Labs

Asus's Eee PC has caught many an eye in the Shopper office, which is quite an achievement considering its amazingly low price. Weighing just 900g, it's about the size of a hardback novel so it doesn't require a dedicated laptop bag and will easily fit into a school satchel.

Various sacrifices allow Asus to make the Eee PC so affordable. Instead of a hard disk, there's a 4GB solid-state disk (SSD), which reduces costs and is also more robust than a conventional hard disk (a 2GB version is available for £215). There's 2.5GB free for user files, and an SD memory card slot allows for additional storage.

The 7in screen doesn't fill the lid, leaving room for

ADVERTISEMENT

speakers on either side. Its 800x480 resolution is too small to run Windows comfortably, but the Eee PC is based on a free Linux-based operating system with a graphical user interface customised by Asus. OpenOffice, FireFox, a media player and various other applications are preinstalled, and connecting to a wireless network and using these applications requires no specialist Linux knowledge. However, installing other applications, adding a printer and adjusting advanced settings can be much harder than it is under Windows. Sadly, the software bundle doesn't include a calendar or contacts software.

The keyboard and touch pad are fairly high quality but they're smaller than usual, which makes typing difficult. The small screen means spreadsheets are awkward to manage as are websites that require horizontal as well as vertical scrolling. The SSD isn't big enough for Windows and our benchmark software, but the Eee PC can run Firefox and OpenOffice well. However, the media player had playback glitches and lost audio-video sync. Its battery life is also poor at two-and-a-half hours.

If you want to do more than type documents and surf the web you should buy Acer's Aspire 2920, but the Eee PC is brilliant as a simple PC. It's a bargain and a Best Buy.