The final Asus Eee PC rounding out our top ten is the 901 model – one of the last in the smaller Eee lineup, but much more powerful with specs similar to the 10-inch netbooks. For the price it’s the best netbook of its size, often much less expensive than larger models.

The 901 has the standard netbook specs of mid 2008: 1.6 GHz Intel processor, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, solid state hard drive (12 GB), and so on. The 901 shares a few traits with the 4G: The same amount of USB ports (3), a 3-in-1 memory card slot, and a touchpad. That’s where the similarities end.

The Eee 901 differs from the Eee 4G PC in more than a few ways: Its larger, 6-cell battery is supposed to enable up to 7 hours of work time, although we found with normal use and middle-of-the road power settings the number was closer to 4 hours. The 7-hour battery life claim must stem from a test in which processor speed and resolution were reduced to the bare minimum, wi-fi was turned off, and no more than three touchpad clicks or keyboard strokes per minute were allowed.

We were happy to find that the 901 includes a Gigabit LAN port, a Wireless N modem, and Bluetooth. While we didn’t test it on actual N networks, we did find our download speeds were faster on the LAN connection than the 4G.

The 12 GB solid state hard drive won’t store your YouTube clip library, but it’ll store your documents and even a few thousand pictures if need be. It’s solid state, so it definitely helps the computer remain quiet, although the heat emanating from the hard drive enclosure was a little too much to bear after an hour’s use. The webcam also received an upgrade from 0.3 megapixels to 1.3.

Windows fans and those shy of trying new Operating Systems will be pleased with the 901's OS: Windows XP Home, although you can get the 901 with Xandros Linux pre-installed. Strangely enough, at the time of writing this review, the Linux 901s were more expensive than the XP models. You can also order the 901 with a larger, 20 GB solid state hard drive.

All told the Eee PC 901 isn’t the most awesome netbook available, but we enjoyed the increase in power from the 4G model, and we’re sure you will too.