Why buy an ASUS Eee for your business?

In business sometimes the best technology is the cheapest and simplest. I still use a File-o-fax and prefer to write things down and lose the paperwork than lose it on my computer. Whatever technology we use needs to be cost-effective. Often the battle we face as business managers, directors or owners is to persuade the technical people we employ not to spend the entire department's budget on one new “toy”.

When we travel the balance must be between having what we need and not hurting that aching shoulder. We need to have enough technology to be able to maintain our business and family contacts but do not want to have an 4 or 5 lb computer with its case and power adapter and all of your paperwork suddenly fall or get covered in coffee. You don't need all your business and personal information for the past year or more to be suddenly inaccessible. Leave your main computer at home. Take with you a little ASUS Eee for your work and personal communications.

What are the advantages?

If you do not have a large amount of personal and business data with you then the risks of this being lost or destroyed are far less. Your weight is reduced. The solid state hard drive on the ASUS means that it is far more robust than your normal PC. You may not want to be keying for long period as the keyboard is smaller than normal, but that is a small price to pay.

Where is the trade-off?

You need to make sure that all the data you really need with you is on the machine or on small memory sticks that you can keep in your suitcase. If you leave anything behind then you can use Skype to transfer any files from your business or your own computer to you anywhere in the world. A very big file may fill up the whole hard drive on the 700 series but should fit in the new 900 series.

You need to be familiar with either Microsoft Works or OpenOffice word processors, spreadsheet ad databases. Works is on the Microsoft XP-based systems and OpenOffice on the Linux based systems. There is a learning curve with both of these products but they will repay your time and effort y giving you freedom to travel without the hassle of a large laptop to carry.

On the ASUS there is a web browser and that will enable you to connect to any website you want.

There is a program to play audio files. There are issues with the quality of some of the speakers but if you do not need hi-fi quality then they are acceptable for background music. If the worst came to the worst then you can invest in a pair of PC speakers or a good set of headphones to improve the quality.

A full-size portable has the option to play DVD films and CD music. The ASUS Eee does not have an internal optical drive so there is a limitation, but how many of us really watch films on our PC.

I consider the ASUS Eee is excellent value for money for the traveling business man. The options are there and the weight reduction and improved shock-proofing make it an ideal traveling companion.