I always need a new problem to tackle or something to keep my interest (so my therapist says), and the latest thing I’m eyeing is the upcoming Eee 900 laptop.

So what’s the big (little) deal?

Its predecessor - the Eee PC 701 (4G) - was remarkable for being a tiny laptop at a tiny price ($400), that seemed to make all of the right tradeoffs to remain fully usable despite its small package and price. It only had a 7 inch screen, 512MB of memory and a small flash drive for storage instead of a standard hard disk. The most objectionable of these tradeoffs for me is the screen - at 7 inches, it has a has a huge black bezel surrounding it that really detracts from the look and usability of it. And of course, more speed, storage, and memory would always be welcome.

With the Eee 900, all of these have been addressed, for not too much extra cash. The form factor and weight are nearly identical, but the storage has increased from 2/4/8GB to 12/20GB, memory doubled from 512MB to a more usable 1GB, processor clocked from 630Mhz to its standard 900Mhz, and the screen blessedly increased to 9 inches, eschewing the bezel almost entirely. All of that for a $150 increase in street price.

But... why?

To be completely honest, I have absolutely no legitimate or rational use for this thing, especially since both I and Erin have excellent Mac laptops already. It really is a plaything plain and simple, and it’s hard to justify a $550 plaything!

However, there are a lot of little reasons I’d like the play with it...

1. •Solid state - after losing my hard drive last Christmas, I’m very interested in all things flash and solid state. This would be a cheap way to see what it’s like.
   

2. •It’s tiny. I love little things. It weighs less than half my MacBook Pro and is about half the size.
   

3. •It’s actually a pretty capable machine. Aside from not handling OS X, all of its specs are reasonable for day-to-day work. No, really. :-)
   

But really, it’s all about the size:

Links

ASUS Press Release and Specifications

ASUS Product Page

Engadget’s comprehensive coverage

EEE 900 Release Date (May 12)

EEE 900 at TrustedReviews

EEE 900 at eeeuser.com

EEE 900 Video Review (MPEG-4)

EEE 701 running Ubuntu, Compiz, and fancy effects (MPEG-4)

EEE 701 running World of Warcraft (MPEG-4) (yes, WoW!)

UPDATE (2008/04/22)

Looks like I’ll need to wait for June and the Atom before making a decision. It’s currently expected at 1.2-1.6Ghz and uses hyper-threading. The chipset should also include a graphics bump from GMA900 to GMA950. Atom is an in-order execution chip, so we’ll have to see how well that works for real-life workloads (interestingly, it’s the same decision IBM made with the Power6, which is now at 5Ghz and beyond).

UPDATE (2008/04/25)

Good roundup of all of the low-cost ultraportables courtesy of liliputing.