ASUS Eee PC 2G Surf - Sky Blue Intel Mobile CPU 7" WVGA 512MB Memory 2GB SSD NetBook

Pros: Its compact. It does almost everything i want.

Cons: Heres what i planned on being able to do...open a tab and play music in firefox from myspace or pandora or youtube and then open another tab to check email. It lags too much to actually play the song without jumping. I also wanted to play music from the music software there and run open office. It didnt have any trouble with that. Also the basic media player can not play RM files and since its linux its not easy to update and I dont have time to look for a solution. I might install windows over it.

Other Thoughts: Keyboard takes some getting used to, but it seems to work well now. GET THE EEE-PC LAPTOP WITH THE FASTER PROCESSER THAN THIS TYPE AND WITH MORE RAM!

Pros: Cheap
Light
Nice OS

Cons: Too slow
Battery life terrible

Other Thoughts: Lovely little thing, but too slow, trackpad too small and material feels too cheap to be sturdy.

Pros: I LOVE IT! You have no idea how handy a 7" screened 2lbs laptop can be. It easily fits between my truck seats(which means I ALWAYS have it) and the power adaptor is so small it can fit in your jacket pocket. I'm your average computer user, I like windows, and I didnt like Linux cus it was too underdeveloped, and not noob friendly. But this version of linux is so easy it takes no learning curve at all. Awesome price at only a few hundred dollars for what you get. For the price of a PDA, fancy Cell phone, or an iPod I got a laptop. Speakers sound ok, but a little tinny. SDHC support! I'm using a 16gb SDHC for storage and it can boot from SD card or USB Thumbdrive. Pidgin works great for everyday chatting. Firefox, documents, spreadsheet, PDF reader, calculator, all are very similar to Windows versions so its easy to get used to. Internal wireless is able to talk to my Draft N network flawlessly.

Cons: 800x480 isnt a good resolution for web browsing, even hitting F11 isnt giving you enough vertical viewing space. Tiny keyboard is difficult to type on till you get used to it and the layout is a little different. So tiny and odd, this is not a keyboard you want to type a novel on. Battery life is short for a 4400MAH battery. Touchpad and buttons dont work so hot, sometimes you have to try clicking twice to get the buttons to work. But with 3 USB ports just carry a tiny mouse with you. Processor seems overloaded, web browsing is slow, and divx/xvid movies run choppy. Onboard memory is slow access, probably about the speed of a 4200rpm HD, SD read/write is slower than a 4200rpm HD. So installing a OS to the SD card seems like a bad idea(But I havent tried it). Cant install any programs that arent supplied by Asus. Had a hard time finding the utility to make it autolog into wireless networks, but finally found which one did that.

Other Thoughts: No matter how many cons I can list. It doesnt matter, this laptop is worth every penny. The ease of use, as well as the practicality of this laptop by far surpasses any frustations I have. I'm not new to laptops, this is actually my fourth one I've owned. Right now I own two. I carry around a 15.4" laptop that has 6 hours of battery life and I always have my eeePC in the backpack with it. Its so light theres no reason not to have it and there are so many situations I pull my eeePC out instead of my main laptop. Nothing compares in "bang for the buck" I dont care how hip your trendy laptop is, this is much cooler. :) I would recommend getting the 4G Surf or the 4G Non-Surf. The 2G doesnt have enough internal space and the non upgradeable ram hinders the machines performance, where the 4G non-surf comes with a bigger battery and upgradeable ram. I planned on installing windows like the guide says. But this linux build works too good I dont want to let it go.

Pros: 1) form factor. I use it to take notes, and I barely notice the weight in my bag.
2) price.

Cons: 1) It's a little pokey. You're not going to get speed out of it, and you can't have ten programs running at once. Maybe two. But once you get something started, it works at a decent speed.
2) I didn't really realize this when I bought it--but it is indeed based off of Linux. If you're like me, and have no prior knowledge of programming--it might take you a while to figure out how to even add or remove (or upgrade) a program. (but it's not too bad once you get the hang of it)
3) Pointing out the obvious here, but no dvd/cd drive.

Other Thoughts: Most of what I have to say falls in this category. I have a friend who, on hearing that I chose the 2 gig version, strongly recommended that I send it back and get the 4 gig. I didn't take his advice, and I still haven't figured out whether or not I made the right decision.

Compared with the 4 gig--basically here is what's different (not inherently obvious from the specs)

1) shorter battery life. I get a max of slightly over 2 and a half hours (with wireless off and screen fully dimmed)
2) slower processor (although with what you're doing on it, it shouldn't matter too much)
3) zip memory (I think you only get 2 or 300 megs originally) This isn't so much a problem for storage b/c there's an sd slot, BUT it really limits the programs you can install)
4) no webcam

Third party batteries just hit the market-if battery life is your biggest issue you could get a second for less than the price difference between the 2 gig and 4 gig. Just food for thought.

Pros: Small, Light, Cheap, Cute, Fast, Etc. The Computer is great for surfing the internet, checking email, and playing the preinstalled games.

Cons: Well, If you are doing research you already know about things such as no CD or Floppy drive, limited HD space.

Other Thoughts: After reading other reviews I still decided to purchase this computer simply for what I need it for. I need to it type documents, surf the web, and check email. I think people are expecting these computers to be able to run high def games, photo and video editing and other things of that nature. Come on people, what are you thinking? If you want a great computer that is cheap and easy and all you need it for is the things listed above, i would highly recommend it. If not, buy an Apple or Alienware.

Pros: I love the form factor! It's the perfect size to take along everywhere. The processor can keep up with the built in applications, even if they take a little more time then you would like to launch. The screen is very crisp and the overall construction is first rate - it doesn't feel like a toy.

Cons: The biggest con with the surf 2G is the installed software...or more correctly...the software that's missing. Asus dropped a number of applications from the 2G - I assume they did this for memory storage considerations. This is a major issue. They didn't include Thunderbird or any of the PIM applications. After a week of trying to install my own versions of an email program (kmail, thunderbird, etc.) I gave up. It seems none of the Linux repositories out there have a stable installation that works. I entertained the idea of installing Ubuntu on the 2G, but after reading reviews it still seemed to have issues. So instead I returned the 2G and bought a 4G. I'm much happier now. So unless you want to extensively hack this unit go ahead and spend the extra $50 for the 4G unit.

Pros: Its a steal for the price.I installed xp to the 2gb internal memory and still had 700mb free! Xp runs way faster then expected.Its small size will amaze you ,if your even thinking about picking one up DO IT!

Cons: battery life is a little low i get around 2 hrs with full screen brightness and wifi on.800x480 screen resolution can be a pain sometimes but thats just really nitpicking

Pros: Very portable
Good price
Colorful, Good resolution
Boots fast
Easy to use
Integrates with my regular laptop (networking, documents)
Utilizes popularity (webmail, google docs, igoogle)

Connects to wireless fairly easily, as well as printers and network

You can install Windows XP (they give you a manual), but you need your own software (I haven't tried this)

Good selection of software (yes, it looks like open source, but that's not a bad thing, it keeps the price low)--Open Office, etc.

Cons: No carrying case like the more expensive model has

Keys on keyboard are slightly off from a standard keyboard, so typing can be a little difficult (for example, the shift key being more over to the right than normal)

My average female hands fit ok on the keyboard, but large or long fingers will probably have a problem)

They give restore CDs, though of course there is no CD drive! Perhaps SD card versions would've been more appropriate since that is the only drive besides USB ports. So I guess you'll have to attach something external.

Screen could've been bigger if the speakers weren't taking up so much space on the side

The media player doesn't have good equalizer controls (only stereo enhancement, so I didn't see any bass control--It still sounds pretty good though considering its size)

No webcam in this version (Basically, for $50 less (than the $350 model) you get a colored laptop, half the memory and drive space, no webcam, no carrying case)

Other Thoughts: I thought the manufacturer did a decent job with making this linux operating system feel like windows, so the learning curve is almost nonexistent.

I bought this for writing because of its portability, so I didn't need the most expensive model and I don't care about using Windows since this is a secondary computer. I'm glad to see manufacturers are bringing back portability with functionality (i.e., pda's don't suit all productivity, especially for writers)

Overall I am happy with it, and glad I waited a bit for this $299 model to come out.