Is this the greatest laptop ever made?

IT'S not often I get so excited about a gadget delivery that I keep my eyes peeled for the postman.

But when I heard an ASUS EEE PC was on the way, I was desperate to get my hands on it and start tapping away.

This mini laptop went on sale last week and stores stocking it in London's technology heartland of Tottenham Court Road sold out within a couple of days.

So what's so special about it, I hear you ask. Well, where do I start?

Could it be the fact it weighs less than 1KG making it ultra-portable or that by sporting a seven inch screen it is so tiny you can slip it into a little bag.

Perhaps it's the built-in webcam or the fact that the white version looks so stylish and could be mistaken for an Apple iBook.

Nope, it's none of those, the greatest thing about this machine is the price, just £219. Yes, that's right, £219.

It's no wonder that schools are jumping on the bandwagon both here and in America to give them to their pupils. It's one of the best machines I've ever seen for kids to get to grips with their schoolwork and still have a bit of fun at the same time.

The crucial thing about the Eee is rather than running on Windows, it uses a Linux operating system. Now I'm a Microsoft man through and through, I've never been able to face switching from XP or Vista to the likes of OS X on an Apple. There's safety in what you know.

I'd certainly never consider running Linux on my home PC but by slimming down the software on this gadget, it allows it to have a much longer battery life - crucial for a product designed to be used on the move. It will also run faster and has instant on and off.

Asus have been clever because the programs are grouped together with easy-to-follow icons. They are split into sections for work, leisure and Internet and the WiFi on board takes care of connecting to the web. Mine found a signal in seconds. And a new version incorporating a 3G module is also in the works using a SIM-card style method of connecting.

Now Linux isn't for everyone, it doesn't have the bells and whistles of Windows and of course, you won't be able to run your whole multimedia set-up on here. For a start, there is no CD or DVD drive, but three USB ports (more than on many laptops) mean you can connect up a portable one.

It's also only got a 4GB flash drive rather than massive hard drive but again, that just speeds things up and there is a memory card slot plus you can increase storage with a USB dongle.

You won't find Microsoft Office on here but there is Open Office which works just as well as is compatible with MS documents and spreadsheets, and there's Firefox for browsing rather than Internet Explorer. But again, there's a few million people who would find that a massive pro rather than a con.

It also has great shortcuts to Wikipedia and Skype, again aiming it at a younger audience to use for research and chatting to their mates via VoIP.

But while it's perfect for students, it is also a must for anyone who just wants a small, easy-to-carry device they can surf and do business from. It's far more powerful than a PDA but not that much more cumbersome when you consider all the extra uses and the fact it will boot up immediately and runs for about 3.5 hours.

I'm also very impressed by the charging system. Laptops normally have massive power cables but this one uses a plug like you'd have to juice-up your mobile, again meaning it won't weigh you down.

I've struggled to find any negatives with this - even the 512MB of RAM seems more than enough to keep things chugging along without any lag - although a 1GB machine has been mentioned for the future incorporating Windows Vista. Now that would blow the mainstream laptop market wide open even if it was £100 or so more costly.

My main gripes would be having to hunt around for Linux-based programmes when I am a complete novice because there will be a lot of complex kit that won't work with it - like my USB modem - and also the seven inch screen does need a lot of scrolling. Bluetooth would also have been handy.

And any new version would be far better to have the speakers at the front to make more room for a bigger display in the same svelte body.

At this price, it's one of the bargains of the decade and certainly one of the best pieces of techno-kit in any genre. Whoever said the best things come in small packages, must have been talking about the Asus Eee PC.