A refurbished Asus Eee PC netbook for $180 shipped
Act fast! This dirt-cheap Netbook will sell out in a hurry.
This month's Wired has a great story on the history of Netbooks and the reasons they've become so popular. Price is definitely a chief one, and here's a perfect example: Buy.com has a refurbished Asus Eee PC 900 Netbook for $179.99 shipped.
As you might expect given that impulse-buy price, this model is pretty bare-bones: 512MB of RAM, a 4GB solid-state drive, and a Linux operating system.
Of course, for tasks like e-mail, Web browsing, and other online stuff, that's more than enough horsepower. If you routinely work "in the cloud," you should find this a nice little gateway.
And speaking of size, the Eee PC measures just 8.9 inches by 6.7 inches by 1.3 inches and weighs only 2.2. pounds. Definitely an easy system to travel with.
Although CNET's First Look video shows the white model, Buy.com is selling the black one. There's no mention of the warranty, but most likely it's 90 days.
So, what do you think? Is this price low enough for you to pull the trigger on a Netbook? Or are you better off spending a little extra on a more robust platform, like the Acer Aspire One for $238.99 shipped?