Asus Eee PC 4G

Asus first released low cost and low power Eee PC in the fall of 2007 with a 7″ inch screen, 4GB solid state hard drive and a custome Linux based system with preinstalled software such as Firefox and Open Office. While it became a cult hit (Asus says it will have sold 5 million units worldwide by the end of 2008), the lack of a Windows-based operating system kept some shoppers away.

The company promised a Windows version was in the works, but in the meantime, other PC makers saw the potential for inexpensive small laptops, and we’ve seen Hewlett-Packard’s 2133 Mini-Note and an revamped version of Intel’s Classmate PC run Windows with similar hardware, creating a new category people are calling mininotebooks or Netbooks.

With three USB ports, a VGA out, and standard headphone and mic jacks, the Asus Eee offers decent connectivity. The SD card slot offers a good opportunity to boost the hard-drive space, letting you pop in your own flash memory, easily doubling the system’s 4GB drive (less than half of which is actually free), with your own 4GB SD card. The Eee PC lasted 3 hours and 12 minutes with its four-cell battery, which is decent for an ultraportable laptop, especially one this inexpensive.

Hardware Test (Specification):

ASUS Eee PC 4G (Windows XP)
Windows XP Home Edition SP2; 900MHz Intel Celeron Ultra Low Voltage M353; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 915GMS Express; 4GB SiliconMotion SM223A Solid State Drive

HP 2133 Mini-Note
Windows Vista Business Edition; 1.6GHz VIA C7-M Ultra Low Voltage; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; –MB VIA/SG3 UniChrome Pro II IGP; 120GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Intel Classmate PC 9-inch
Windows XP Professional SP2; 900MHz Intel Celeron Ultra Low Voltage M353; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 915GMS Express; 30GB Seagate 3,600rpm

HTC Shift
Windows Vista Business Edition; 800MHz Intel A110; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Mobile Intel 945GM/GU Express; 40GB Toshiba 4,200rpm

The Result on Test: