| Product: |
Asus Eee PC 2G Surf |
| Date: |
27.04.08 (11 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: portable
Disadvantages: could look better
asus EEE PC
This review is of the relatively new asus EEE pc. Its been quite fun using and reviewing this one as its not like your usual laptops, and in many ways its a lot worse however at the end of testing it iv got to say I really like the asus EEE pc and however rubbish it might be I think I will end up buying one if some of the features just improve a little or if the higher spec editions become cheaper.
I'm reviewing the cheapest version of the EEE pc as it's the one most people would choose to buy. It think if I was going to purchase any of them I would want the best one however as its only something I would use on journeys it simply wouldn't be worth all my money so id have to get this cheaper version of it.
This one is currently the cheapest one and is still quite dear at £200. I do think they will get cheaper in the future though just like anything does so a lot of you might want to wait a little longer before getting your hands on one of these.
The asus eee pc is really small and versatile, its just 225 by 35 by 165mm which really isn't big at all.
Unlike many other pc tablets of this size this one does look exactly like a laptop which is something I really like about it.
It can come in a whole range of different colours however the only one I have used is the white one and is probably the one id get if I was going to buy one.
A downside from some peoples point of view is the small keyboard, now I'm not the fastest typer anyway and one this small keyboard I did tend to make even more mistakes than I usually do on a normal keyboard. This is something you do get used to though and after a couple of days using it I had noticeably got better and could type nearly as well as on a full scale keyboard.
There are 2 USB ports on the right of the laptop and then a third on the left, there's also a D-Sub video output port for those who want to use an external display. There's also a card reader sunk nicely into the laptop.
Alright for a big downside now, and it comes in the hard drive and also the amount of ram. This laptop just has 512mb of ram however I would say that its just as fast as my current laptop which only has 1gb or ram at opening programs, this could be down to the linux operating system it uses though.
And the other downside is its hard drive, this edition of it only has 2gb, most of which is already taken up by the operating system however its possible it put at the maximum 32gb just into the card slot and if you have an external hard drive or just a usb stick you could really have as much hard drive space as you want so this isn't a huge problem.
There is a webcam, speakers and even a microphone which is on the under side of the laptop, these are things I just wouldn't expect for a laptop of its size however it's a good surprise that it has these great features built into it.
It is extremely portable, its tiny design and its quite small 7 inch screen makes it so easy to take wherever you want with you. If you are worried about the 7 inch screen being too small then just don't be, its easy to get used to. Granted I couldn't actually use this as a normal laptop at home however on the move its just a perfect size.
Its battery life is a pretty good 3.5 hours. Which I think could have been better as some full sized laptops are now boasting an amazing 7 hours of battery life. However this does just have a 3 cell battery pack which is half the normal laptop battery pack.
It is also really light barely weighing just 1kg its really portable and will barely make a dint in your pocket.
I feel I better mention the Linux operating system, I'm really not sure why they have choose this over windows, perhaps it is easier to use and more child friendly than windows it. But that it what it feels like. You can however change it to windows if you want, apparently the programs you need to do this now comes in the box however it didn't with the one I tested so I am unsure about this. However I'm sure you could find help online or even et somebody to do it for you as I don't suppose it would be hard to do.
Summary: portable laptop
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