ASUS Eee PC

Shortly after I started my own business I realized that I would be traveling to meet with clients and to do research for my work, so my desktop and media center laptop wouldn’t cut it. I didn’t really need a system that could handle high end graphics or media play back, all I really needed was something compact and light that could connect to the internet and used word processing. Companies like Sony offered solutions to this problem with their lightweight laptops, but I just didn’t have the $1,000 to spend on it. Then I learned about the Asus Eee PC.Based around the same concept as the OLPC project, the Asus Eee PC is meant to be a lightweight and easy to use learning device. Regardless of what they intended the device to do, it’s clearly capable of even greater feats than originally intended. The Eee PC comes in four models for it’s 701 Series: 2G Surf, 4G Surf, 4G, and 8G. While the number denotes the amount of physical hard drive space on the solid state disk and a few other differences, each system is equipped with a 7 in 800—480 TFT LCD with LED backlight, Integrated Intel GMA 900 graphics processor, Integrated 802.11 b/g wifi, 3 USB inputs, VGA Output, Ethernet Input, Kensington Lock, and MMC SD slot. The Surf models offer a battery life of 2.8 hours where as the other two models offer 3-3.5 hours and a built in webcam.The 2G Surf is equipped with an 800 MHz Intel Celeron-M ULV 353 with the rest equipped with a 900 MHz version of the same chip. The 2G Surf also only has 512mb of DDR2 400 Ram soldered in while the 4G Surf and 4G have socketed 512mb DDR2 533/667 and the 8G with 1GB. The prices start as low as $299 for the 2G Surf and as high as $499 for the 8G. [More]