Possible Replacement Laptop

[bjarvis]

I did my usual circuit of the local pawn shops this morning to see what might be available. Yeah, it sounds odd but that's how I've purchased most of my laptops in the past 15+ years and have found some great deals. Alas, not today.

Side note: In one pawn shop, I stood in a line for a while and was the only person shopping for rather than pawning equipment. That's a sign the economy Is Not In Good Condition. Another pawn shop has closed --that may be a sign things are even worse than I thought.

At Best Buy (of all places), I found a good candidate: the Asus EEE netbook (model EPC1000HD-BKBB1). It's only 3lbs, has a 10" screen, 10/100 Mpbs port, 802.11/g wireless, 1 GB of RAM, a 120 GB of hard drive space and an Intel Celeron 900 MHz CPU, for $350 new. No CD-ROM or DVD but USB versions of such could be added. It's not enough for a complete workstation but I believe it would be more than enough for my work-on-the-go and even my square dance calling.

Anyone have experience with or opinions on Asus' netbooks? What do folks think about the Atom processor available in other models?

Comments

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

I bought this one (with Atom) in Singapore for Sg$850, for whatever that is worth nowadays. I had them add a GB so I have 2 GB of memory, everything else is identical. I like the keyboard; it's relatively easy to type on (some of the netbooks are horrendous!). Battery life is OK, but you'll need an external DVD/CD drive for it (I bought one of those and it works fine with it). The Atom is fine; the thing isn't noticeably slower than my other laptop. I like it, and will be using it for the presentation material I'll be using in teaching SW testing courses.