ASUS Eee PC 1008HA

To accommodate the 1008HA's thin-and-light design, Asus had to drop a few ports--and in the process it made an interesting design move: In a hidden compartment on the underside of the netbook sits a VGA adapter dongle. When you need it, you simply pop it out and plug it into the mini-USB port on one side of the machine. This clever move retains the functionality while reducing the size, and it minimizes the chance of losing dongles. (Another smart tactic is evident in the Sony VAIO P netbook, which sneaks the VGA dongle onto its power supply...but I digress.) Otherwise, on the 1008HA you'll find the usual retinue of connection options hiding behind flaps: an ethernet hookup, two USB ports, an SD Card reader, and headphone and microphone jacks.

As for the 10.1-inch screen, it looks sufficiently sharp and crisp at its native 1024-by-600-pixel resolution. (You can scale this setting higher in an emulated mode.) Colors pop when you tilt the display at just the right angle--as is the case with most laptops and netbooks. Also typically, the screen's glossy coating will leave you squinting when you try to view it in broad daylight.

How does it perform? It falls right in the zone for netbooks. Scoring a little on the high side, it ranks a 38 in PC WorldBench tests (the average, to date, hovers around 35). So obviously, you're fully covered on your basic office documents and Web surfing needs.

Considering its price, size, style and performance, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Eee PC 1008HA is a sleek, solid netbook choice and definitely worth a look.