7" ASUS eee & 60GB Maxtor OneTouch

[thinkingbouteurope]

I know there have been quite a few discussions about the PROs and CONs of travelling with a laptop ... well how about a mini laptop?

OK, I grant the point that a 7" mini laptops could very easily develop legs and walk away if one is not cautious so ... one must be alert

I've had a 7" ASUS eee (a Linux version, not Windows XP) for almost two weeks. I've plugged in flash drives which I've copied from a Windows machine and read them in a snap.

Today, I got a 60 GB Maxtor One Touch III Mini Edition which I paid $40USD for. I plugged it into a USB drive and the eee recognized it and powered it on immediately. I went into File Manager and could see all the folders and files on the drive.

With 2 extra USB ports and a SD card slot, this combination would work perfectly for copying the days photos onto the hard drive. plus whatever else. For another $40 you can backup up onto a second Maxtor.

The Asus eee (entry=$299) is about 7" x 9" x 3/4" and has built in WiFi and browser to boot. and the Maxtor is about the size and thickness of 50 4" x 6" index cards

Hope I've not been redundant. Hope I've been informative. Hope you continue to enjoy the summer.

thinkingbouteurope

[Eagle]

thinkingabouteurope, no, you haven't been "redundant" - thanks for posting that.

I suspect the Asus EEE PC's might become very popular with travellers, as they're being mentioned quite frequently on various sites. I've looked at some of the models, but unfortunately the newer model I felt would be most useful for me was $600 or so! I'm not sure I need to check my E-mail badly enough to spend that kind of money! I can use my IPod Touch to check E-mail if there's a Wi-Fi Hotspot available. However, I imagine the Asus computers will be showing up on E-Bay at good prices before too long.

Do you have any comments (good or bad) on the Linux version? I would have been more tempted to use the XP version, as I believe it reads Word and Excel files a bit more easily? The fact that the Linux version is supplied with 20GB flash memory is a good feature (as opposed to only 12 GB for the XP version).

Cheers!