Asus Eee PC: Small, Cheap but Reliable UMPC

Though most Ultra Mobile PCs from Fujitsu, Toshiba and Sony come at a very steep price - almost more than $1,000 - the ASUS EEE PC, is the first UMPC that is priced at less than $350. However, don't expect it to compete with branded UMPCs. At $350, you won't get too much out of this little device.

The Asus Eee PC has a 7 inch LCD screen with 800 x 480 screen resolution, not really that clear but text is readable and images are okay looking. If you're going to watch divx movies, it's watchable just to kill time or show off. The Asus Eee PC also has an Intel UMA Graphic and 900 MHz Intel Mobile Processor, it's not that fast but its fast enough to do your surfing and basic typing needs and fast enough to load Windows XP since it's Windows XP compatible. What's really great about the Asus EEE PC is that it has some options that not even bigger laptops carry, for example, an integrated web camera is included in the Asus EEE PC, something which you can find in some mainstream laptops. Of course, the integrated web camera's resolution is less than a mega pixel.

The onboard memory is 512MB DDR2, the Asus Eee PC has no hard disk drive but a solid state disk drive (SSD). Now the good thing about Solid State Drives is that it has no moving parts and can load your operating system much faster, Sony's VAIO TZ series, I think incorporates a Solid State Disk drive, however, on the Asus Eee PC, the SSD drive is only 4 GB. There's really not that much space that's why it only comes with the Linux operating system but consumers can choose to install Windows XP, however, expect the 4GB SSD to be considerably reduced. You can choose to carry a portable disk drive and connect it to your Asus Eee PC using the USB drive, however, it would negate the portability of the device if you carry around a portable hard disk drive that's about the same size as the Asus Eee PC.

You can connect to the Internet using the built-in WiFi, Ethernet, or modem. Since the Asus Eee PC is built for surfing the Internet, I recommend using the Mozilla Firefox browser instead of Internet Explorer (if you have Windows installed) since it offers a faster web experience. The Asus Eee PC also has internal speakers, though sound quality is really not great, built in MMC/SD card reader, Audio/microphone jacks, 3 USB slots, and VGA out.

Battery life on the Asus Eee PC lasts around 2 hours except if you're using WiFi and it only weighs 2 pounds. All in all, I have to say that for less than $350? I would definitely invest my money on the Asus EEE PC rather than purchasing devices geared towards Internet surfing like the Sony Mylo or the Nokia Tablet device.