Asus EEE PC 701: Mobile Innovation Award Winner 2007

Most ultraportable laptops in the two-pound range cost about two grand. Asus' Eee PC 701 costs $399 and delivers the functionality of a Windows-powered machine while being easier to use. It also boots up much faster and comes with nearly everything a road warrior could want, including Wi-Fi, a built-in webcam, Skype, and a media player. (Yes, you can watch YouTube videos, too.)

 

So what's the EEE PC's catch? This stripped-down, Linux-powered system wasn't designed for spec-obsessed mobile professionals, but for children and seniors looking for a simple, low-cost alternative to a Windows computer. The surprise is that the Eee PC is compelling enough to appeal to all of these audiences.

 

The Eee PC's secret sauce is a refreshingly straightforward, tab-based interface. Clicking on the Internet tab, for example, presents a number of icons, such as Web for launching the Firefox browser and Messenger for logging into your IM client of choice. Other tabs include Work (with quick links to OpenOffice for word processing and creating presentations), Learn (which contains some fun and challenging language and math games), and Play (where you'll find the media player).

 

Okay, so what's the real catch? The Eee PC isn't nearly as full-featured as your average Dell or HP budget notebook. For example, instead of an 80GB hard drive, there's only a 4GB solid-state drive. And the seven-inch screen and keyboard are both pretty tiny, although we had no problem connecting the device to a larger monitor and full-sized keyboard, making this an ideal secondary computer for families. Oh, and at least for now, the Eee PC doesn't support mobile broadband modems for surfing the Web beyond hotspot range.

 

These tradeoffs meant next to nothing to LAPTOP's editors. In fact, nearly every person we showed the Eee PC to wanted one. Note to Asus: You better make more of these-fast.