The Eee PC is certainly a wonderful little device, with a software selection to please even the pickiest of geeks. For my science project (to determine if it is yet feasible to replace text books with electronic devices for use in class), I saw it necessary to test one out, so, the day it was available, I bought the Galaxy Black 4G from Newegg.com.

First, it’s tiny. I mean, really tiny. So tiny that you can’t actually get a good idea of it from pictures. Regardless, I took some, and tried the best I could to capture the size properly.

The first thing I did when I turned it on (second picture) was browse to my favorite funny video site, Weebl’s Stuff, and watch On The Moon, which is significant because it means Flash player came pre-installed. On a Linux machine.

The keyboard is too small. Plain and simple. It’s hard for me to use it, and I’m practically made for it, with toothpick fingers and a 12″ keyboard on my primary computer. At first, I actually typed using my thumbs while holding it in mid-air like a PSP.

The software suits it. The operating system isn’t beautiful, revolutionary, or anything of the sort, but it fits the thing better than anything else I can think of at the moment. The screen is so small that a lot of programs lose essential settings and features below the viewing area, which can be frustrating, but not necessarily deal-breaking.

All in all, I really like it. I like the overall design, the size of it (other than the keyboard), the thickness, and especially the way it feels when you hold it. I also like the sleeve that comes with it; I think every laptop should come with one of those. (See below image)

The screen on the black version seems bigger, because the surrounding area is the same color as the casing, making it “pop” out less. If you are going to buy one, unless you must have something to match your out-of-date iPod, you should probably get the black version. Also, you can see my wallet on it above, which, despite the appearance, is not large and bulgy at all. Notice that the wallet covers about half of the keyboard.

My main complaint with the machine is its weak battery life. It can’t last 48 hours on stand-by, and lasts barely a day with stand-by and sparse usage. Either something is wrong with my battery, or these batteries are seriously lacking. Maybe it can be fixed with a software update in the future, but for now, that is the main deal-breaker. You’d think a battery with this kind of heft would hold some decent juice, too.

Asus’s venture into cheap ultra-portable machines is a step in the right direction, but needs a little progress before it is ready for mass-consumption. As of right now, it’s pretty much exclusively a geek toy.

Speaking of which, I installed OS X on it. Since I’m not some amazing driver-hacker, nothing worked, and I couldn’t get anything working, but it was still neat, and a valuable learning experience for me regarding OSx86. If you’re interested, I wrote up a detailed installation guide for OS X Tiger over at the eeepc-osx wiki, but someone keeps deleting it, so I’m mirroring it here.