You get what you pay for with the Eee Pc.
This bite-size laptop (oh, that's the one for children right?) comes in a neat, sleek package that makes you want to purr with pleasure. It feels good, it is very, very easy to set up out of the box and to connect to wireless broadband (my Windows experiences with wi-fi have ALWAYS ended in tears).
You can email on or off-line, surf the web, write documents, spreadsheets and presentations and (joy of joys) play Solitaire. You can send MSN messages and use Skype with a webcam included (on the 4G version, not sure about the others) and all of this without Windows. It uses Linux as the OS but if you're desperate the option to install a variety of Windows OS is there. Though why would you want to?
But and it is a big BUT for such a small and inexpensive machine, size does matter. Surfing the web on a 7" screen means doing a lot of scrolling, which with a touchpad is a bit of a fiddle. Especially when this laptop doesn't sit comfortably on your lap. The screen has to be set at exactly the right angle or it tips over, or you have to use a hand to hold it in place which, if you are scrolling, is a pain. And the tiny keyboard means hitting a lot of wrong keys. The underside of the Eee PC becomes uncomfortably hot after just a few minutes, whether it's running on battery or charger and makes me worry about the thing bursting into flames. There is no evidence to support this fear, but the user guide does suggest you don't leave it on the upholstery for any length of time...
We bought this machine for my mother who had expressed a wish to become a silver surfer. Since she has never used a typewriter before let alone a computer, she had no bad Windows habits to unlearn. And since all she wants to do is send emails and run the occasional google search this appeared to fit the bill. Certainly the quick and easy start up and the clear interface make it simple to train anyone to use. But it is the aforementioned balancing act with laptop on lap, touchpad and scrolling that requires some dexterity.
My mother has had her Eee PC for a week and I have helped her with it for 3 hours. Do I want to fight my brother for it when she gets bored? I thought I did when I first saw it, but for a similar amount of money I could get a smart phone and surf and email on the move AND make phone calls AND take photos. Or for just £100 more I could get a full-sized laptop and view whole webpages without having to scroll all over the place. But I will still fight for it if the opportunity arises. Because it is really neat in every sense, because it does what it sets out to do and while it doesn't replace a full-sized laptop or a smart phone it's a million times cooler than a PDA and almost as portable.
P.s. I've marked the manufacturer support as Good but haven't yet had cause to contact them so this is just a guess based on their website and the user guide.
An update: My dear Ma is now hooked on email, google and wikipedia. At 78 she has become the villiage expert on broadband, email and web surfing. If we'd bought her a Windows PC I doubt any of this would have been possible. So whatever my doubts as an experienced computer user, this Asus has opened up a vast world to my mother for which we are both extremely grateful!