Asus Eee PC

The Asus Eee PC has taken the blogosphere by storm. We purchased our device the week they were released and haven’t looked back. There are several reasons why this is an extremely compelling device:

Form factor - The Eee PC is a small clamshell laptop. As such, it can go where other laptops won’t and often will given the convenience of carrying it around. The Eee PC is comfortable to use on a plane, in a coffee shop, or anywhere on the go.

Operating system - Running a variation of Linux, the Eee PC is a stable platform. It boots in seconds and hasn’t crashed in our extensive use of the device. The OS GUI has been customized to provide simple, yet effective, tabbed access to the software suite.

Software - The Eee PC comes loaded with free (as in beer) open source software capable of handling all of typical user’s needs. There is a web browser, an email client, VOIP and instant messaging, an office suite, media players and other utilities. We tested the media player extensively playing copies of movies in various codecs and did not encounter a single issue.

In an age of grid computing with key applications located on the servers at Google and other providers, the Eee PC is a key platform to extend services anywhere you have wifi. We’d love to see some native EVDO or cellular modem support, but I imagine the open source community will develop drivers soon. We’ll get around it by using our Cradlepoint EVDO to wifi bridge on the road.

Battery life was good and we often got in excess of 3 hours per charge. The keyboad is slightly cramped, but easily usable. The power cord is simple and requires no mid-cord brick making it easy and light to pack. The power cord is also longer than most, which is handy at the coffee shop.

While not a high power computer, this device at $399 is a tremendous bargain. If they can keep this form factor and increase the power of the device or add an inch or two to the 7 inch display it will be even more attractive.