I am the proud owner of an eeePC 700 4G (my in-depth review soon to come!) and while I see the obvious improvements (bigger screen, bigger SSD), I really feel no need to upgrade. The first thing I did upon receipt of my eeePC was upgrade the RAM from the 512 MB stock to 2 GB. Then I loaded up Ubuntu and added an 8 GB SDHC card to complement the installed 4 GB SSD. It’s so light and small that I can carry it with me everywhere, and I do! I use my eeePC as a portable writing, surfing and media machine, and it does the job impeccably.

I appreciate that Asus is trying to improve on an already great product, but when the eeePC starts getting bigger, heavier, and more expensive, it starts to lose the point for me. When it starts creeping up towards the size and heft of my 12″ iBook, it’s no longer really a sub-portable that I can squeeze into pretty much any purse I own. $549 is only $150 more than I spent on my own eeePC, but it’s enough of a significant difference that it would have been a dealbreaker for me. Now, if the eeePC 900 had included a touchscreen and tablet capabilities, I’d have probably put mine up on eBay and plunked down the extra money. Maybe future releases will include that functionality, which would be a welcome purchase for people like me who are interested in the functionality of a really small tablet PC but are put off by the high prices.

In the meantime, I am still incredibly happy with my eeePC 700. It is an incredible value at $399 (for the 4 GB version) and I have no regrets in purchasing it. My fingers are still crossed for the success of the eeePC 900, because I want to see what else Asus can do with future releases for the affordable sub-notebook category!