Ever since the first rumors about an Apple tablet computer, and more recently an ultra-portable notebook caught my attention a couple of years ago, I’ve been holding out on upgrading my beloved Sharp Zaurus. Seemingly surrounded by Asus EeePC 701 in Manila after the New Year celebrations, I doggedly resisted the urge to buy, for fear of the ever-imminent Apple ultra-portable arriving and relegating to the back of the cupboard any other UMPC I succumbed to now.

Apple still hasn’t made good on the seeds it planted in the rumor mill so long ago, but I’m still glad I was disciplined enough to wait out the EeePC 701: I was lucky enough to find a demo unit of the Linux Aspire One at the Acer booth at an exhibition in Bangkok last week, and after toying with it for a few minutes couldn’t hold back any more. I’m now a bona fide member of the netbook craze and, boy, am I impressed with this little guy!

Hardware

Obviously for a little over $400, I was expecting everything to be encased in plastic, but that plastic is not to brittle or too thin, and build quality of the enclosure and the rest of the machine for that matter is exemplary. The case itself, and more importantly the keyboard feel very solid. The hinge for the screen looks even more robust than the hinges Apple uses on their current macbook range, making me confident that I could take this with me on a plane or in a suitcase without fear of it being damaged.

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