Laptops that cost less than your phone

What do we really need in a laptop?

Well, if you’re like me most of your *stuff* lives on the web now (Flickr, Gmail, Google Cal, PBwiki, Basecamp…), not on your hard drive. So, maybe we don’t need as much as we once did from our laptops. Or maybe we just need different things: a speedy web connection, ultra-portability and good battery life?

The funny thing about ultra-portable laptops is that we drop them and leave them places – well I do anyway! So, I think ultra-potable should also mean ultra-cheap.

Because of this I’m WAY more interested in the $299 ASUS Eee PC and $399 CloudBook than the $1,800 MacBook Air.

The Eee only has a 7inch screen and 4GB of memory but it will check Gmail, make Skype calls and update Basecamp projects just as well as any other laptop. It also look pretty easy to mod in some interesting ways and is on sale in Toronto for $299.

The CloudBook has a much bigger 30GB hard drive but isn’t available just yet. Apparently we’ll be able to pick one up from Walmart in a few weeks.

A good friend just bought an Eee so I’ll keep you posted on what he thinks of it. I might not be far behind him.

UPDATE: I had a play on my friend’s Eee this morning. Brilliant! The interface is nice and simple, the keyboard and trackpad work great and the size is mind blowing. It’s called a laptop but this thing only sits on one knee (it’s not big enough to actually sit on your lap!). When the version with the 9 inch screen is released later this year, I’m in.

9 Comments

• 
  Tony Morris February 7, 2008 at 7:40 am

  Yeah, I’ve noticed that I kind of moved towards the web-based tools. I use Wrike [http://www.wrike.com/](a project manager), Skype, Gmail, Twitter, Flickr and lots of other apps. Now I have a lot more storage space on my lap-top left ;)
• 
  Pema February 7, 2008 at 10:00 am

  Thanks for stopping by Tony.
  Music is the one thing I still haven’t managed to move off my laptop. Half my hard drive is full of songs I never listen to!
• 
  destogate February 20, 2008 at 6:53 pm

  does it sport a Windows OS?
• 
  Pema February 20, 2008 at 7:39 pm

  Hi destogate,
  The ASUS Eee uses a custom Linux OS. I think the CloudBook does too but I’m not certain.
• 
  destogate February 20, 2008 at 7:48 pm

  Thanks Pema. I’m thinking of getting it for my younger brother in Pakistan.
• 
  Pema February 20, 2008 at 7:51 pm

  I think the Eee is an amazing deal destogate. My only complaint would be the small screen but apparently ASUS are upgrading that soon. Another good thing about the Eee… it’s so small the shipping to Pakistan will be cheap ;)
• 
  destogate February 21, 2008 at 2:45 pm

  Lol, yeah. I don’t mind the small screen, my brother is about 6 hehe. I’ll get it shipped to Canada where I am right now and then take it with me.
• 
  Pema February 21, 2008 at 2:49 pm

  Nice. Let us know what you think of it.
• 
  destogate February 21, 2008 at 7:33 pm

  Will do, mate.