the contemporary shopping lifestyle

About three weeks ago I decided to take the plunge on one of the wildly popular ASUS eee PC. It’s not the fastest. It doesn’t have the best resolution. It has a tiny keyboard. But man oh man, the ASUS eee PC is one amazing little portable device.

First things first, you have to know where I was coming from when I made this purchase. My partners and I are all highly mobile (meaning we work in a lot of different places) and over the next few months will be able to run the majority of our business via the web with web apps (so no bulky software necessary). I have one powerhouse laptop that I use for everything and sometimes I get sick of carrying my huge laptop bag everywhere I go. I wanted to have the option for more portability at least 50% of the time. I also wanted to reduce the wear and tear on my existing laptop - packing it up and moving it around five times a day as I travel from home to work to a wifi spot to dinner and back home can not be good for it…specifically the hard drive.

After reading about fifty reviews (all positive) I pulled the trigger on the $399 Eee PC 4G. Here’s just a sample of what other impressed bloggers have recently said:

If your looking for a portable web browsing machine or something just to have with you that can do most computer tasks, this is great. It’s doesn’t have the power for games, high res photo editing, or video editing, so it’s not going to replace a desktop. But at 2lbs, it’s so light to carry everywhere that you can keep with you always. And the 3 hour battery life is really nice as well. I wholly recommend this computer.

- Phil from Phe-roo!

It really is a rugged, go-anywhere device and fits numerous places a laptop won’t go (eg. glove compartments, drawers, handbags, large coat pockets)

- EirePreneur

What you’re paying for is a sub-$500 AUD ultraportable, 7 inch notebook, that weighs less than a carton of milk and can perform almost anything its much bigger kindred can do with relative ease.

Good luck trying to get the same thing for the same price.

That alone is enough to make anyone give it a second glance. For anyone else, it’s enough to head out right now and get one for yourself.

- Footsteps in the Mirror Blog

Posts like those are the types of comments that would sway anyone on the fence.

It weighs a mere 2lbs, has a solid state hard drive, and is about half the size of my current Toshiba Satellite laptop with a 15 inch screen:

After using it for a few weeks, here’s how I break it down:

The Cons:

• Wacky screen resolution of 800 x 480 takes some getting used to, although you can make adjustments to make the viewable area much larger.
• Despite USB support for most devices, USB mobile broadband cards seem difficult/impossible to use without an intricate understanding of Linux, or without installing XP (which in my opinion would slow the device down too much). The other option - connecting to the web via a bluetooth connection to your cell phone - seems nearly as difficult based upon what I’ve read. That leaves you with just wi-fi for connecting to the web…not exactly ideal for an ultra-portable like this.
• Battery life of only 4.5 hours seems kind of weak for a device that you’re never going to use plugged in. 6 hours+ would be nice.
• Sometimes it lags a bit when loading several browser tabs or programs…but this can be taken care of by upgrading the 512 MB of RAM to 1 GB.

The Pros:

• The screen is vibrant and crisp. The colors just jump off the screen.
• It boots up in less than 10 seconds!
• It comes with every piece of software I need pre-installed: most notably Skype, Firefox, Thunderbird, and Open Office. Every app works fantastic: Firefox in particular provides a great web browsing experience that nearly equals what you’d expect from a full-size Windows laptop.
• With a little help from EeeUser.com, just about anything is possible: I have never used Linux before and I was able to follow step-by-step instructions to install Advanced Desktop Mode and make more screen space available in Firefox.
• The keyboard is phenomenal. It was always one of the ‘cons’ when I read other reviews, but for the size it is fantastic. I am able to type at the same speed I do on my full size laptop after a few minutes of adjusting (I am 6 ft 1 in and weigh 180 lbs, so it’s not like I’m a tiny guy). Sure, some of the non-letter keys are in wacky spots, but what do you expect from a keyboard that’s 40% of the size of a normal one?

I can absolutely say that you can not go wrong with this computer if you do your research and understand what you’re getting: for under $400 you’re picking up an innovative little computer that works great as an ultra-mobile backup laptop.