$600 is still very steep for such a tiny limited laptop imo.

For a bit more you can get a full xps m1330 laptop... which is relatively portable... I dont see any logic in sacrificing performance to go lower than that though.

Well finally got a chance to see one of these in person. Wow... these netbooks are tiny!!

The Acer Aspire One is a better deal IMHO

You can buy one off Amazon for $399 with a 160GB real HD and otherwise identical specs...

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-8-9-inch-Processor-Battery/dp/B00...

What about getting the linux 20gb version and loading XP on that? how big is the faster memory on that one, is it still 4gb or somehting more workable like 8?

So you can't ever put a 2.5 inch laptop hdd in one of these 900's?

The MicroCenter store near me has the Asus 901 and 1000, the HP netbook and the Acer. I found the Asus keyboards are recessed just enough that I failed to hit the space bar with my thumb while typing, and the keys are junior sized. The Acer has a nice feel and a good price compared to the HP.
I was pretty keen on getting a netbook until I played around with them at the store, I think I will let them evolve a little further and come down in price before getting one.

The Acer One looked more compelling to me.

For the 901 vs 1000, its not until you get them next to each other that you realize how much smaller the 901 is, its kind of deceptive if you just go by the measurements. Plus the added weight would be a pain.

The 901 fits in most large pockets and importantly in my suits inner jacket pocket.

I had a good laugh reading the second half of page 3, classic TR review material right there. I'd suggest an area measurement across the whole keyboard though, and vertically from the spacebar to the number keys. And use a standard desktop keyboard as the base measurement.

About the shift key, what's so hard about moving the inverted-T arrow keys down one row and making the shift key normal width? I know it would look funky and some people would freak out over that but I doubt there are any production reasons this can't be done, surely Asus could source the keys that way if they wanted. And I don't think it would interfere with the palm-rest in real use because I'm sure users rarely place their palms within a key's height of the bottom row. *I just looked over to the gallery at the right and see that's sort of what they did on the Acer Aspire One. Pay attention Asus.

I am really waiting to see a review of the new Dell Mini 9 *hint* *hint*

If the dell is decent I think its going to push down the price of the EEEs a good bit.

Can you RAID-0 the hard drives :wink:
I wonder if a controller can dynamically do read/writes based on disk performance.

Not for me, but to each his own.