$400 Sub-notebook Laptop

The Asus Eee PC Linux-powered sub-notebook laptop sells for about $400US, and has an impressive list of features, including:

• 900MHz Intel Celeron CPU
• 512MB RAM (1GB optional)
  
• 100BT Ethernet
• 802.11 B/G WiFi
• 4GB of solid-state storage (8GB optional)
  
• MMC/SD/MS/SDHC media reader
• 300K pixel camera (on 4G and 8G models)
  
• Microphone
• USB 2.0
• VGA output (1600x1280 max)
• 2.25 pounds, 9" x 6.5" x 1" closed
• Xandros Linux variant operating system, plus many preinstalled applciations
• 3.5 hour battery duration (manufacturer's estimate)
  

The display is a bit dinky, of course - a 7" diagonal 800x480 LCD, but this is a "sub-notebook" - and what you lose in screen real estate you get back in terms of portability. For the purposes most people need a laptop while mobile (email, Web browsing, digital photo management), it seems fantastic. For many users with minimal computing needs, it may be all the computer they require.

While the Eee PC doesn't have a hard drive or optical drive, it does have USB 2.0 ports, so users can add these when necessary.

The Eee PC comes with Firefox for Web browsing and OpenOffice 2.0 (the free open-source office application suite, which is cross-compatible with Microsoft Office files), as well as instant messaging, media playing and game apps. Apparently the Eee PC can run Windows, and Asus may eventually offer is pre-installed.

This kind of thing isn't usually on my radar, but I watched this review on the recently-launched ChannelFlip site (I know of U.K. presenter/ChannelFlip founder Wil Harris as a frequent guest of Leo Laporte's This Week In Tech podcast) and was impressed enough to post here.