Mobile / Cell Phone Thoughts & Reviews

Sometimes I have to pinch myself I feel so lucky.  I was sent an Asus Eee PC 901 late last week and have been amazed with it from the moment I took it out of the box.  I will go into more detail about the netbook in future posts but for the time being I just want to share my overall feelings and thoughts on it.

It is small.  When I said I wanted a small computer I really got what I asked for.  This 901 barely fits my 2 hands.  I am trying to get used to it but my hands are cold this morning.  There will be a learning curve but I think I’m getting it and it really isn’t difficult.  I have been really been trying to keep this thing light in terms of what  I install on it.  I think I have only installed 6 programs.  First and foremost Firefox, then Skype, SightSpeed then AVG, TweetDeck, and last but by no means least Boingo.   I could even cut that list down if I was really desperate.  It did come loaded with MS software, but I haven’t used or plan to use either.  I am doing all I can to keep this fully cloud based.  I just need to get to the cloud and interface with it.

One of the first things I did after installing Skype was have a video chat with my sister in Argentina.  The quality was what I have come to expect from Skype so we switched right over to SightSpeed and she told me how good the camera is on this netbook.  I was really happy to hear that.  I can also comment on the speaker volume and quality and say that it is adequate.

I want to address a common question I have heard about the 901 already.  What is the battery life  like?  Well I can use the netbook on and off all day, I’d say about 5 hours and be fine.  I don’t know yet how watching videos will affect the battery.  I do know though that the graphics card has a bit of catching up to do.  I was streaming over Hulu.com last night and got a few freezes.  A quick pause and play of the video fixed it but it was definitely noticeable.

I have spent more time on the couch with this in the last few days then I have with my MacBook in the last 6 months.  The Asus Eee PC 901 is extremely portable.

I will give it a huge thumbs up and point out my only disappointment I can find at this point.  I would like to see the right shift key  where it belongs, which is unfortunately right where the up arrow is.  My suggestion is that Asus goes back and splits the down key into up and down.  Then they can make the Shift and question mark keys a tad bit larger.

In conclusion of this first post on the 901 my suggestion is go out and purchase one.  If you are looking for a good solid netbook at a good price I think this one will fit the bill.

If you have any questions fire away.