When Asus first announced its Eee PC lineup, the company made it sound like the 2G, 4G, and 8G models would be almost identical. The Surf editions of each would lack webcams and would come with lower capacity batteries, but that was about it, right? Well, not exactly.

When the 2G model was released, we discovered that it lacks some of the software available on the 4GB version of the Eee PC. That shouldn't be particularly surprising, since the 2G Surf has half the storage space. But while Asus packed a little surprise in the package, shipping the 2G Surf with 512MB of RAM instead of the promised 256, the company also put a slower processor 800MHz in the unit, which is underclocked to run at 571MHz.

So while you save some dough when you buy a $299 2G Eee PC instead of the $399 4G or $349 4G Surf, you get a lot less computer for you money. Pocketables has put together a nice list of 10 reasons to avoid the 2G Surf. You know, because it's not a real list unless it's got 10 things in it.

If you're thinking of picking up an Eee PC 2G Surf, you really owe it to yourself to check out the full list first. But there's one thing to keep in mind: $299 is a pretty darn good price for a computer. And I wouldn't really expect it to be as powerful as a $399 computer, would you? That said, if you can afford to spend a few extra bucks, you definitely get what you pay for.

I stopped by J&R Electronics this evening and got a good look at a couple of Eee PC 2G Surf models. They have three on display, one with a white lid, one with pink, and another with green. I didn't have my 4G model handy, but fortunately there was a black 4G demo unit handy, so I was able to compare the different models side by side.

First up, the 2G Surf lacks a webcam, as we knew it would. But surprisingly, it still seems to have a spot in the front panel for one. When you look at the screen from the front, it looks exactly like a 4G unit with speakers on either side of the display, and a little grated area for a webcam at the top. The only difference is that you don't see a camera lens.

When you flip the units over, you'll notice the other main hardware difference: There is no RAM access panel. If you want to upgrade the RAM, you'll have to disassemble the case. The plastic case also has a different feel to it. While my 4G unit has a smooth polished plastic feel, the 2G units (and the black 4G at the store) had a rough plastic finish. It probably makes it easier to grip the Eee PC and make sure the tiny computer doesn't fall off your lap, but I didn't really like it.

As for the software, I'm sure this isn't a comprehensive list, but I did get a sense of what Asus removed in order to fit the OS and applications into 2GB while leaving users with a little bit of room to play with.

The Eee PC 2G Surf has:

• 1876MB of storage
• 1466MB are used by the system
  
• On the in-store units 31MB of the user storage as already used
• That left just 379MB free space for installing applications or storing data. That's 20% of the total disk space.

I went through the tabs in Easy Mode and found the following applications that are available on the 4G are missing from the 2G Surf:

• eBook (Internet tab)
  
• World Clock (Internet tab)
  
• Mail (Work tab)
  
• Notes (Work tab)
  
• PIM (Work/Accessories)
  
• Science (Learn tab)
  
• Language (Learn tab)
  
• Crack Attack (Play/Games)
• Sodoku (Play/Games)
• LTris (Play/Games)
  
• Voice Command (Settings)
  

Overall, I'd say they made the right choices. If I didn't value the quick-restore feature that comes with the Eee PC, I'd think about deleting the UnionFS file system and removing most of those applications from my 4G to save a few MB of space.

Asus seems to have delivered an early Christmas present to new Eee PC owners. Asus began selling the $299 2G Surf model this week, and at least one new Eee PC owner found a surprise waiting in his package - twice the RAM he was expecting.

Asus had said there would be a handful of differences between the 2G Surf and the 4G model. The 2G Surf would have no webcam, a 2.8 hour battery (as opposed to 3.5), 2GB of RAM (instead of 4GB), and 256MB of RAM (rather than 512MB).

But if you can believe what you read on the box cover, Eee User forum member Theicom picked up a 2G Surf with 512MB. He hasn't posed any pictures of the unit powered up displaying it has 512MB, and he hasn't taken the unit apart to show the RAM stick. But the box clearly states that the 2G Surf has 512MB of RAM.

There's no access panel on the back of the unit, so if you want to upgrade the RAM or make other tweaks you'll need to disassemble your unit. But you can find a bunch of pictures showing how to do that on Flickr.