa.

The eee features:

• 7 inch screen,
• Full keyboard,
• 512Meg of RAM,
• 4Gig silicon hard disk,
• 900 MHz Intel CPU,
• 802.11g wireless
• 10/100 LAN jack
• 2 lbs
• Runs Linux,
• Ships with 40 applications, almost NONE of which I would classify as bloatware,
• 3 USB ports,
• VGA Port,
• Camera!,
• Built-in mic and speakers,
• SD Card reader,
• Can run Windows XP - ships with DVD that includes all necessary drivers.

What’s Great:

• The size. It’s awesomely small and fun.
• The weight. You can carry this everywhere.
• The apps. Great selection (Open office, Firefox, Skype, lots, lots more.)

What Sucks:

• The battery life does not appear to be the 3.5 hours that some people are reporting. I find it lasts about 1.5 hours, under normal use (browsing). So, carry the charger.
• The sleep mode (slamming the lid shut) seems to use WAY too much power. The battery drains way to quickly in this mode. I’m used to my Mac, which I NEVER power down. With the eee, I find I have to shut it down instead of closing the lid. Not too big a deal since it boots in less than 30 seconds.
• The charger is nice and small - but doesn’t appear to have the oomph to charge the machine while it’s in use. If I leave it going, and plugged in - then unplug it from the wall, it’s quite common to see the battery only at 80%. It charges fully when shut down, and plugged in.
• It doesn’t appear to remember wireless LAN’s as well as I’d like. I basically want it to automatically log onto my favorite networks at home and at work. I’m having to select the network manually right now. It appears that there are options that can make this easier, but I haven’t had time to play with that yet.

Let me tell you that this is a really amazing little PC. It’s cute, small, yet usable. I can actually recommend this PC for students, kids, and adults who aren’t married to Windows. The charger is very small (which is good, ’cause you’ll want to carry it with you…). This is a great PC that you can toss in a bag and use at hot-spots, or while travelling. A great backpacker’s PC! My co-worker Jacques dumped his Dell laptop a couple of days after buying his eee!