Some of you may recall that I have been comparison shopping for a new netbook since January, to make writing-on-the-go a much more attractive proposition (compared to lugging a 7-lb. laptop around the city and on trips).
I finally got one! I decided to take advantage of the stateside trip to get what I wanted with a QWERTY keyboard, and I ordered an Asus EeePC 1000HE from Amazon.com. I got it in black because in the end I chose features and price over the designer colors, and Amazon was running a good price plus I got free 2-day shipping by taking advantage of a free trial of their Amazon Prime delivery service (which I later cancelled).
So far I've been very happy with it after one week. It's roughly half the size and weight of my other laptop. It has a 6-cell battery that can give me up to 9.5 hours of battery time (although I think it tends to run closer to 8.5 but that's still pretty good compared to the 2-3 hours I get with the laptop). The keys are a little smaller and closer together than with a full-size laptop, and I keep hitting "enter" when I want to hit the left shift key, but other than that I can type at full speed with no problem. The keyboard is quieter than that of my Dell laptop -- a real blessing when someone else is around, so as not to disturb them with the constant clatter. The 10" screen means I can see the full width of any web site and only have to scroll a little more than usual to get to the stuff further down the page. It seems comfortable and easy to use so far.
I did have one blue-screen-of-death the first or second time I used it, not sure why and it has not repeated itself. Twice I have had the mouse cursor freeze up, and have had to restart; again, haven't figured out what that's about but I'm keeping an eye on it. Other than that I have no complaints.
Looking forward to doing a lot more cafe-writing in the future now that I'm a more portable writer! Hey, if J.K. Rowling could write the first Harry Potter book in a coffee-shop, and in LONG HAND, then I ought be able to crank out a best-seller or two on this new gadget, n'est-ce pas?
I did buy a new PINK mouse though. Because I just had to have something girly-looking to soften the netbook's sleek masculinity.
