Home > Consumer Reviews > ASUS Eee PC 900 16G (8.9" Display, Intel Mobile CPU, 1 GB RAM, 16 GB Solid State Drive, Linux) Pearl White

I have been using this computer for a little over a month and I'm pretty happy with it. I recommend running more than one operating system on it to see what you like. I currently am running XP Pro and Ubuntu-EEE Linux on it. Windows XP runs real sluggish unless you tweak it which requires some knowledge of computers. I am really impressed with Ubuntu-EEE though as it does almost everything I need, runs faster than XP on it, and looks better than Vista. This is by no means a desktop replacement though and you need to know that going into this. For $350 you really can't find a better deal. I run Streets and Trips on XP with a bluetooth GPS receiver I bought and it works great. This computer does not have bluetooth built in but you can pick up a USB dongle for $8.00 if you look. All in all, I am happy with my purchase and happy that there are so many specific accessories and forums for this computer which have tutorials on how to do anything and everything with these machines.

this computer is so easy to use. it took longer to take out of the box than to hook up and start using it. i love how light it is. i travel quite a bit and my 15' laptop was just weighing me down, literally, and was making my trips less fun. you don't need to install windows or anything unless you have specific requirements for the work you need to do on it. openoffice is less functional than microsoftword, especially the powerpoint equivalent. other than that, it has all the programs i need and then some. i thought it was strange that the speakers were underneath the computer, which muffles the sound, since it is often on my lap. but you can use earphones. overall, it's still the best thing i've bought in years.

I purchased this for my wife, since she had never became comfortable with her Dell laptop. She found it frustrating, since the way you do things often changed The ASUS Eee PC is very simple to use. You turn it on and in about 30 seconds , it is up and running. You just select the area you want to use ( ie, like email) and it presents you with the most popular choices, like hotmail , gmail and yahoo. Click on Yahoo and you are signed on and ready to ready your emails. The machine is very light and easy to carry. It is a good looking machine. It has all of the functions that an average user will need for normal activities. I would like to have one for my own use, but I guess I'll have to use her old laptop, since she doesn'twant to share her new machine.

I love my eee pc and can see buying another one in the future, but I wish I had read up on this particular model before I bought it on Amazon. The forums at www.eeeuser.com have detailed information from lots of buyers like me about the slowness of this particular model. Every time the hard drive is accessed, the computer freezes for a few seconds. There are lots of hacks listed for solving the problems, but the fact is that the ssd is just very slow. I'm using Linux on mine and it is still annoyingly slow for my taste. Streaming videos and sound is often choppy because of the drive.

Otherwise, I really love it. It's lightweight, I had little trouble getting used to the keyboard, and it's a great travel pc. I take it with me everywhere and have gotten lots of use out of it. The 3 usb ports really come in handy, and the sd card slot is great for expanding its memory capabilities. And if you're learning Linux for the first time like I am, it's nice to be able to save all the important stuff to a card in case you need to reset the pc to its original state. Resetting is so easy and user friendly, which is good because Xandros is not very forgiving of user mistakes.

So whereas I recommend this brand, please save yourself the frustration I've encountered and buy a different model. Even the smaller 4 gig surfer models they make are said to be faster than this one.

The 900 16g is said to have a slow hard drive. This is not a problem in Linux.

All of the 900's have a 10% per day battery drain even with the power off. I knew that before I bought it, so it's not a problem for me.

This is a wonderful little machine.

'Gave it 4 out of five because nothing is perfect.

I bought it at $350. At $330 it is an even better deal. Watch out for the XP version, that is said to be very slow.