2007-2008 suddenly about half of everyone in grad school had some form of Asus Eee PC. There was a cheap one around $399 and a much more expensive one that was around $899 and you could easily tell the difference at a glance due to the screen size and resolution. The small one was like 800x480 whereas the higher end model was 1024x600.

I remember being fascinated by them and really jealous. But then, I never took my laptop anywhere. I really didn't even use a computer outside lab workstations up until 2010-ish I think. The frequency at which people started using devices outside their home really changed dramatically between 2005 and 2010.