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ASUS EeePC, $600
I love the way it just "works" and I can apparently load XP on it, though won't it destroy the hard drive?
While it's an utterly basic machine, even in it's core xandreos linux I found the usabilty and build very nice, also it has spare a PCI micro slot, hmmmm ,maybe I can put a n EVDO sierra card in there!.
because of the price, I could still buy another box PC as the main drone.
Also has 3 usb ports which is fantastic.
Upgradable ram! awesome.
The bad
display could have been bigger dimensions and is a bit washed out.
Flash memory is not "upgradeable" which is almost unforgivable, also, Will pagefiles destroy the flash quicky?
I would buy it 2GB of ram and ramdisk half of it as swap temp if I could find a way.
oqo model 01+, $1000
I really love the form factor with these but actually how big are they? I have never managed to see one in real life.
the price point is amazing considering what is inside, the only real concern is the Transmeta CPU, while they are wonderfully low wattage and all but the last device I had that used a TM Crusoe seemed quite stuttery when doing most tasks.
I would be looking at the XP version most likely as the version 2 Vista variant is quite expensive.
the bad
It looks very late 90's "Taiwanese 486 laptop" cheaply made.
I have not seen one's physically or seen the display or used the keyboard so it would be a real gamble.
Sony VGNUX57GNL micro PC $2500
Also the most expensive and the one which has the biggest "wow" factor, also it runs Vista which I depsise but probably need to get used to now as 98 is dead and XP is dying.
I love the display on this machine and it strangley appeared to run Aero very well wheras similar priced laptops I inspected were quite sluggish, the little naviation nip also works great though I still prefer trackballs.
the bad...
The keyboard is horrible which is the biggest big turn-off, only 1 USB port in standard.
Also being Sony means it's quite expensive for what it is and it uses horribly expensive "memory stick" media and other (expensive) proprietry stuff.
Currently i'm keenest on the budget EEPC even though the others are much higher spec machines simply as it's the most usable factor.
As a bonus, it's dirt-cheap, I wonder If I can dual boot the Xandros and XP, having the XP installation on a SD card slot with just a pointing bootloader on the main flash alongside Xandros, that's the only killing factor which might push me to a higher spec machine.
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