One of the slimmest, lightest netbooks, this Asus "seashell" Eee PC fits neatly in a purse or travel bag. It's just an inch thick and a little over two pounds. Even the charging plug is lighter and more compact than those of other netbooks. Like Samsung's Go, this is a netbook with a nice enough look that you'd feel comfortable leaving next to a coffee table book. It comes in multiple colors: the version with the sleek white exterior seems modeled on the Apple MacBook/iPod aesthetic. Some TIME testers liked that, though one derided its design as "yawning blandness." The machine starts up and wakes from sleep mode quickly. The mini-battery for this model doesn't last as long as the bulkier ones included with larger netbooks, so it's probably not the best choice for long flights. The Eee PC's bundled software includes Microsoft Works, a kind of light version of Office, and a trial version of the full Office suite. In addition to the machine's 160 GB of built-in memory, enough to store hundreds of thousands of documents or thousands of songs and videos, the Asus also includes 10 GB of online file storage for online backups.
Price: $315 after rebate at Amazon.com
Weight: 2.4 lb.