eee, windows laptop, iPod touch, or something else?

[thejadedmonkey]

So, as many of you Apple fans know, Asus released an ultraportable $300 laptop. Configured with a blazing fast 900mhz processor, 7" screen, 2gig SSD, an SD Card reader, and not much else, it would do everything I want. That is, internet, a few mp3's, and word documents.

Mostly, I just want something I can take with me that can be thrown around in my bag. Either an iPod touch, eee PC, or some crappy laptop.. Would an iPod touch suit my needs, or is it the wrong item for me.. would I be better off just getting a used craptop somewhere and throwing some variant of 'nix on it.

Currently, I have a iPod Color, iPod with dock connector, and iPod shuffle, 15" MBP, and an old 14" craptop (1.4ghz centrino, 786mb's RAM) that I could make work again for ~$300.

Also, if you think I should go generic laptop, do I go used or fix my current one?

Obviously, all depending on what Apple releases in a week.

 

[tersono]

Certainly I'd go eepc rather than fixing your existing machine (which is worth next to nothing now).

I'll confess that I'd be more inclined to see if I could pick up an early iBook instead, but that's just me. If the eepc will do what you need, I see no reason not to go for it.

 

[Sesshi]

I'll throw the Nokia N810 into the equation as well. I haven't used it, but it is an uber-Touch in terms of what you can do with it at the moment.

As attractive as the eee may be it is basically a half-assed notebook. Nothing about it is genuinely standout except for the price. Once the hype dies away, people will probably realise that. It's one of those things where you're going "hey, this is a really good idea!" at first but find yourself hemmed in more and more as time goes by.

I'm not saying it's everyone's case - who knows, you may be happy tapping on it for a long time but it is quite a compromised product.

I'd say consider carefully what you will actually be doing on the device.

 

[Ged']

I'd recommend the eeePC 4G version. I own one and its just awesome. I use it for programming and for work web browsing, e-mail, word processing etc. at Uni when I'm not in lectures. I love the amount of heads that turn my way and the double take you get when people realise that your actually on a laptop.

 

[ricgnzlzcr]

I'm actually going to recommend you the 4GB EEE PC Surf which is $350. The reason is because first you get more memory, but the ram is upgradeable whereas it is not on the 2GB version. I have one and it's actually really quick and handles my internet, instant messaging, and word documents extremely well. Good luck.

 

[weckart]

Ditto. The eeePC 2GB version is a false economy. The 4GB Galaxy versions are the best bang for the buck, even over the Surf models as you get a better battery.

 

[Carrot007]

If a nice portable machine without the compromise of many of the devices is what you want then I recomend an eee.

I love mine (4G with ram upgraded to 2GB), Yes I installed a spare copy of windows I had lying around (yeah i'm sick I know) and it works great.

I love my Mac's but whatever Apple do I cannot see them competing in the eee's market as its a low end price point and they tend to stay away from it.

Yeah the keyboard on the eee is small and you sure aint going to reach the speed you would with a normal keyboard but it sure beats anything else in that size and unless you are a serious writer I can't see it being a problem.

Hopwever you could always wait, the market is going to see a lot or other compies answer to the eee copme to market this year and at that price point even an eee owner could be persuaded to change. Nothing as good released so far but the year is only young.