Yes I have been obsessed with the ASUS Eee PC. It has nothing to do with my 3 1/2 year old — it was me who wanted to play with the small ultra-portable notebook. In fact I have bought one in early February — almost $450 delivered from eBay for a slightly used Eee PC 701 with 512MB memory, 4GB SSD and loaded with ASUS-modified Xandros Linux distribution. I pretty much reformatted the SSD and installed eeeXubuntu a few days after I got it so I can update to some of the latest software and development toolkits.

Despite its low amount of memory and lack of “disk” space, I have to say that it is one of the most useful device I have bought — ranked all the way up there with my old Psion 5mx. I used it during the church retreat at the Easter weekend to type up all the notes (as well as connect to the conference centre’s open Wi-Fi to make sure OzBargain was still alive during my 4 days away). Beside super convenient, it also has that Wow-factor when people walk pass by.

With the recent announcement of Eee PC 900 series, the 701 series has really came down in price — you can now easily get one for less than $450 when you shop around, far cheaper than its release price of $499 back in December 2007.

And thanks to danilochan from ShoppingSquare for posting this deal, ASUS Eee PC at ShoppingSquare is now even cheaper! With coupon code C29C99 the 701 4GB can be yours for $399 + $24.50 delivery, brand new with 1 year manufacturer warranty! That is even cheaper than the retail price in Taiwan, where Eee PC was designed. And in China, where Eee PC was manufactured, the cheapest at the moment is 2750 Yuan (reference here), which is still more expensive than AUD$399.

Well done ShoppingSquare!

Too bad that I have already bought one but I know a few who would love to take the leap.