I’ve been blogging remotely with my Asus Eee PC for a few months now and out of the box the Eee PC’s are capable of catering to most travellers needs.

Having said that however there are several things you can do to make relying on an Eee PC that much easier. Today I thought I’d share five must have accessories for owners of EEE PC’s who travel.

1. A portable laptop mouse

The touch pad on my Eee PC is the biggest gripe I have with my system. I remember using a laptop years ago and hating the touch pads back then thinking they were great in theory but horrible to use.

Turns out nothing much has changed and by default not only are the Asus Eee PC touchpads just as inaccurate, the Eee PC’s also come preloaded with software that works against you. Things like touching the pad too often result in clicks or zooming in or some other random mouse function you weren’t expecting.

Although somewhat bearable with the ‘intuiative’ software disabled, the Eee PC touch pad still suffers from inaccuracy and randomness with the pointer. You’ll be moving the mouse along and all of a sudden it will just go berserk and streak across the screen.

The best way to get around this is to use a portable mouse. Basically the same as a normal mouse only smaller. The trade off is of course that they aren’t as responsive as their desktop counterparts and are sort of awkward for larger hands, but compared to using a touch pad 24/7 they are heaven.

Be aware if you go for the wireless laptop mouse option that batteries should be taken into consideration. If I was blogging from a remote location and ran out of batteries, I’d be pulling my hair out trying to edit images in Photoshop with the touch pad.

2. A Proper Laptop Case

Most Eee PC’s come with some sort of sleeve or soft case to store your laptop in. For home use this is more then adequate but on the road and especially in remote areas a softcase or sleeve isn’t really enough to protect your Eee PC.

Even in a suitcase or carry bag if I’ve just spent the entire day walking around often the safety of my laptop is the last thing on my mind as I drop my bags on the floor and head for the shower. Although small in impact, these little drops are still going to do longterm damage to your laptop.

When choosing a case for your Eee PC remember to go by screen size as you want a case that fits snugly. Too loose of a case and it’s impact absorbing ability is weakened, too small and obviously your laptop won’t fit inside.

The second consideration is weight. Often I’m carrying my Eee PC around in a carry bag over my shoulder and the last thing you want is for a case to add an extra 1-2kg of weight to your pack.

Lastly have a good look at the locking mechanism. You don’t want something that’s fiddly and will break after a month or so. The locking mechanism (even if it doesn’t lock and just closes) should be strong, sturdy and not a pain in the arse to use.

Alternatively if you already have a laptop carry bag you can also probably use this in conjunction with the supplied sleeve instead of buying a separate case.

3. A Second Battery

Personally I haven’t had traveled remotely enough to rely on a second battery. If you’re going extreme traveling however a second battery is definitely an idea to think about.

The same concept as a second battery for a mobile phone applies. You charge both batteries and then one one runs out if you have no power source you can switch over.

My Asus 1000HE Eee PC’s battery life is roughly about 8-9 hours on power saving mode so used sparingly I’ve managed to go two to three days without a charge when I’ve hit the road.

If you’re looking at anything more then that without a power supply and you rely on your laptop for communications then I’d strongly suggest a second battery option.

4. Upgrading the RAM

Depending on what you’re doing with your laptop, upgrading the memory can have a pretty decent improvement in the performance area.

When writing for OzSoapbox occasionally I’ll be editing and processing video I’ve recorded previously. Out of the box my 1000HE Eee PC came with 1GB of ram, with an extra 1GB of RAM added tasks like video editing aren’t as tedious on a laptop.

The faster you can get things done means the less time your laptop has to stay on which means you save more battery time.

5. A Travel Plug Adaptor

This was one of the things I forgot to buy before leaving Australia and I remember my first few days in Taiwan as a bit panicky. I had to use the laptop for things like Google maps but I was paranoid about being stuck with no battery life until I got an adaptor.

Not speaking the local language meant it took me a few days to finally track one down. If I had an Eee PC with a smaller battery life I’d have certainly been without a PC for some time.

When buying a travel plug it’s worth getting one that is global. Don’t worry about getting a voltage transformer as all laptops these days should come with a universal voltage power charger.

To check have a read of the writing on the power pack for your laptop, if it mentions a range of 110-240v then you’re good to go.

Also remember that with an Eee PC (and any laptop) that you can piggy back USB devices and charge them off the laptop, even while it’s switched off. Things like iPods, mobile phones etc. can be charged with USB cables avoiding the need for multiple power adaptors.

Typically I’ll leave the laptop charging every second night or so and just plug in my mobile phone into a USB port to charge. If you’re phone didn’t come with a USB to power cable (my N95 only came with a USB data cable that didn’t charge the phone), then they can usually be readily sourced pretty cheap online.


I was a bit worried when I left Australia about whether or not my Eee PC would offer me 100% reliability in terms of keeping my blog running. With the addition of some relatively cheap accessories I’m quite glad I made the choice to go the Eee PC route over a full sized laptop.

Of course I’d still jump at the chance to use a dedicated desktop to publish from but when you’re traveling you make do with what you have. I know I could do far worse then my Eee PC so why not make the most of the experience.

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3. Chinese company sues UK blogger using Australian laws