My first UMPC - ASUS EeePC 701

Recently I bought a small notebook (the one I'm using right now while writing this blog) - just like the one in the photo below. The one I bought was black (Galaxy-black) in color.

Some called it "ultra-petite PC" and others called it UMPC (ultra-mobile PC). Either way, it's the smallest notebook I've ever owned. Before this, I used to own a 14" Compaq notebook, 12" Dell, and now a 7" ASUS Eee PC. Both Compaq and Dell are still working well, but I now passed them down to my teenage kids for their perusal.

With a weight of slightly less than 1 kg (with battery attached), 22.5cm wide, and 3.5cm thick, I considered it as my best buy ever ! Especially when I'm always on the move. As a lecturer, I presented most of my lectures through PowerPoint presentations.

I found that this ASUS is sufficient and very practical, meeting all my needs & demands. Furthermore I'm not into serious multimedia or the computer games stuff. MMORPGs is ok to me, but I'm not a serious gamer. So the small 7" 800x480 pixel screen does not pose any major problem to me.

With a price tag of RM1299.00, it came with full-fledged Xandros Linux with Intel processor, 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM, 3 USB ports, VGA output, SD card slot and WiFi capabilities. It also came with 4GB power-saving solid-state flash memory storage (16 GB max).

But later I upgraded the RAM to 1GB, and swapped the OS from Linux to Windows XP. Thanks to my Pakar IT friend Mamat, for all those "free" upgrades ... I just need to belanja him Nescafe tarik & roti canai ... he's a simple guy who loves to help others, esp in "debugging" or solving IT-based problems ! :)

For extra storage (and backups), I also bought a 2GB SD-card and a 120 GB Buffalo MiniStation external hard-disk to be used with this ASUS. All in all, I think this is my best notebook purchase ever. Where can you get a full-fledged UMPC below RM2K ? And did I mention that this EeePC also comes with a built-in webcam ? Yep, it does ! Eventhough I rarely use the webcam, but it's a good feature to have. Sometimes when you are bored, you can look at yourself on the screen ... hehehh :)

I used to drool over Sony Vaio (bohot bohot mengha hai !) - very expensive, but now that I have my 7" ASUS I no longer yearn for a Vaio anymore ! Those interested to know more about this Eee PC can log on to http://eeepc.asus.com/