Oh the thrall of new pretty gadgets that fill the Best Buy shelves! With money in hand I approached the counter of HP minis and Eee PCs. After purchasing the $349 toy I had instant buyers remorse. However, I kept on going back to the "But it's pretty.." state of mind. I already have a laptop that I bought within the last year or so and this semi-new HP works perfectly fine and fast (battery sucks though). If I did not have a fully functioning laptop already I woud charish this little dream machine, but, sadly, that was not the case. The Eee's small "purse" size and large hard drive space with excellent 7 hour battery life is now going back to the store. Though one becomes instantly mesmerized by its compact body and dreamy specs, a net book is not necessary for a college student who has a small (ok possibly unhealthy) addiction to gadgets of all shapes and sizes. The speed of the machine is a tad slow which is expected given the side and the 1GB of ram. The hard drive is 160gb and to top it off there is 10gb of virtual storage. The internet connection is, again, somewhat slow.I would compare the speed to a 3 year old XP Home Edition Compaq that is up to date and well taken care of. The browser will get you where you need to go but not exactly at the desired speed. Personally, being of the new generation, patience is not a dominant trait when it comes to technology. Being of the female gender, it is hard not to become excited when you realize you could take a laptop with you wherever you go and it will fit in your most beloved purse. If you have $349 to put down for a meaningless gadget that you are not necessarily going to use the by all means spend that possibly hard earned cash, but if you are like me a medium income college student THINK TWICE.
