One of the things I love about netbooks is the nearly-full sized keyboards. Try as I might, I just can’t be as productive on a touchscreen-only device. I do too much typing during the day, and rely on keyboard shortcuts to get much of my work done (although the gesture support on tablets like the Gigabyte TouchNote T1028X could certainly help you emulate keyboard shortcuts). But not everyone feels the way I do about keyboards, and so every now and again someone decides to gut a netbook, remove the keyboard, and throw in a touchscreen to create a dirt cheap tablet-style UMPC.

The latest project making the rounds comes from a member of the EeeUser Forums who turned his Asus Eee PC 900HA into a tablet. The Eee PC 900HA has an 8.9 inch screen, which in this case has been modified with a touchscreen.

If you’re wondering why this particular tablet has two colors, it’s because it combines parts from an Asus Eee PC 900HA and a 900A. The guts of the machine are from the 900HA, which has a hard drive instead of a small solid state disk, while the screen area comes from a 900A.

via Netbooked

Woot is running a 1-day only sale on the Asus Eee PC 900A. You can pick it up today only for $169.99 plus another $5 for shipping, (although it’s worth noting this isn’t the first time Woot has sold this netbook, so the whole “today only” thing might be overkill. The Eee PC 900A has an 8.9 inch display, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 4GB SSD, 1GB of RAM, and runs Linux.

Here are a few other netbook deals, courtesy of Dealnews:

• Refurbished Acer Aspire One Atom 1.6GHz 10″ Netbook for $300 + free shipping – Buy.com
• 2.9-lb. Acer Aspire One Intel Atom 1.6GHz 10″ Netbook for $328 + free shipping - BuyDig.com
• ASUS Eee PC 1000HA Atom 1.6GHz 10″ Netbook for $290 after rebate + free shipping - BuyDig.com
• ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Atom 1.66GHz 10″ Netbook for $350 after rebate + free shipping – ZipZoomfly

Why baffling you ask? Because if you order the netbook without the wireless mouse, you’ll wind up paying $5 more.

Here’s how it works. Head on over to ZipZoomfly where you can pick up an Asus Eee PC 900A with a 1.6GHz Intel Atop CPU, 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, 4GB solid state disk (I know, it’s pretty small), 1GB of RAM, and 802.11b/g WiFi. The netbook runs Xandros Linux.

Now, before you click “add to cart,” scroll down to the combo deals, where you’ll find a combo that lets you add a 2.4GHz Wireless laser mouse to the deal. The mouse comes with a $10 mail-in rebate, and that effectively brings the price of the computer and wireless mouse down to $184.98. The price of the netbook without the mouse is $189.99. Of course, you have to deal with sending in silly rebate forms. But even if you forget to to do that, you’re picking up a wireless mouse for just $5 over the price of the computer.

It’s probably worth pointing out that while the ZipZoomfly product page doesn’t say anything about this netbook being refurbished, it probably is. Most Asus Eee PC 900A units I’ve seen going for under $199 in the past few weeks have been refurbs.

via Little Laptop Deals

Mwave is continuing to clear out its inventory of 8.9 inch Asus netbooks. You can pick up a refurbished Eee PC 900A with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 4GB SSD, 4 cell battery, and Xandros Linux for $165 including free shipping.

If you need more storage, the Eee PC 900 with a 900MHz Intel Celeron processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 20GB solid state disk and Xandros Linux is going for $190.

For $180, you can pick up an Eee PC 900 running Windows XP. This model has 1GB of RAM and a 12 GB solid state disk.

All three models are refurbished and come with 3 month warranties. They also all have 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel displays, 4 cell batteries, and 802.11b/g WiFi.

Or if you’d rather pick up a cheap Windows PC,

Asus must be having a fire sale on refurbished Eee PC 900A netbooks, because they keep showing up on my deal radar. Today Sellout.Woot (a partnership between Yahoo! and Woot.com) have a one-day only deal where you can pick up an Eee PC 900A for $159.99 plus $5 for shipping in the US.

The netbook has an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, and 1GB of RAM. On the down side, it has just 4GB of solid state storage. You’ll want to either upgrade the storage or invest in a large SD/SHDC card if you want to store a lot of data on this computer.

This particular Eee PC 900A comes preloaded with Asus’s custom version of Xandros Linux, but it’s also capable of running Windows XP, Ubuntu Linux, or a variety of other operating systems.

Update: Sellout.Woot is sold out of the Eee PC 900A.

The other day I mentioned that you can pick up a refurbished Asus Eee PC 900A for $170 from Buy.com. But froobi.com is offering an even better deal. Today only, you can grab a refurbished Eee PC 900A for $150.

The netbook has an 8.9 inch 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 1.6GHz Intel atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 4GB solid state disk. It weighs about 2.2 pounds, and has a battery that should run for about 3 to 3.5 hours. This model runs Xandros Linux, but you could easily replace it with Windows XP or another flavor of Linux like Eeebuntu. Just bear in mind that the machine has only 4GB of storage, so you might want to invest in a high capacity SD card to add a little extra storage space.

If you’re looking for a more capable machine, check out our list of 19 netbooks for $350 or less.

via Portable Monkey

Buy.com has two excellent netbook deals today for anyone who’s not afraid of picking up a refurbished laptop. You can grab an Asus Eee PC 900A for $170, or an HP Mini 1000 for $270.

The Asus netbook has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage (and no hard drive), an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, and runs Xandros Linux.

The HP Mini 1000 has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive, and runs Windows XP Home. This model has a 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, which means it was built before HP switched to 10.1 inch, 1024 x 576 displays and 80G hard drives.

Since these are refurbished computers, Buy.com offers a limited warranty that’s good for just 90 days. So buyers beware. But the prices are hard to beat.

thanks Jackson!

If you’re looking for a cheap netbook and don’t need a 10 inch display, Mwave is selling an Asus Eee PC 900A for $180. This netbook has an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and the same basic design as the Asus 900 netbook. The biggest difference is that the 900A has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU while the 900 had a 900MHz Celeron processor.

The unit Mwave is selling has a 4GB solid state disk and no hard drive. It also has  a 4 cell battery, 802.11b/g WiFi and runs Xandros Linux. It’s capable of running Ubuntu, Windows XP, or any other operating system you want to install, but keep in mind you’ve only got 4GB for your operating system and file storage. There’s an SD card slot for additional storage, but if you need more internal storage you’ll either want to shell out the extra money for a newer Eee PC model or invest in a third party SSD upgrade.

Update: I probably should have pointed out that this is a refurbished unit.

via Bargain Jack

Best Buy has slashed the price on the Eee PC 900A yet again, this time all the way down to $230. The netbook comes with an 8.9 inch display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 4GB solid state disk. This particular model runs Xandros Linux, but you can easily install Ubuntu, Windows XP, or Windows 7 if you like.

With around a dozen new Eee PC models ready to hit the shelves soon, it’s likely that Best Buy (and possibly Asus) are hoping to clear out some invententory here, so I’m not sure how long this deal will last.

You can read more about the Asus Eee PC 900A in the Liliputing Product Database.

via ChrunchGear

Netbook prices are creeping ever closer to the magic $199 price point. Just a few weeks ago, I posted a list of 13 netbooks for $399 or less, including the Asus Eee PC 900A that Best Buy was selling for $299. Now Best Buy has slashed the price by $20, meaning you can pick up a netbook with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 4GB SSD for just $280. This model runs Xandros Linux, but it runs Windows XP just fine if you load it yourself.

I’m tempted to write up a comprehensive list of netbooks that you can now pick up for under $299, but it would be a long list of rebranded mini-laptops from Exon Technologies like the 3K Razorbook, punctuated with a few other machines. 

But here are a few sub-$300 notebooks that might be worth taking a look at:

• Asus Eee PC 2G Surf / $249.72 / 7 inch display, 800MHz Intel Celeron CPU, 512MB RAM, 2GB SSD, Xandros Linux
• Asus Eee PC 4G Surf / $270.74 / 7 inch display, 900MHz Intel Celeron CPU, 512MB RAM, 4GB SSD, Xandros Linux 
• Asus Eee PC 900A / $279.99 / 8.9 inch display, 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, 4GB SSD, Xandros Linux
• HP 2133 Mini-Note / $299 / 8.9 inch display, 1GHz VIA C7-M CPU, 512MB RAM, 4GB SSD, Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop
• ASUS Eee PC 900 / $299.97 / 8.9 inch display, 900MHz Intel Celeron CPU, 1GB RAM, 20GB SSD, Xandros Linux

via Engadget