Asus Eee PC 701

The Asus Eee PC 701 is a great machine. very portable. good value. quality construction. capable of so many things. everyone in our family has one - five total - for school, home and work. buy one - you will not regret the purchase. fun little machine.

The 701 was great when it first came out. Very easy to use and with all the software you need for everyday tasks already built in. The speaker were of pretty good quality for the size of the machine and the screen was clear and bright. Don't really see the point in getting one now if you can find one because although it was good for most things, there was quite a few annoying little niggles that can't be excused. The screen resolution was terrible, browsing the internet would have you constantly scrolling all over the place to see the full page and if you wanted to install anything new on it, yes it was possible but was harder than it should be considering how easy it was to use with the built in software. The battery life was also quite poor. But the EeePC led the way at the time and spawned a host of copies and wannabies and inevitably fell behind the pack as time moved on.

I recived a Asus Eee 701SD 8Gb for my birthday in march, it is so neat and small, simple to use and useful. My only comlaint is the screen size, the fact it is not a full web page but that was remidied by downloading Oprea web sever for linux which has a 'fit to screen' function. and the space bar is somewhat un responsive but you just have to press harder no big deal.

I downloaded a program called pimpmye which allows you to unlock features of the computer such as the 'advanced desktop' which is very similar to windows XP.

I upgraded the 512mb of ram to 1gb, the 'e' is capable of 2gb but you have to activate it through the termial, where with 1gb you didnt.

Overall I am very happy with it, it is a great machine, frustratingly slow sometimes when multi tasking (eg. youtube, word processing, and music).

I give it 9/10. let down by the screen.

Open the box and first impressions are of a mac-esque small form netbook with aesthetics beyond its low price. It powers up quickly and offers a simple intuitive interface not usually associated with Linux distributions! Battery life is good but is sapped by extended use of wifi. For net browsing and light office duties the 701 is excellent and gives a high level of functionality. Sitting somewhere between the PDA/ Smartphone market and the business machines the 701 offers incredible value for money and a full suite of applications in excess of the usual Windows installation. Perhaps the only negative you may find is the limited storage space of 4GB which also includes the OS. I opted to use a USB powered external disk and also a SDHC card. The SD card is useful given its the same format card supported by most modern cameras. Overall the 701 is an excellent alternative to more expensive options and should be given serious consideration.

Quick boot up time which allows you to get online within 30 seconds of turning it on. Similarly shuts down in about 10 seconds. Finish is really nice and whilst its quite small it still feels quite substantial - you won't feel as if you could damage it whilst opening the screen for example. Key board feels nice to say its a scaled down version - you'll soon get used to it and then you'll forget about it altogether.

The operating system is great, I've never used Linux before but its easy to get used to and all makes perfect sense.

Use an external drive for extra storage via its 3 USB 2.0 ports; great for music etc.

Updating my ipod on it was a piece of cake. No need to iTunes simply drag and drop music files straight onto the ipod.

All in all a cracking piece of kit, but don't buy expecting it to replace your desktop - as you'll be disappointed.

See it more as a lightweight take anywhere surfing, emailing, word processor that'll play your music and video and you'll be very happy.