Initial Impressions, or What I discovered...

It appears that after one day of using the eee there is more here than meets the eye. Being almost completely new to Linux, the interface supplied make the transition almost completely seamless. Also, the extremely portable nature of the device really means that it can be used almost anywhere (I am typing this right now on an crowded rush hour CTA train). At this point I would have to rate the device a 8.5 out of 10. However the purpose of this article is not to review the device but explain to potential new buyers what to expect.

First I will discuss the obvious; the screen and keyboard. Overall I would just sum them up as small. This has proven to be a double edged sword. The size of the device is what impressed me with the device to begin with. As can be assumed it does have its drawbacks though. The keyboard takes some time getting used to, and with time you develop more of a 3 finger on each hand typing style. The screen also proves to have both its drawbacks and advantages. First of all the brightness and clarity are more than I had expected, however the small resolution leads to almost illegible system menus in the open office suite (scaled to fit in the small available resolution). Where the screen really shines however is in its brightness level and clarity. After a few hours of use my eyes were not tired and strained like they are when I use my massive 19 inch dell laptop.

The operating system has proven to be quite satisfactory, however the inability to uninstall the default applications have proven to be quite annoying. With such a small amount of internal storage, removing the games would really free up some space. Hopefully this will be fixed when ASUS releases the “advanced” desktop. Which brings me to the most obvious fault of the device, the lack of the advanced desktop. While you may argue that the installation of another operating system could be easily achieved, and possibly save even more space, this still is a rather large inconvenience. At this point, I think that the majority of the people buying the eee are those who do not fit the intended market of the device (the elderly and children). Rather power users are purchasing the device as a much cheaper UMPC equivalent.

Overall, this device has proven to be very impressive as long as you are looking for a mobile device to use while away from your main computer. The only major downfall of the device would be the limited operating system which should be fixed by ASUS in the near future (and if not the growing community surely will).