Home > Consumer Reviews > Asus Eee PC 4G Surf (7-Inch Display, Intel Mobile Processor, 512 MB RAM, 4 GB Hard Drive, Linux Preloaded) Pure White

With the size, all the different bright colors, and the low cost, I thought this Eee PC might be more gadgit than a usable tool. I was completely wrong.

The Linux software loaded on the Eee PC has a look of a child's game, but it's actually powerful and well put together. It can read and save in MS Word and Excel. I was very surprised. The draw back is the internet Firefox would not open secure WEB sights like my Bank Accounts.

The fix was easy enough. I loaded Windows XP Home Edition and upgraded to Explorer 7. It did take me a few times to do this process correctly so everything worked properly, as the User Guide, like most, is not written clear enough. I was able to complete the change over without any major problems.

Once I did this, and Windows XP completed all it's updates from the internet, all worked like my other laptops. I could connect to all my secure WEB sights, like my banks. I was also able to watch movies on line from my Netflix account, with the Watch Instantly service Netflix provides.

It was worth the extra to by the 4gb version rather than the 2gb version of Eee PC. The 4gb has enough room for Windows XP Home edition and Explorer 7. I then put in a 8gb SD Card in the built-in slot for my other programs. I have Office 2003 and 2007, but I chose to put the 2003 version on this computer, just thinking it was simpler and less use of memory. I'm sure Office 2007 would work. So with the 4gb hard drive and 8gb SD card I have all my functional and productive software ready to go all the time.

This computer is meant for travel, so my working files are on thumb drives, with the Eee PC 3 USB ports, they work great. I also use a laptop micro wireless mouse that works nice and it was a simple plug-in and use. All completely compact and rugged, idea for travel. It is the size of a paperback book that is an inch thick, measuring about 6x9 inches. This is a dream for travelers who are tired of carring normal laptops around in airports, subways, buses, and trains. You won't be dissappointed.

The speakers are ok, but I find using my earphones offer a much better sound in stero. The wireless internet connection seems to be even stronger (more powerful) than one of my normal laptops. So it works great in hotspots while traveling.

Yes the screen is small, and I would rather it had a bigger screen than the speakers on the side if it were my choice. But the screen is bright and clear and the type (font) is about the same size as a normal paperback book, which is bigger than my Palm or Blackberry.

The keyboard is small, but agian for travel it is big enough. It's much bigger than a Palm or Blackberry. I sure can live with it for the savings in pure carring weight alone.

My only negitive is the ASUS customer service. Their WEB page is of little help. I had to contact Amazon to get a Customer Service phone number (812) 282-2787. As you can see you have to pay for the phone call, a big negative with me. It should not cost a customer money to contact a company about their product. I did call, and I will say I did not have to wait to talk to someone and they were pleasant and well informed. I had a question on setting up Windows XP that the user manual didn't explain. The person was very helpful and they solved the problem. They still should have paid for the call.

This is a great and powerful machine for portability and ruggedness. If you want bigger and are willing to carry it around, than get a normal size laptop. If you want to give your arms, shoulders, and back, as well as your wallet, a well deserved rest when your on the go - this is the machine to get.

My children are all grown up, but this would be a great computer for a elementry school student. I wish they had this when my children were going to school. At a cost of less than XBOX 360 or PS3, they would have a fully functional computer to do their school work and the internet. Plus there is little worry that they would break it, even if they dropped a few times as those with children know all about. It would be money well spent and they would love it.

This is a wonderful little pc. It's not for major work, but it does what most want, and it's light enough to slip into a purse or backback. I can use it to surf the net, as well as some writing. It's a very small keyboard, but I've had no problem writing... I'm a touch "typist," and it just took a while to get used to the keyboard. While you'll need a full PC for more complex tasks... this is a great portable laptop. I'd highly recommend it to people with good desktops or notebooks who want something easier to carry for simple tasks.

i have to say that i am pleased with my 4G. it performed out of the box as expected. i had an issue with touch typing on the keyboard but i am getting used to its smaller footprint. i would recommend it highly as a second computing device because of its small size and light weight rather than hauling around a notebook computer for travel or sitting in a coffee shop. but also, if all you do is email, surf, and want to do some light word processing, spreadsheet, or other office work,offload digital pix off of your memory card or digital camera, or even listen to your music or video, this will fit the bill nicely as your main computing device. it really is a sweet machine and was what i would have wanted my PDA to be when i used one in the past. it is a functional device that works well, i highly recommend the 4G.

I am very happy with my purchase. I made some tweeks to it, to customize the desktop and to enable VPN usage as well. All of which were easy to find help for doing so, just by searching google for EeePC info. It works very well for my needs. I am a systems administrator and enjoy the ease of ability to carry this laptop around at my work place to do my work functions. It connects seemlessly to our corp wifi and allows me to work very comfortably in the bash shell administering multiple liux servers. The fact it weighs basically two pounds makes it very nice for going from meeting to meeting. My wireless mouse worked with it right out of the box as well. If you lower the screen brighness a bit. The battery life is increased quite a lot.

I had been thinking of picking up a laptop after Vista's next service pack comes out this spring, but read about this little unit and decided it was time to get a machine using open source software. There is not a stitch of Microsoft gumware on it. What a delight to be on-line on my wireless network in about 15 seconds after turning it on. I was surprised by how well I can read the 7" screen. The small internal flash memory in lieu of a hard drive is not a problem for me, as I use a portable flash memory stick to store and transport files. The only drawback might be the tiny keyboard. I am not a touch typist but do pretty well in general; I do find myself making more mistakes with this keyboard. All in all, I think Asus has managed to cram an incredible value into this inexpensive, little bitty box.