After the success of the Eee PC 100H, Asus has introduced the Eee PC 100HA. This device is sleek and small like its predecessor and comes with a black shiny case. The Asus Eee PC 904HA is loaded with a 160 GB SATA hard disk. The Intel Atom 1.67 GHz processor provides ultimate speed with a 1 GB DDRR2 Ram. The device has a Windows XP OS and gives an impressive performance.

It weights just 1.4 Kg so it’s easy to carry. The 1.3 megapixel camera is placed above the screen and acts as a webcam. The wide 8.9-inch LED screen provides a good resolution for viewing files. When seenat 1024*600 resolution, an A4 sheet can be viewed easily without being dragged left or right.

This device has Wi-Fi connectivity. However, the port for LAN is placed at the back. Eee PC 904HA also has Bluetooth for transferring files from a PC, mobile or PDA. The Bluetooth connectivity is superb. The 6-cell Li-Ion battery provides a good backup of around five hours when used on power saver made. The Asus Eee PC 904HA has a comfortable travel keyboard. Even the touchpad of the device is good and accepts the finger gestures easily. The two buttons are also comfortable to use.

The 2.0 mega pixel camera produces print worthy snaps and came out with the best results that we have seen from a windows Mobile device.

• The keypad lacks tactile feel to it. Pressing a key once results in multiple key strokes.
• The onboard speaker is barely audible and you might need to use a hearing aid to listen to what’s playing.
• A battery that ‘never says die’ the XDA Zinc is O2’s first touch screen device with a sliding QWERTY keypad.

The phone’s performance is below that expected from one of the fastest processor in Windows Mobile devices – the Intel PXA 270 running at 520 MHz. It hung often. We charged with it with the USB port of our laptop for 30 minutes everyday and that kept it running for the entire day.

If 3G is not a priority, we would suggest the Do pod C800 which is sleeker. Another option is the I-mate Jas Jam with its jog dial functionality apart from the sliding QWERTY keypad.

The Dopod C800 gives the luxury of a huge touch screen and a QWERTY keypad in a sleek sliding form. It looks like a slimmer version of the I-mate Kjam but the expensive price tag might turn away many people.

• The 2.8-inch touch screen is a lot of real estate to play around with.
• The sliding lock mechanism for the back cover is not reliable.
• Golf game is a welcome addition.
• The onboard 2.0-megapixel camera gives decent output, but we have seen better ones on Windows Mobile devices.
• The voice commander lets you use voice commands to open applications or dial numbers.
• It beats us why would Dopod include Audio Manger, which is nothing but a music player when it already has the Windows Media Player.

The QWERTY keypad resembles a miniature keyboard. On pressing the function key a blue LED lights up just the LED on a normal key-board when you press the caps lock key.

This candy bar smart phone is the only on here to use Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5, and the first to do so with Wi-Fi also enabled pretty good for a lil’ fella.

After entering our gmails account’s details and setting it to check for mail every 15 minutes, message arrived without a hitch. Only a few are visible on the inbox screen without scrolling, but there’s plenty of room to see both sender and header. However, when no new emails ar4e received, the old ones simply vanish, like tears in the rain the lack of a QWERTY key board makes emailing less than lightning-paced.

The XDA’s Web browser suffers as a consequence of the handset’s diminutive size. The text is tiny, and you can’t zoom in on every page. The joystick also feels flimsy, while the lumpy keys are less than pa pleasure to type with. It’s pretty zippy though, and using WiFi, BBC Online loads in about five seconds and our Flickr page take just about a minute.

It’s impressively small, but dodgy controls and email glitches are the trade-off that you have to suffer.