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Overview: It’s a lightweight, ultra-portable netbook with a commendable battery life for a 6 cell. It comes with the basics pre-installed (word processor, a DVD program [a touch ironic since you probably don't have an external disc drive yet], and some eee PC specific keyboard functions). XP is XP. You know what you are going to get with that.

Pros:
Good size. It’s really easy to carry around. I hate carrying my full size laptop back and forth to work. This one slips nicely into my bag.

Battery life. I get about 4 hours from the battery. I think I could squeeze more out if I used the power saving option and turned off the wireless when I’m not using it. (new note: with power saving options turned on, I get just over 5.5 hrs from the battery. That also reflects having 2gb of RAM installed. - 10/26/08) Still good enough that I don’t bring my power cord with me to work unless I’m going to use it all day. And way better than the other netbooks I looked at.

Ease of upgrade. I’m not very tech savvy. However, it was WAY easy to open up my 1000HA and pop in a 2gb memory stick, and junk the 1gb stick that comes with this. You just need a small Phillips screwdriver. No weird keyboard lifting and no cracking open cases and no voiding of warranties. I almost bought the Acer Aspire One, which I think is better looking, but it’s apparently more technically difficult to upgrade. The hard drive looks easy to upgrade, too. FYI, if you DO upgrade the memory yourself, make sure to F2 into the BIOS on startup. No need to change any settings in the BIOS, but the BIOS needs to automatically recognize the 2gb memory (Windows won’t recognize it without the BIOS acknowledgment first).

Weight. Light, but still feels substantial, so it doesn’t feel like it’s going to fall apart.

Asus name. I guess Asus isn’t a big household name, but at least I’ve heard about eeePC for a little while. I almost bought the MSI Wind, which looked pretty easy to upgrade, too. But I got scared since I hadn’t actually seen an MSI Wind anywhere. If someone wants to send me a free one, I’ll evaluate it and re-write this review.

Cons:
The shift key on the right hand side of the keyboard is in an awkward place. I’m hopeful that my brain will eventually learn where it is so I don’t hit the arrow keys or the enter key by mistake all the time, but until then, it’s kind of annoying. On the plus side, the rest of the keyboard works great, and I can still type comfortably with it.

Glossy cover. It picks up some fingerprints. Boo. I hear the Fine Ebony version picks up even more fingerprints. They include a good neoprene-like sleeve and a fingerprint buffing cloth to keep the netbook fresh and clean, which is kind of neat.

This Netbook is Sleek. Slender. Simply Stunning., I feel it is the best!!

Click here for product features of this amazing netbook.