Asus EeePc Review

The Eee's diminutive measurements (22.5 x 16.4 x 2.15~3.5 cm) speak for themselves. This is an extremely tiny machine. To fully appreciate the small dimensions of the machine, see the above pictures! In the first picture, I've placed a Logitech RumblePad 2 game controller on top of the Eee. Note, that the game controller is not that much smaller! In the second image, you can see the Eee resting on an open 12.1" HP laptop. The Eee is literally dwarfed by the laptop.

Eee PC owners will be pleasantly surprised with how well this tiny machine can double as a desktop replacement. We connected the device to a 20-inch ViewSonic monitor and used the built-in utility to scale the resolution up to 1024 x 768 pixels, and the resulting picture was nice and sharp. The Eee PC also instantly recognized a full-sized Dell USB keyboard and a wired Logitech USB mouse.

Even better, the keyboard for a machine of this size is a work of pure brilliance. For sure, it's small and does take some getting used to, but given a short amount of time it's perfectly possible to maintain a brisk and consistent typing speed. Keys have just the right amount of travel and provide a crisp and even response, while the layout is surprisingly decent given the size. If any further proof were needed, this entire review was written on the Eee PC and it didn't take any more time than it would normally.

This is also helped by the software provided, with the generally excellent Open Office on hand for all your office productivity needs. Along with a word processor there's Presentation and Spreadsheet applications, while under the Work tab you can also access Adobe Reader, as well as Thunderbird for email and a Dictionary.

Overall performance was pretty snappy, even though this machine uses a Celeron processor. Most apps loaded quickly, and the 512MB of RAM is more than sufficient for an operating system with such little overhead. A mere 4GB of storage space tells you that the Eee PC isn't going to be your primary digital media vault out of the box, but you can easily augment that capacity with an external drive. Plus, that 4GB solid state drive can withstand being dropped by Junior.

Speaking of external devices, the Eee PC did an excellent job recognizing all sorts of peripherals, from a Kingston USB drive to a USB dongle for a Logitech wireless mouse. When we plugged in a Casio Exilim camera, the Eee PC asked us if we wanted to open the images in the File Manager or Photo Manager. Not surprisingly, the device wouldn't load music from our iPhone, but the Eee PC did charge it.

Given its dimensions, the Eee PC is surprisingly well endowed with connectivity. On the left edge there's an Ethernet port, one USB port and headphone and external microphone jacks. You'll certainly be in need of these, especially since the integrated microphone isn't the strongest, though the speakers either side of the screen proved far better sound than one would reasonably expect.

Other connections on the right include a D-SUB port for hooking up an external monitor, along with two further USB ports and a memory card reader that supports MMC and SD card formats. Given that there's only 1.3GB of space after the OS and applications, external storage through USB keys and hard drives will be essential. As such, it's pleasing that Asus has managed to squeeze as many as three USB ports into the diminutive chassis.

The Asus Eee PC 701 is no power system. You won't want to do video editing, or even image editing, on the device, and it's not going to serve as the multimedia centre for your home. However, the Eee PC provides a high level of functionality at a highly affordable price.

Furthermore, it does so while opening the concept of the ultraportable PC to the masses. The small keyboard and screen and the modest internal specs might be a deterrent for some, but for students and those of us who lust after lightweight portables for life on the go, the Eee PC can easily fill that niche. And then some.