I fell in love with a laptop
The Eee - strange name, isn't it? White, roughly tablet sized, and inclined to make a person feel a tad loved up (towards it, at least, if not towards
everyone else)... actually, I think I can see why Asus called it that now. Or perhaps there's supposed to be an unspoken "ba gum!" at the end of it?
After all, you could easily be forgiven for uttering such a thing after a quick play with this impressive little gadget - I certainly did, and I'm not even from
Yorkshire. But what exactly am I talking about, some of you will be wondering (unless you clicked the link)? And those who already know will
probably be wondering why I'm going on about something that's such old news. Well, the other week was the first time that I, at long last, got my
hands on one. It was love at first sight. Well, for me anyway; the Eee, on the other hand, remained quietly coy. Like anyone else with half an interest
in a laptop I've been reading about the Eee's sensibly priced, pocket sized loveliness for months. Cheap, portable, stripped down to the essentials,
quick loading, and mercifully free of Windows (if you wish), it sounded just the thing for writing in cafes, staying in touch while abroad, tapping away on
during a long train journey - all the things that should be easy with a larger laptop, but just aren't, unless you've got a couple of grand to spare. Even
one of the main drawbacks mentioned in the reviews - the dinky keyboard - sounded like a positive to me (my hands aren't exactly the biggest). I want
one, I want one, I want one!!!. It's another drawback that's always put me off, though: the lack of storage space. Well, there's no DVD drive, either, but
that can easily be got around. And given that you're mostly going to be using the Eee for word processing, browsing, and general net-based stuff,
perhaps even the lack of memory isn't a huge problem. Except, I knew I'd want it to store music. Perhaps even photos. Maybe the next model would
be the one; it was only the Eee 700 that I'd been trying out. Enter, on the 1st May, the Eee 900 A little larger than the Eee 700 that sent a flutter
through my wallet, and slightly more expensive, but now with 20GB of storage space (in the Linux version), twice the RAM, a better camera, and a
multi-touch touchpad for improved navigation, the Eee 900 sounds almost perfect. One last drawback remains: battery life. Unplugged, the new Eee
will last about 2.5 hours - less than the 700. Maybe, then, for £329, I'd actually be better off getting a cheap full-spec laptop, with - most likely - just the
same battery life? Or even just getting the cheaper Eee 700? I still haven't decided. But maybe I won't have to. Late next month, yet another model
of the Eee will go on sale - using Intel's power saving Atom processor. This time, it just might be the complete package. I can