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A lot of buzz has been created around the Asus Eee PC. The primary reason of course being its size. Literally the size of a male palm, the Eee PC can be any student’s dream come true, on two accounts – its compact size and secondly its lightweight. It literally is smaller than most modern day notebooks. Asus has shortly described the Eee as ‘Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play, which is undoubtedly true. Today we tell you just what you wanted to know, before making the decision of buying this laptop.

The Asus Eee PC is a tiny laptop having a 7-inch screen, 4GB solid state disk, 512MB DDR2 memory, Linux operating system, a webcam and Wi-Fi. Its first impression could be that of it being a toy laptop for children. However, it is certainly not a toy, and is especially developed for children. The Eee PC is also useful for having basic computing needs.

The most advantageous feature of the Asus Eee laptop is its lightweight. The notebook weighs just 0.92 kg. That enables users to carry the notebook almost anywhere without carrying a separate notebook bag. It easily fits into the backpack or even in a purse.

3 USB slots and microSD cars are provided with the Eee PC. 4GB storage is obviously less to save the data. Through these USB drives and microSD card users can expand the storage capacity. However, the laptop lacks a CD/DVD drive. Though the use of USB drives has increased, the use of CD/DVD cannot be eliminated. There many movies and educational content for children being offered in a DVD form. Hence the absence of a DVD format is not appreciated.

Another area to complain about it is the keyboard. We do understand that a tiny laptop would obviously have a tiny keyboard, as it is with Asus Eee. However, some keys such as tab, delete, escape and alt are extraordinarily small and it sometimes gets very difficult to press them. Other alphabets and numerical keys are managed gracefully and fitted rightly in the limited space.

Its Touchpad is also very good and does not give any chance to complain. On the other hand, the single mouse button creates little confusion. The same button has to be pressed at left side for left click and at the right side for right click.

Talking about the small screen, the 7-inch screen works very well for most of the applications. At an initial point users might complain about the small fonts and tiny view. But certainly it is not miniscule and users would quickly get used to it. Though working on the Eee PC with a smaller view on the display is never a problem. However few issues might occur while browsing. The Eee’s screen resolution is 800 pixels. Now-a-days few sites are especially designed for higher resolution than 800 pixels, in such cases Eee users have to scroll vertically as well as horizontally to see the webpage.

Additionally, the Eee PC is equipped with a good quality webcam. The 0.3 MP webcam can take photos as well as capture videos. One cannot call it as the best quality camera, but certainly one can manage with it.

The Eee works on the Linux operating system, however it is also compatible with Windows XP. Many of the times we assume that the Linux OS is not user-friendly, however we have no complains regarding the interface of this OS. It is equipped with web-based applications such as iGoogle, Wikipedia, Skype, Messenger etc. while for normal surfing the pre-installed Firefox browser can be used.

Internet connection can be achieved through various options such as Modem, Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g and Wi-Fi. Users can use Skype with built-in speakers and mic.

The miniature also takes care of the entertainment of the users with pre-loaded games. Games such as Tetris, Solitaire, Sudoku come along with the laptop. Moreover, there are special games developed for children, which not only entertains them but will also educate them. These games can be found in the ‘Learn’ section.

For professionals, the Eee PC is equipped with OpenOffice suite. After having fun with games, users can get back to some serious work with documents, spreadsheets and presentation of OpenOffice applications. As it is an OpenOffice suite, it boasts complete Microsoft Office file compatibility. Users can transfer files on their PC and edit it too.

Overall the Asus Eee PC is an affordable option at Rs. 18,000 for basic computing. Apart from children, the Eee PC is also a good option for frequent travelers requiring internet surfing and basic Office features.