My wife's computer finally quit. It's been in service 6 years, I can't complain. She has pretty simple needs out of a computer - pretty much spreadsheets, email, and a web browser. Thus there was no urgency to replace it, until the laptop monitor finally unhinged itself from the rest of the computer.

I have had my eye on Netbooks for some time, considering them for my consulting business. They would achieve much of what I need to do as a network consultant with a light, inexpensive computer product.

We picked this up at Best Buy. This was the first day that this product had hit their shelves, so I was anxious to give it a try.

The specifications for this machine are as follows:

• Intel Z520 (1.33 GHz)
• 533 GHz Front Side Bus
• 1GB of DDR2 Memory
• 160GB hard drive
• 802.11 B/G/N Wireless
• 6 Cell 2.2Ah battery
• 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
• 1.3 MPx Camera
• About 3lbs

The initial box is kind of small. You expect it to be - it is, after all, a netbook - but it's still interesting to look at such a small box. Apologies for the blurry camera work - We'll work on that for the next blog post.

The Asus is well packaged, having relatively few non-biodegradable components in the packaging. There is a protective sleeve for the computer - made out of some sort of poly fiber (it's listed as a number 7 plastic for recycling purposes).

The form factor is small, but not as crazy small as some of its older cousins. It does have an 11.6" screen and default display setting of 1366x768, giving it a nice picture. It seems to me the Dell that was sitting next to it had a brighter screen, but once we got it home, it seems to illuminate nicely.

The lid is a brushed metal, giving it a very clean look. I'm not excited about the surfaces when you open the lid - they are very glossy and hand and fingerprints abound on them in no time at all. Still, the keys are plenty large enough, not like some of this machine's competitors.

For external convenience, there are only the following ports: SVGA, 3 USB ports, a card reader and headphone/microphone jacks. If you prefer minimalist (as I do) this is fine - there are few things that we would wish to attach to this device that didn't have a USB option.

The speed is fine, for what this will do. I was actually expecting the performance to be a problem - but was pleasantly surprised. I have already mentioned what the requirements are, and my wife is not one that downloads and installs a lot of stuff. Most of what she does is web based aside from Outlook and Excel.

A few things that I set up along with this:

• Windows Live , with Sync
• Microsoft Security Essentials

 In all, I think it's a fine computer. I will be tweaking with the settings in order to eek out as much performance as I can, but it does not seem as though that's a critical consideration at this point.