Home > Consumer Reviews > ASUS Eee PC 900 8.9-Inch Netbook (Intel Mobile Processor, 1 GB RAM, 12 GB Solid State Drive, XP Home, 4 Cell Battery) Pearl White

I was looking for a laptop that would run GPS atlas software for a long car trip (but would also do most other things as well, email, web, digital pictures), also it had to be familiar to my wife who is not a computer enthusiast. The Eee PC fits this bill very nicely. At around 2 pounds it's weight is barely noticeable. The battery life is good and it slips into and out of sleep mode quickly to save on power when not being used (though it can be a pain if you are just staring at the screen and not touching it for five minutes...not common at least). I also liked that it came with Windows XP and not Vista. No DVD drive means you need to buy an external but that's okay for my uses. The only thing that's been hard to adjust to is the smaller keyboard size. At first I was missing a lot of key strokes but that is improving with continued use.

This product is unbelievably fast, has excellent handling, perfect wi-fi, camera is nice, sound is excellent. It has it all. The nasty snag is that Windows XP is installed in a *4Gb partition*. If I know that beforehand I would had reconsidered my choice of buying it. After a few installs and Windows Update the C:\ drive becomes full and you can't do anything else. Reading lots of posts across the internet I became aware of several tweaks that works: transferring user files do D:\, which has 8Gb, switching program files folder to D:\, uninstalling everything and installing onto D:\ and so on and on and on. In this tedious process I eventually ended up doing some mistakes and had to use the DVD to get the Eee back to its original state - and start it all over again. I was really disappointed by the fact that it wasn't advertised anywhere that the 12Gb flash drive is actually TWO drives - with the smaller one containing the space-greedy Windows XP...

Works as advertised. Plus's include: size, weight, windows xp, response time. Down's include no disc drive (OK unless you want to load software), keyboard is good but requires time to get use to the size. I had the unit 3 weeks, one of the keyboard keys froze, I sent it in, they sent me a new unit, no questions although their process is a little cumbersome and their customer service line very slow. If weight is your prime concern, go with this unit.

I bought this for travel use and found it perfect. I had previously used a Sony PSP to watch movies during trips but tired of the small screen and the need to convert files to the mp4 format the PSP uses. I went with the XP version of the eee PC because there are a lot of video players (GOM, Real Player, etc) that work on XP. I get video files in a lot of different formats and its easier to load on video players than constantly worry about converting the video files. The battery life of the eee PC 900 12G is nothing to rave about but I always take along my myPower 3450 dual daisy-chained batteries which are designed for powering the large laptops so this low power eee PC barely moves the power meter on a cross country trip. I haven't taken it on one of my China trips yet but I don't expect it will have any difficulty powering the 12-hour trip. One last note, I found the wifi capability quite good in making connections to the internet in the hotels I stayed in.

I've been wanting a small laptop or UMPC for a while because I didn't like lugging around my Compaq laptop when I travel. I've had my eye on this Asus computer and when I heard Microsoft would stop shipping Windows XP, I knew I had to get this with XP preinstalled.

I did some research ahead of time on various forums & found out that the hard drive is partitioned 4GB/8GB, with XP using most of the first partition. Some tips to maximize performance: turn off the swap file, change temp & tmp file locations to D:, install new apps on D:, move My Documents to D: and delete fonts and apps you don't need. I chose not to install Office programs, but rely on the programs that shipped with it (which can save documents in Office program formats).

The keyboard is small and the touchpad is very "touchy", but you get used to that after a while. It's so great to carry around a 2-lb laptop instead of a 15-lb one, especially at the airport. This laptop does everything I need it to do in a small package. I highly recommend it.