Asus Eee PC 900

The Eee PC 701 may not have been perfect, but this first mass market, ultra-cheap ultra-portable ticked all the right boxes for a lot of people. And we mean a lot – the Eee PC proved so successful that Asus had problems meeting demand, so it was a foregone conclusion that it would produce an updated model to capitalise on its success. So, five months after the Eee PC 701’s launch, Asus has come up with version two – the Eee PC 900.

Superficially, the Eee PC 900 is pretty much identical to the 701. It’s a little deeper (the lid is 5mm taller), a little fatter and just a little heavier – but you could easily get the two models confused at first glance. It has the same love-it-or-loathe-it pearlescent white finish as the Eee PC 701 4G – black will also be available, but we prefer the matte finish on the 2G model. Asus has been careful to address the key complaints about its predecessor though, and on the whole, it’s been successful.

So, the screen is now bigger, there’s more memory and considerably more storage – not everyone was thrilled with the Eee PC 701’s pre-installed Xandros Linux, and the original 4Gb SSD was a tight squeeze for Windows XP and a clutch of applications.

That the Eee PC 900 would have an 8.9in screen was no surprise – the Eee PC 701 had room for one, but Asus was content to let a 7in TFT wallow in the relative expanse of the lid. Thankfully, it hasn’t just reached for any old panel and the 900’s 1024 x 600 display is bright, vibrant and crisp – easily on a par with that on much costlier laptops we’ve seen, in fact.

The screen brightness can be dropped an almost-off level and while you wouldn’t want to work at this setting, the display is still visible if you’re desperate to wring every last minute from the battery. There is some graininess if you look closely (something some users may need to do – this is still a small screen), but it’s not a distraction in normal use. The viewing angle is remarkably wide too – far wider than you can really make use of with a screen of these small dimensions.

The Eee PC 900’s increased screen resolution is also welcome, and while 1024 x 768 may not sound like much, it’s enough to make prolonged use a much more practical proposition. Web browsing is much more comfortable on a screen this size and spreadsheets are much more viable, though some Windows applications will still present dialog boxes that are too tall to fit on screen. You won’t have this problem with Xandros Linux distro, though – it‘s been tweaked to fit even on the 701’s lower resolution.

Unfortunately, the larger screen means there’s no room in the lid for a pair of speakers, so these are now moved to the laptop’s underside, just beneath the wrist rest. That there are just a few millimetres of clearance between the speaker grilles and the surface the laptop sits on obviously affects sound quality, but the change isn’t too detrimental -- the speakers are perfectly adequate for Windows notifications and YouTube videos. Still, Asus has upgraded the webcam in return and while the 1.3-megapixel model tucked atop the screen is hardly high definition, it’s miles better than the 701’s mere 0.3 megapixels.