Photo Storage on the Go: ASUS eee 1000h

I have been planning a ten day trip, and I had to solve a problem of photo storage. Since I shoot in raw and quickly use 12 gigs of memory a day, having enough memory cards was an unprofitable solution.

I work on a tight budget, and most of my expendable income goes toward lenses and other photographic equipment. I considered the possibilities.


1) A portable storage devices like one of these:
Digital Foci PST-251 Photo Safe II 80GB Digital Picture Storage
Epson P-3000 40GB Multimedia Storage Drive, Viewer, and Audio-Video Player w/ 4-Inch LCD
Wolverine ESP 80 GB Portable Multimedia Storage Player

2) A used laptop bought on eBay, like a ThinkPad. Cost would be at least 300 dollars, with a questionable battery.

3) A new, relatively inexpensive laptop with a small footprint and a long battery life.

I chose the the third option and got an ASUS eee 1000h. This small computer is smaller than the size of a loose-leaf notebook paper and appears to be the perfect solution.


So far these are the things I like:

The cost is four times cheaper than comparable notebooks of this size.

The build quality is impressive. It looks and feels like it could take a lot of abuse.

The screen is bright and pictures I have view appear at great resolution (ten-inch screen).

Start up time is quick. Windows XP loads in a flash.

Eighty GB hard drive which I supplemented nicely with an 160 GB portable hard drive. It has one GB of ram upgradable to two. But this computer performs well without hangups on one GB.
I even installed Photoshop, and it runs snappy.

The keyboard works exceptionally well, and I can manage to touch-type even with my big fingers.

The touch pad is a dream to use, I have used others but this one seems to do exactly what I want. I thought I would want an external mouse, but the touch pad seems to work great.

Instant connections on wireless networks, and it has Bluetooth, something I may use in the future.

Battery life is phenomenal. Today I used it on battery for about four hours and it still has 60 percent charge left.

I have not figured out any negatives on this system. I have seen a few negative comments in reviews (although most were good) and those few negative comments appear groundless or very minor. This is one great machine.

So am I pleased? Yes, this appears to the perfect solution in a small package for my storage problem, and I can already see new possibilities for increasing my photo sales. More about this in the future.