So what’s so great about the eeePC?

So I got myself one of these little notebooks. I must admit that it was a bit of an impulse buy. It has been a bit of a eye-opener for me. I really enjoy this little gadget and it goes with me everywhere I go. Here are my reasons why it’s such a cool gadget:

Form factor

It’s really small and light. Great to travel with because it goes into a small bag, and doesn’t break your shoulder in the line at the airport.

Its battery lasts for about 2.5 to 3 hours — while not that long, it’s long enough to get my work done when I need to.

Instant-on. Due to its use of an SSD instead of a more traditional hard drive, it boots up really quickly.

Sleep / Wake up brilliant. It comes out of sleep in less that 10 seconds.

Expandable via SD card, USB stick and even external hard drives. So I can always have my music collection with me. And after snapping my camera full of holiday pics, I can just download them onto the EeePC and even show them off to friends and family.

It easily connects to an external screen or projector. This makes it ideal to do presentations with. Just plug and play.

Price. What can I say? At under R3000 it’s inexpensive for what you get. Hell, my cell phone costs more than double the price of this little computer.

Applications
The EeePC comes pre-installed with everything you need.

Linux operating system. Don’t be afraid: It looks nothing like any other Linux OS I’ve seen. It’s very user friendly, and navigating around on it is a breeze. Even my Mac-loving friends can use it straight off the bat.

Web. It comes with a full version of Firefox, with Flash installed. That means that you can browse any website, and everything just works. The Opera browser on my cell phone is cool, but it does not always show all pages properly. With the EeePC you can use anything. You can even check your bank balance.

Email. There is an email client built right in. If you can use Outlook, this application should pose no problems to you. I use webmail for all my email purposes, so I can’t give you an in-depth review of the email application.

Office. The EeePc comes pre-installed with Open Office. No extra charge. It means that you can use a word processor, spread sheet and presentation application from your newly purchased EeePC. And they are compatible with Microsoft’s Office suite too. So you can open documents your friends or collegues send you.

Notes. For quickly taking notes. This is very valuable for me while talking on the phone.

Skype. Send instant messages and make phone calls. If you have to top-of the range EeePC, it comes with a built-in webcam, so you can even make video calls.

Plays videos, music and shows photos. All the media applications are well stocked with codecs, so it will show all your media.

Even some games for those boring hours on the plane. These games are not whiz-bang, but very entertaining.

Connectivity

Easy to connect. It alerts you when you’re in range of a WiFi network, and one click and you’re connected. It handles encryption well. Just enter the pass phrase, and you’re done.

Good reception. I’ve never had a problem with reception on this little device.

It can even be a access point. Need a make-shift WiFi network? Just switch on your EeePC, click one button, and everyone can connect to the new network! How cool is that?

Wired network. It comes with a standard Ethernet port, so you can connect to a normal wired network.

3G / HSDPA. The easiest I’ve ever setup a 3G link, including on Windows. I must say, this surprised me the most of this little gadget. It asked me exactly three questions: What kind of network (I answered 3G), what country (I selected South Africa), and what network (I chose MTN). Two seconds later my 3G modem was connected. Just amazing.

Manage connections easily:

Choose primary and fallback connections. So my primary connection is the WiFi connection at home. When it can’t find that, it tries to use the 3G connection automatically, so whenever I switch on the EeePC, I have an internet connection. Very slick indeed.

Even re-connects after waking from sleep … well WiFi and wired connections re-connect. The 3G connection you have to manually click on the re-connect button.

Drawbacks

The keyboard is quite small. I must admit it takes a little while to get used to the small keyboard. But is possible. I’ve written this entire post using the EeePC, so it can be used for serious typing.

Screen resolution is low. At 800×480 there aren’t that many pixels going around. Some web pages just assume that everyone has 1024×768 screens, so on those pages you have to scroll left and right. It can become tiresome.

Small drive. Mine only came with 4GB of storage, and the operating system takes about 1.6GB of that. That doesn’t leave you with a whole lot of space for videos, photos and music. Luckily it can be expanded with a standard SD card, so an extra 16GB is quite easy to add.

Conclusion

This is a brilliant device for mobility. Like I said, it goes everywhere with me. It connects to all sorts of wireless networks with ease, and provides me with moblity wherever I need it.

It won’t replace my Lenoveo notebook for programming. It’s just not powerful enough, and it’s too small to use for long hours at a time. So the ThinkPad stays king for serious work.