Asus Eee PC S101

...Well, it certainly excelled here. Asus promised that the Eee PC S101 would be stylish, and they certainly weren't lying. The laptop screams classy from the tiniest detail. The lid can come in several different colours. The one I bought had a sort of glossy brown colour which reminded me somewhat of the stylish interiors of classic cars. Asus have definitely paid attention to detail, and practically everything just shines at you with the laptop even ...
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The Asus Eee PC S101 reminds me of taking an average car, doing the bodywork but leaving the engine as it is. I wouldn't go so far as to call this laptop a fake, but Asus have definitely pulled off the 'making something look expensive but keeping a reasonable price tag' trick. This is great for someone who likes to look good on a budget.  ... more

This recently released laptop was a pretty impressive one. I think some would criticise it for focussing too much on exterior design and not enough on function and, while in some ways I would agree, personally, I found it refreshing to have a laptop that stood out from the black and silver crowd.

Look and Design

Well, it certainly excelled here. Asus promised that the Eee PC S101 would be stylish, and they certainly weren't lying. The laptop screams classy from the tiniest detail. The lid can come in several different colours. The one I bought had a sort of glossy brown colour which reminded me somewhat of the stylish interiors of classic cars. Asus have definitely paid attention to detail, and practically everything just shines at you with the laptop even going as far as to have crystal adorned hinges. It definitely looks like something that you could imagine an internet-made billionaire doing their computing on. It's portable, with reasonable size and a weight of 1kg, but it isn't so annoyingly portable that you feel cramped when using it.

Function

It falls a little bit more into the world of average here, but there wasn't anything striking bad about it. The track pad is of a reasonable size and is quite responsive, I never was much of a fan of track pads but this one is acceptable. The mouse button that comes with the track pad is unusual in that it is a single button, and rocks from left click to right click. However, unlike some 'rockers', it is fairly easy to use and doesn't end up clicking the wrong button. The keyboard is also quite responsive and reasonably laid out, it doesn't leave you with that all too familiar having your hands tied together feeling you get from some of the ultra small notebooks around.
Performance is quite standard, the Eee PC S101 sports an Intel Atom N270 processor and 1GB of RAM as well as the usual bag of tricks, wireless, Bluetooth, webcam etc.
Battery life was pretty impressive, from full charge this lasted about 3 and a half hours, easily enough for an average 'computing on the move' trip.

Overall

The Asus Eee PC S101 reminds me of taking an average car, doing the bodywork but leaving the engine as it is. I wouldn't go so far as to call this laptop a fake, but Asus have definitely pulled off the 'making something look expensive but keeping a reasonable price tag' trick. This is great for someone who likes to look good on a budget. 

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