first of all
go to find where asus target this laptop at the very first place, of course we are one of asus customer also
but the main purpose is to help the poor country family at least to equip thier kid with laptop
for classroom learning. so if we need higher end laptop, this is not the one to choose
unless u wanna carry around portable HDD, DVD writer. but that will defeat the purpose or portability or mobility.

and if we insisit to buy expectation have to pull down abit la
if not wait Dell or Compacq do promotion
RM1999 celeron proc laptop
extra Rm500 from Asus EEE

yes
i think notebook sub 2K got a better value and u will have dvdrom/window based/ large capsity of HDD and RAM
but of course abit heavier also