I guess this is going to be another hulking great beast of a "pocket" laptop, like the HP2133. No doubt they are (like Asus) using basically the same chassis for both sizes of screen, so the 8.9" one will have a fugly surround and simply not be particularly tiny. As such, the 8.9" Eee remains my preferred choice. Despite there being lots of competition to the Eee, they all seem to be either underspecced or miss what to many is the primary attraction.

Is that the 8.9" in the picture? If so the small Bevel would make this pretty compact and sexy. Hopefully this'll offer a good battery life

For my money, even Eee seem to have missed this with their new model. The primary attraction is a highly mobile screen and keyboard. Paying extra for more RAM or more disc space is silly; if I want those I will connect to a server that has them.

But I'm probably odd.

But that probably makes me typical in this market.

I suspect that the market for Small, Cheap Machines is composed of disparate groups who don't actually agree about what's so good about the Eee. It's just that they all agree that the (original) Eee is closer to what they want than anything else.

From my first hand experience of MSI laptops, don't expect the build quality to be all that. They look sturdy enough, but bits wear out and fall off pretty quickly.

Actually, she looks more like she's troubled by constipation !!

Mine's the asbestos-covered kevlar one, thank you !!

The last thing I want on a machine of this class is a hard drive.

here's why:

http://eeesite.net/2008/02/eee-pc-takes-licking-keeps-on-you-know.html

Warning: not safe for squeamish geeks.

I've got a Psion 7 (upgraded with a Netbook ROM) and an eeePC 701 4G and that sized form factor - aka A5 notepad size - is for me, the BIGGEST an ultra small PC can be. BUT it also has got to be cheap with the right wireless technology (BT or HSPDA in addition to wifi) built-in or can be plugged in without any overhang!

80gig hard drive is complete overkill for an ultra and will just break or screw the battery life. SSDs are the future for these devices but only have big capacity when they are cheap!

A cheap iPhone with 3G and 16gb of memory and handwriting recognition is also a reasonable alternative. I think the iPhone / ipod touch / "iTablet" / Nokia N810 is closer to the ideal portable form factor than a traditional shrunked laptop design though and maybe manufacturers should look to that for the next breakthrough product?

It seems all these small, cheap PC's are getting bigger and bigger. Even Asus is releasing Eee PCs with larger screens and therefore larger cases.

How about something smaller? Make it a 4 inch touch screen and shrink the keyboard so it fits in my pocket when folded shut. The N810 comes close but isn't a clamshell and doesn't have an x86 processor so I'm restricted in 3rd party application compatibility. Oh, but you need to keep the sub-$400 price point or you can go sit with those godawful expensive Samsung and Sony UMPC's my quick walk through newegg revealed.

So, You're saying that in your opinion, it'll probably be easy to break wind?

So if I walk around with one under my arm, I'll have the wind beneath my wing?

Mind you, it gives a new meaning to "putting the wind up" someone.

Argh.. need.. to.. hit.. head.. on.. desk.. repeatedly..