Purchase ASUS Eee PC 1008HA Seashell 10.1-Inch Pearl Black Netbook - 6 Hour Battery Life

I bought this on impulse about a month ago for an upcoming stretch of working vacations and business travel this summer, and I am glad I did. Years of lugging around various brick-like laptops, just to keep up with email and make the occasional emergency document edit or ssh session, was getting old. A friend had a Macbook Air and I considered it, but the price was absurd. This seemed like a good compromise - plus by burning DVDs we would be able to keep our 2-year-old entertained with some shows on the plane, a plan which worked very well.

Like many people, I thought the 1280x600 resolution would be a major bummer. But in reality it hardly ever matters at all, and when it does it is a small price to pay for the form factor and weight. There are certain things this is not suited for, but that is why I have twin 22" monitors at home. The screen is clear, finely detailed and has great contrast and range, if you can't deal with it then you probably need to see an optometrist. My only gripe is the gloss (found on almost everything these days), which makes it hard to deal with outdoors or by a window - but indoors it's better, so it's a toss-up.

keyboard: very well done, I couldn't improve it if asked, for the size. Might be one of the most comfortable keyboards I've ever used on a laptop PC of any size.

Battery life - 5-6 hours may be an issue for some, but personally I have found it sufficient so far, and again it's a weight trade-off I am happy to make. Did I mention it's light?

The BIG problem: Windows XP. After using OSX and Linux for the last 7 years, it looks dated and dysfunctional. It's downright sad that millions of people are still using this in 2009 and have no idea there is a better world out there.

Fortunately, Ubuntu Netbook Remix is well suited to the 1008HA, although it does currently need a bit of voodoo to get the wired and wireless networking to work (see http://www.amazon.com/review/R1FY56FWYYXMFD/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm). Conveniently, ASUS splits the 160Gb drive in half with a C: and D: drive, so it took about 45 minutes to get it all installed and happy as a dual-boot with XP. Camera and sound work and the performance is great, it wakes from suspend in about 5 seconds. Fedora 11 and Moblin are said to be working well on the 1000HE but may be a few drivers missing on this newer model, will research as time allows.

So I am subtracting one star for making me deal with Windows XP for a couple days (and pay for it), and for having such a glossy screen that picks up fingerprints.
Get more detail about ASUS Eee PC 1008HA Seashell 10.1-Inch Pearl Black Netbook - 6 Hour Battery Life.