Asus Eee PC Design Competition

Yet another contest featuring the Asus Eee PC as prize, this time sponsored by Asus Singapore.
Contestants will basically "design the most creative or Most Eee PC (whatever that means) notebook skin for the LCD cover and palm rest."

There are two categories - school and public. All winners will receive Asus Eee PC plus additional prizes. :)

If you are interested, deadline for entries is November 10, 2007. Oh yes, you gotta have a Singaporean NRIC. :(

Asus Eee PC Xandros Linux and AsusLauncher Review

Ant of Eeeuser has posted a review of the Xandros (Linux) OS that comes bundled with the Asus Eee PC. The review provides a rather detailed rundown of the custom interface specially designed for the unit and includes a gallery of screen shots.

Ant ends with a favorable impression of Xandros and suggests that although "I’m hoping to now give Windows XP and Ubuntu a shot ...I think over time the Xandros Linux install may turn out to be the best overall for daily use on the Eee PC!"

Pentium Asus Eee PC to be offered in the Philippines?

In a thread in the TipidPC forum member robcoun posted on October 30, 2007 09:50 AM and on October 30, 2007 02:26 PM that the local Asus distributor, Banbros, has confirmed the existence of Pentium models of Asus Eee PC. Per his posts, Banbros has been testing a unit with a Pentium M 1.2 Ghz with Windows XP installed.

As another member, Cooltoyz, who happens to be an Asus reseller, pointed out that this is interesting since there is no Pentium model available in Taiwan currently.

Anywayz, it appears we will all find out on November 5. At any rate, if the 4G model that PC Corner (see previous post) is offering at PhP17,999 or USD412.15 comes with the webcam, then the price is actually at par with U.S. pricing.

Philippine Online Reseller Lists Pentium Asus Eee PC

Philippine-based online reseller PC Corner has updated its website and is promising a November 5 arrival of the Asus Eee PC. Besides that it has some interesting configurations listed.



ASUS EEE PC: 100% NOVEMBER 05, 2007 ARRIVAL !!!

EeePC 701 = *easy* concepts: *Easy to learn, Easy to play and Easy to work.*
Subnotebook (white) --- 900MHz Intel® Celeron® M ULV 353 512Mb DDR2-400 RAM Media 2.0Gb flash memory** Input Keyboard / Touchpad 7in. TFT LCD @ 800×480* built-in 300Kb pixel video camera / Microphone Power 4 cell NiMH battery - battery Life: 3Hrs. 10/100Mbit Ethernet+ 802.11b/g wireless LAN 3-USB 2.0 ports Optical Disk Drive - None MMC/SD/MS card reader

operating system: Linux-based, Xandros, Microsoft® Windows® XP compatible

cheapest model: cheapest model starts from PhP 15,999.00...Eee PC 2G Surf...7in. / 256Mb Memory / 2Gb SSD / 4-cell 4400mAH / .92Kgs.

more storage / processor configurations as follow:
Intel® Celeron® M (256Mb) / 02Gb Media Flash Drive ---> PhP 15,999.00 (USD366.36)
Intel® Celeron® M (512Mb) / 02Gb Media Flash Drive ---> PhP 16,999.00 (USD389.26)
Intel® Celeron® M (512Mb) / 04Gb Media Flash Drive ---> PhP 17,999.00 (USD412.15)
Intel® Celeron® M (1.0Gb) / 04Gb Media Flash Drive ---> PhP 18,999.00 (USD435.05)

more choices:
Intel® Pentium® M (512Mb) / 04Gb Media Flash Drive ---> PhP 20,999.00 (USD480.85)
Intel® Pentium® M (512Mb) / 08Gb Media Flash Drive ---> PhP 21,999.00 (USD503.75)
Intel® Pentium® M (512Mb) / 16Gb Media Flash Drive ---> PhP 22,999.00 (USD526.65)
Intel® Pentium® M (1.0Gb) / 16Gb Media Flash Drive ---> PhP 23,999.00 (USD549.55)

**something unique!... SSD: . . . A solid state drive (SSD), or solid state disk, is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data. SSD emulates conventional hard disk drive, thus easily replacing it in any application. With no moving parts, a solid state drive largely eliminates seek time, latency and other electro-mechanical delays and failures associated with a conventional hard disk drive. While an SSD is not technically a disk, the term solid state disk emphasises (sic) its typical use as an alternative to a disk drive.

summary of models to arrive into our shores:
Eee PC 2G Surf . . . 7in. / 256Mb Memory / 2Gb SSD / 4-cell 4400mAH / .92Kgs.
Eee PC 4G Surf . . . 7in. / 512Mb Memory / 4Gb SSD / 4-cell 4400mAH / .92Kgs.
Eee PC 4G >>>> . . . 7in. / 512Mb Memory / 4Gb SSD / 4-cell 5200mAH / .92Kgs.
Eee PC 8G >>>> . . . 7in. / 1.0Gb Memory / 8Gb SSD / 4-cell 5200mAH / .92Kgs.

customer advisory: we are now currently accepting PhP 5,000.00 reservation for the eee . . . Happy Easy Computing and thanks for your interest with us . . . FREE DELIVERY SERVICE STILL APPLIES (NATIONWIDE !!!) ...thank you for waiting . . . .official words from our local distro initially state EEE to come out November 05, 2007 due to customs clearance issues + the dreaded NTC wifi roadblock . . . .

trivia: from eee site . . . Eee PC Sold Every 2 Seconds! . . . . Sales figures since the release have been astounding, with 200 pieces snapped up in 20 mins on Taiwan’s shopping channel, ETTV Shopping – averaging an Eee PC sold every 2 seconds! . . .making eee the FASTEST SELLING MOBILE PC ON EARTH !!! PhP 16,999.00

-----------

So the confusion continues...Pentium with 16GB for roughly $550? :)

Newegg has Asus Eee PC

US-based online reseller Newegg is now selling the Asus Eee PC 4G for $399. 3-day shipping is $10.03. If there is no applicable sales tax, total will be $409.03.

I can't seem to find anything on the warranty. Anyone?

What Additional Software?

Remember the reason Asus used for the last delay? According to the company they were adding new software to the Asus Eee PC for the launch and had to test these to ensure everything will be okay.

Now that the Asus Eee PC has been launched (at least in some countries), an alert user, member x94scorp of the Eeeuser forum has posted a question -

"I hate to bring this up, but after seeing plenty of reviews, from those that have the Eee PC, I have not seen any sign of the additional software that was the given reason for the last delay for the Eee PC. Should we call shannagins?

Has anyone else noticed?"

---------

Yeah. What additional software?

Windows XP will double the price of Asustek's Eee PC

Infoworld by way of Yahoo News is reporting that adding Windows XP to the Asus Eee PC will double the latter's price compared to existing versions running Linux.

Asus reportedly will sell a version of the Eee PC with Windows XP in mature markets such as the U.S. and Europe for around US$1,000, while a configuration aimed at emerging market nations will cost about $500. XP-based Eee PCs are expected javascript:void(0)
Publish Postto be available by the end of this year.

Asus plans to launch the Linux-based Eee PC on Nov. 1 at retail stores in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, and Toronto, and also through e-commerce Web sites in North America.

On Nov. 9, the company will hold a launch ceremony in Germany, the first country in Europe to get its hands on the low-cost laptop.

The company will launch the Eee PC in major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, in mid-November.

Asustek has shipped 100,000 Eee PCs so far this month to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand. Next year, Asustek forecasts it will ship 3.8 million Eee PCs.

CNET Reviews Asus Eee PC

CNET Reviews has published its take on the Asus Eee PC.

Aside from a video, the review includes an interesting comparative table:

	Asus Eee PC 4G	Average for mainstream category
Video	VGA-out	VGA-out, S-video
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	3 USB 2.0, SD card reader	4 USB 2.0, mini-FireWire, mulitformat memory card reader
Expansion	None	PC Card slot
Networking	Modem, Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi	Modem, Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth
Optical drive	None	DVD burner

In summary, the editors rated it 7.5/10 for very good. The average user rating from 7 useers is 7.1/10 for very good.

The good: Small, light, and inexpensive; solid-state hard drive is fast and efficient; well-thought-out pre-installed software package.

The bad: Cramped keyboard; very little hard drive space; low screen resolution.

The bottom line: For less than $400, the Asus Eee PC 4G offers an impressive package for portable Web surfing and basic productivity, as long as you keep expectations tempered. The incredibly approachable price outweighs any shortcomings; it's a near perfect choice for a highly portable second or backup laptop.

For the complete review, including the video, visit the site.

Blogging Contest with Asus Eee PC as Prize (well sort of)

The Blogger's Notebook Fund blog has an interesting premise. The blogger is, like most bloggers, struggling to earn money from her blogs. She has read about the Asus Eee PC and would like to have one to use for blogging at Starbucks and other WiFi'ed public places. But she has not earned enough to afford one. So she came up with a way to hopefully earn enough while at the same time help her fellow bloggers. Well, let me say paste her post here -


...It appears to be the ideal tool for bloggers like me. It is both small and light enough for me to toss into my tote bag and bring with me to Starbucks or other places with WiFi and let me post to my blogs from there.

The thing is I am still a struggling blogger and have not earned enough to buy one (US $299 - US $399). Actually the US $399 model appears to be the more ideal one since it has more memory and storage, not to mention a webcam. The question naturally that came to my mind is how to earn enough from my blogs to buy one.

Then it occurred to me there must be thousands, if not millions, of bloggers that are in my situation. So I thought - why not organize a blogging contest? A contest where bloggers will post one entry each, then the participating bloggers will select a winner from among themselves. And the prize? US$400 – enough to buy the Asus Eee PC. This way, at least a blogger, deemed deserving enough by fellow bloggers, will be able to afford the Asus Eee PC in a matter of weeks.

My idea is each participant will pay an entry fee of US$10. Once 45 bloggers have entered, the registration will be closed. (If there are more than 45 bloggers interested, then maybe we can have succeeding contests.) The bloggers then email me their entries subject to the contest rules. I will post them together with the blogger’s name. Once all posts are up, the participants will have a week to read and evaluate all them. At the end of the week, they will each vote, by comments, for their respective top three favorites. Participants will not be allowed to vote for their own entry.

The blogger whose post garners the most number of votes wins the $400 prize. If there is a tie, there will be a run-off, or as many as necessary, between or among those who tied, with all participating bloggers voting just one entry, until there is one winner.

So what happens to the extra $50? Since being the organizer, I can not join the contest, I figure I can earn a little for thinking of and organizing the contest. I think it is fair enough. After all I need to organize 8 such contests to be able to raise $400, actually more as I am subject to various transaction fees in receiving/withdrawing from my Paypal account. Besides there obviously is no guarantee we will reach 8 contests.

-----------

Hmmm. Sounds intriguing. Actually am tempted to join. For $10, I get to publish my writing in another blog, get 1 in 45 chances to win an Asus Eee PC, and possibly my 15 minutes of Warholian fame. Not bad, eh?

Asus Eee PC Gets a U.S. Price and Release Date

From the NotebookReview forum -

Look for the Asus Eee PC 4G to be available Thursday, November 1 for a price of $399.99.

The Sales Kit for the Asus Eee PC sent to resellers has a slide indicating availability of the three models coming to the U.S. this year, below is a screenshot of this slide:

The site actually has an Eee PC 4G in hand at the moment and in fact has a video of it. There's no indication on how many units Asus will have on hand to sell, but given the $399 price point it probably won't sell as fast as they'd hope. Asus this summer dangled the carrot of $199 but instead is now pushing a $399 price, a similar price to budget Windows laptops, so that sigh you just heard is one of disappointment.

Bluetooth Mod for Asus Eee PC

Joey08122 of the Mobile01 forum has posted his Bluetooth + SD card reader mod for the Asus Eee PC. He uses the following components to complete the mod -




A USB Bluetooth dongle




A USB hub, which will be used to expand one USB port.





A USB SD card reader




The USB connector and oscillator on the Bluetooth as indicated by the red rectangles will be removed.




The USB hub opened up, with the four ports showing. Port 1 is open the upper left hand corner, Port 2 upper right, Port 3 lower right, and Port 4 lower left.




The SD Card reader, with the connector and oscillator to be removed highlighted by red rectangles.




The cannibalized parts are soldered together




Entire assembly has to be thin enough to fit in above the mini-PCI slot.




The entire assembly with the dangling card reader.




The entire assembly in place in the Mini PCI slot. Note that it does not install directly in the slot. It merely sits on the slot.




The wire is extended all the way back and its USB connector end plugged into one of the USB ports.




The finish mod.

Complete details and more photos can be viewed at the forum. Translated (into English) version can be viewed here.

Asus Eee PC RAM Upgrade Policy Upsets Users

From the Asus Support Page -

Question:

How do I upgrade the memory and SSD modules of Eee PC on my own?

Would disassembling the bottom cases affect the warranty?

Answer:

Since the product positioning and service terms of Eee PC is different from notebooks, Asus is unable to provide any upgrade for the internal hardware (including the SSD and memory modules).

Customers disassembling the outer cases (including the keyboard) of Eee PC products or tearing off the warranty label is considered as customer induced destruction (CID), which will lead to voiding the warranty.

If you have demands for higher capacity of memory and storage, you may select various models of notebooks from Asus for your suitable purchase.

----------

It seems ridiculous for Asus to design the Eee PC with access to the RAM and then prevent users from doing such a simple DIY thing of upgrading the RAM without voiding the warranty.

As I have written before, if Asus wants to position the Eee PC as a consumer product, it should package it that way and sell it via the consumer electronics/appliances of retail stores. They shouldn't even discuss what OS it uses, or processor is inside. Just promote the functionality. Period.

For more user discussion on this topic, you can read the Eeeuser forum thread here.

Laptop Mag Reviews Asus Eee PC

Laptop Magazine has posted its review of the Asus Eee PC -

Giving it 4 out of 5 stars, it describe the subnote as "Pound for pound, the best value-priced notebook on the planet."

In summary:

PROS
• Easy-to-use interface
• Full Web 2.0 experience
• Lightweight design
• Useful education programs
• Works well with external peripherals
• Very good performance for the price

CONS
• Webcam canít yet be used for video chats
• Not easy to find and load new applications
• No mobile broadband support

The entire review can be read here.

OLPC hit by production problems

According to ITPRO -



The OLPC has admitted that a production delay would cause a shortage of its XO computers available as part of a Christmas giving launch scheme. The XO was scheduled to go into production by Quanta in October ahead of a retail launch in November, but it is now slated to begin by 12 November. An October launch would have given the group time to produce and ship tens of thousands of laptops to Peru and Uruguay, the first two countries to order the laptops.

It would now be tough to get those laptops to South America by December, in time for kids to use them over their summer vacation, and also meet orders for the foundation's Give 1 Get 1 scheme for people in the United States and Canada.

For $400, the Give 1 Get 1 scheme provides buyers with a laptop of their own plus a second machine to a poor child overseas.

The foundation will accept orders on its website, www.laptopgiving.org, starting November 12.

Asus Eee PC LCD Too Fragile?

Member niping of Mobile01 has posted photos of his Asus Eee PC, which came out of the box with a cracked LCD -








More photos at the Mobile01forum. Translated version can be viewed here.

MobilePlanet Offers Two Years Warranty on Asus Eee PC

I was browsing through the on-line resellers of Asus Eee PC and came across an old favorite, MobilePlanet. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have listed the Asus Eee PC...




And even more pleasantly surprised that they have listed the warranty as two year. The Taiwan launch units, if I remember correctly, had only 1 year domestic warranty. Not sure though if the two year is just domestic or the standard two year international warranty that Asus usually offers.

Philippine Online Reseller Lists 16G Asus Eee PC

From the PC Corner site -

EeePC 701 = *easy* concepts: *Easy to learn, Easy to play and Easy to work.*

Subnotebook (white) ---
900MHz Intel® Celeron® M ULV 353
512Mb DDR2-400 RAM
Media 4.0Gb flash memory**
Input Keyboard / Touchpad
7in. TFT LCD @ 800×480*
built-in 300Kb pixel video camera / Microphone
Power 4 cell NiMH battery - battery Life: 3Hrs. (4 cells: 5200mAh, 2S2P)
10/100Mbit Ethernet+ 802.11b/g wireless LAN
3-USB 2.0 ports
Optical Disk Drive - None
MMC/SD/MS card reader

Operating system: Linux-based, Xandros, Microsoft® Windows® XP compatible

Prices from . . . PhP 16,999.00

other storage / processor configurations as follow:

04Gb Media Flash Drive ---------> PhP 16,999.00 / Intel® Celeron® M (around USD386.95)
04Gb Media Flash Drive ---------> PhP 17,999.00 / Intel® Pentium® M (around USD409.71)
08Gb Media Flash Drive ---------> PhP 19,999.00 / Intel® Pentium® M (around USD455.25)
16Gb Media Flash Drive ---------> PhP 21,999.00 / Intel® Pentium® M (around USD500.76)

addendum: please wait further for actual final configuration . . . . . official words from our local distro initially state EEE to come out last week (October 2007) due to customs clearance issues + the dreaded NTC wifi roadblock . . . FIRST-COME-FIRST-SERVE-BASIS --- no reservation . . .

Asus Eee PC Taiwan Launch Video (in Chinese)

Asus Eee PC Sold on eBay Philippines

A reseller by the name of riamiranda has sold an Asus Eee PC on eBay Philippines for P25,000 (approximately USD566.88)

The winning bid was for an Asus Eee PC with the following configuration -

THIS AUCTION IS FOR ONE BRAND NEW ASUS EEE PC 701 (TOP MODEL). THIS WILL BE ONE OF THE HOTTEST NOTEBOOK'S / UMPC'S OUT THERE THIS SEASON, WITH THE 7" SCREEN, FLASH HARD DRIVE, 512MB OF RAM, 3 TO 4 HRS BATTERY LIFE, WEB CAM, 3 USB , WIFI BUILT IN AND A CARD READER

THIS NOTEBOOK SCREAMS MOBILITY!!!

EeePC 701 = *easy* concepts: *Easy to learn, Easy to play and Easy to work.*

Subnotebook ---

900MHz Intel® Celeron® M ULV 353

10/100Mbit Ethernet+ 802.11b/g wireless LAN

3 or 4 USB 2.0 ports

MMC/SD/MS card reader

Media 2/4/8/16Gb flash memory

Operating system Linux-based, Xandros, Microsoft® Windows® XP compatible

Input Keyboard

Touchpad

Camera

Microphone

built-in 300Kb pixel video camera

Power 4 cell NiMH battery - battery Life:

3hrs (4 cells: 5200mAh, 2S2P)

256/512Mb DDR2-400 RAM

7in. TFT LCD @ 800×480*

Dimension & Weight: 22.5 x 16.5 x 2.1~3.5cm, 0.89Kgs.

---------

While the seller stated that it is the top model (with 512M RAM), actual flash memory size is not clear, especially with Asus having the specs countless of times. Well, I just hope the unit is in good working condition since Asus has announced the Asus Eee PC does not come with the usual 2 year international warranty but instead it will have the 1 year domestic warranty.

More Info re SDHC cards and the Asus Eee PC

Photos are from the Mobile01 forum where member kevinj posted his performance tests of various SDHC cards on the Asus Eee PC -




Kingston 8 GB Class 2 SDHC




Kingston 8 GB Class 6 SDHC




Kingston 4 GB Class 6 Mini-SDHC with adapter




Asus Eee PC SDHC Compatibility Chart




HD Tach 3.0.4




HD Tune

The Asus Eee PC and SDHC Cards

Now that it has been confirmed the Asus Eee PC accepts SDHC cards, I think it is time to provide a introductory post – for the benefit of readers unfamiliar with this new type of memory cards.

SDHC cards are the newest type of SD cards. They are based on the SD Card Association SDA 2.00 specifications. These new cards can have capacities up to 32GB. However, because SDHC works differently from SD cards, they are not backward compatible with existing SD card readers and requires new SDHC card readers. But the newer SDHC card readers can read older SD cards. To ensure compatibility, look for the SDHC logo on both the cards and the card readers or the devices themselves (cameras, PDAs, camcorders, etc.)

SDHC cards are further categorized based on speed. The SD Card Association has defined 3 classes. These The SD Speed Class Ratings specify a minimum sustained write speed for SDHC cards

* Class 2: 2 MB/s
* Class 4: 4 MB/s
* Class 6: 6 MB/s

You can look for the Speed Class Logo to identify the performance class of your memory cards and host devices.

And just like the standard SD cards which has mini-SD and micro-SD card derivatives, the SDHC cards also come in the mini-SDHC and micro-SDHC card formats. These will work with standard SDHC card readers when fitted with SDHC adapters.

As far as I know, the Asus Eee PC does support all types of SDHC card formats, speed class and size.

NOTE: SD, SDHC and the SDHC logo are trademarks.

Asus Eee PC Disassembled

Mobile01 forum member shian0116 has disassembled his Asus Eee PC and uploaded the photos -




The Asus Eee PC before disassembly




The detached keyboard




Asus Eee PC mainboard. Note the Asus P701 label.




CPU markings indicate it is SL7QX, a 900 MHz Celeron M with 512KB L2.




Audio ports




RAM and Mini-PCI-e slots




SD Card Reader




1 GB Flash. In post 21 of the same thread, Tim5727 suggests the possible replacement of the chips with higher capacity 16G (HY27UH08AG5M-TPCB) to come with 16GB. :)




USB Ports. Note USB4 label although the unit has only 3 USB ports.

Lots more photos at the forum.

Asus Eee PC 2G Surf at $299 Intentionally Overpriced?

The following is actually my response to a comment on one of the posts, but I decided to re-post it. It is a discussion on the announced US pricing for the Asus Eee PC 2G Surf, which at $299 is $100 less than the high end Asus Eee PC 8G. Given the wide disparity in features, either the 2G Surf is overpriced or the 8G is underpriced. -

I think the scenario is more likely Asus is intentionally pushing the higher end model(s) since the profit margin is definitely much lower on the 2G Surf. Remember a few weeks back before the launch Asus already gave some indication that it will be producing mostly higher-end models, at least, initially.

Personally I feel the 2G Surf at $299 is intentionally overpriced. I am not sure at what contract price Asus was able to procure the flash for their initial production run but I doubt the difference (due to price increase) would be as much as $50, which is the difference between the anticipated $249 price and the just-announced price.

Once NAND pricing stabilizes and goes down, I'd expect the 2G Surf to be sold at $249. And when competing products start appearing, expect the price to go down further but not by a lot more.

The way I see it, Asus took a gamble by making the introductory price of the Asus Eee PC close to what the price would be at the maturity phase of the product's life cycle. They did this to widen the price gap between the Asus Eee PC and what we consider as conventional notebooks. The bigger the gap, the greater the wow effect. Thus, the introductory $199 pricing. And true enough, at that price (and features) it got a lot of people excited. Heck, I was excited enough to start this blog. :)

Asus could afford to this because it does not have any R&D cost to recover. Remember the Asus Eee PC simply follows the Intel Classmate PC reference design. Moreover, practically all the parts are readily available off-the-shelf components.

What caught Asus off guard was the NAND shortage that resulted in significant price increases. Consequently they had to adjust prices (and specifications) in an effort to keep the product line appealing enough in terms of giving value for money. And given the resultant feedback (and criticisms) it seems they are still trying to find the right combination to ensure the Asus Eee PC becomes the best seller that it deserves to be.

Newegg and Best Buy to Carry only 2G Surf and 8G Models

Not sure if the information source is the same as that of I4U News' in the previous post, but Notebookreview Site Admin JerryJ, in a post (post # 1) in said forum, practically echoed the news that only the entry level 2G Surf and the high-end 8G models will be available for sale by US resellers Best Buy and Newegg. Well, at least, initially...

Asus announced yesterday that their low-priced Eee PC will be available for purchase in the United States "within a few weeks."

Asus isn't providing specific release dates at this time, but their official press release does mention the Eee PC will be available for purchase at Best Buy and New Egg in two configurations.

The Asus "Eee PC 2G Surf" comes with 256MB of RAM and a 2GB Solid State Disk Drive (SSD), but the built-in web camera has been removed in order to bring the cost down to $299. The Asus "Eee PC 8G" is pre-configured with 1GB of RAM, an 8GB SSD, and webcam for $399.

Asus is also offering the "Eee PC 4G" with 512MB of RAM and a 4GB SSD, but early indications are that only the 2G and 8G versions will be available at Newegg and Best Buy during the initial product launch. Additional specifications are listed below:

Specifications:

Model Name	Eee PC 8G	Eee PC 2G Surf
Display	7"	7"
Intel CPU & Chipset	V	V
Operating System	Linux installed, Windows XP compatible	Linux installed, Windows XPcompatible
Ethernet Communication	V	V
WLAN	V	V
Memory	1GB (DDR2)	256 MB (DDR2)
S.S.D. Storage (Solid-State Disk)	8GB	2GB
Camera	V	-
Audio	Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone	Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone
Battery	4 Cells: 5200 mAh, 3.5hrs*	4 Cells: 4400 mAh,2.8hrs*
Weight	0.92 kg	0.92 k

* Specification changes are subject to different models
* Actual battery life will depend on actual operations and other settings.
* Product contains software under GPL license agreement

For USA, Asus Eee PC starts at $299

From IU4 News, which is claiming that they have been sent official US pricing info by Asus -

Following the Taiwan launch of the Asus Eee PC yesterday, Asus has released details for the US release.

The entry level configuration of the Eee PC is named 2G Surf and has 256MB RAM, 2GB SSD, small battery and no camera, and will list at $299.

A higher end model named 8G, which lists for $399, has 1GB RAM, 8GB SSD, webcam and 3.5h battery life.

Asus Eee PC 32G?

An interesting find from Eeeuser member d. as posted (post #4) in that forum.


The screen cap is from Asus' official forum. It shows an entry for Asus Eee PC 32GB motherboard. There is another entry for 16GB.

Wonder how much the price will be for those if and when Asus brings them out.

Nokia 810 Tablet - An Asus Eee PC Alternative

For those disappointed with the specs/pricing of the Asus Eee PC, Nokia has announced the Nokia 810 tablet -

Nokia have officially launched the 810 Tablet at US$479.

Features are not quite as large as the Eee PC so it's still OK to lust for one :-)

High-resolution 4.13" WVGA display (800 x 480 pixels) with up to 65,000 colors
TI OMAP 2420, 400Mhz CPU
OS: maemo Linux based OS2008
DDR RAM 128MB
Flash 256MB
Up to 2GB internal storage
Supports MiniSD and microSD memory cards (cards over 2Gb must be SDHC compatible)
Slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
Wi-fi (IEEE 802.11b/g)
VGA web-cam

Cool stuff:

Built-in GPS
Bluetooth 2.0
High quality stereo speakers and sensitive microphone
Touchscreen

Gizmodo have a good list of features which can be read here.

Nokia's press release can be read here.

Submitted by reader Steve Scott.

Asus Eee PC's RAM slot has warranty seal

From the same thread by XF-Team at the PCDVD forum -




Photo above shows a yellow warranty seal on the cover of the RAM slot. Does this mean if you upgrade the RAM yourself you void the warranty???

More Asus Eee PC Photos

From a post by XF-Team at the PCDVD forum -

Following are photos which show all sides of the Asus Eee PC retail package.

Asus Eee PC a Hit at Launch

From China Times

At its launch yesterday, the Asus Eee PC quickly sold in the 3C stores were they are available. This prompted the company to predict sales for next year will be much higher than the 380 million originally predicted. The Asus Eee PC goes on sale in other countries before the end of October.

At Tsann Kuen 2c, the flagship store in the lake where the launch was held, its 10 units were sold within 30 seconds. Other stores sold out as well. Most of the buyers were office workers but there were a lot of mothers as well.

Yahoo's online store also sold out fast, averaging 18 units per minute, breaking an old sales record. PChome, a Taiwan based online retailer sold 50 in five minutes with an average. It sold an additional 200 within the next 40 minutes.

The translated site can be viewed here.

Video on Asus Eee PC

This one, from Digitimes, shows a movie trailer running smoothly on the Asus Eee PC -

External USB keyboard on Asus Eee PC

Again, from Blogeee.net -

Replacing the RAM on the Asus Eee PC

This one shows how to replace the RAM module -

Browsing the Internet on the Asus Eee PC

Just thought I would post some not-too-old Youtube videos as a respite from all the news about Asus Eee PC coming in from all over. This one is from Blogeee.net -

Asus Eee PC's Celeron is Clocked Down

From the Eeeuser forum comes an insightful observation by member NoeeePC4MeWellMaybe... regarding the Celeron chip in the Asus Eee PCs being clocked down -



Observation:

The reported 630Mhz CPU frequency in the above photo means that one of the below statements is true:

A) The Intel Celeron M CPU used in the Eee PC incorporates Intel's SpeedStep technology

B) Asus has downclocked the Front-Side Bus from 100 Mhz to 70 Mhz (translating into the effective FSB and RAM speeds being 280 Mhz instead of 400 Mhz).

Analysis:

Option "A" is highly unlikely due to the fact that there are no Celeron M chips that support SpeedStep or Enhanced SpeedStep.

Option "B" is very plausible. One of the CPU-Z screen shots from a russian 2G/700 Eee PC contained a 800Mhz Celeron M which ran at 570Mhz which was also derived from an approx. 70 Mhz FSB. I have no doubt that this is primary reason as to why Asus has not disclosed any information regarding the CPU specifications or operating frequency. This way, no one can be successful in legally forcing Asus to release a BIOS update which unlocks the processor's full potential by way of a 100 Mhz FSB. I know that some of the "tech geeks" here will get riled up on this one for sure , but keep in mind that there are many consumer devices which feature downclocked processors and ICs. If I remember correctly the PSP is/used to be one of them. Another thing to note is that there are no Non-Embedded Dothan based Celeron M's which operate at anything lower than 800 Mhz.

So, that being said the 2Gs possibly feature 800 Mhz Intel Celeron M chips downclocked to 570 Mhz, while the 4Gs possibly feature 900 Mhz Intel Celeron M chips downclocked to 630 Mhz.

Conclusion:

All things considered, I think the 4G model will offer a marginally to greatly perceivable difference in speed in various applications, but not because of the 60 Mhz difference. Why then? If the finalized 2G models come with the SL8XT Celeron M pictured in the Russian review, then it has ZERO L2 cache. I would gather that it would be about as fast as the PIII 733 EB in my miniature HP vectra dev server PC. Hopefully someone in Taiwan with a retail 2G can verify whether or not it has L2 cache.

L2 cache aside, I do not have any issue with the 230-270 Mhz decrease in processor frequency, since it will not have any detrimental impact on the usability of the applications and multimedia that I plan to make use of. The downclock is likely responsible for the above average battery life, and hopefully it has spawned a cool to mildly warm operating Eee PC.

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Incidentally, the above observation has been discussed in the Mobile01 forum Asus Eee PC thread as well. As usual, translated version of the forum can be viewed here.

Asus Eee PC supports 800 x 600 resolution

Contrary to the oft-repeated specs of 800 x 480, the Asus Eee PC also supports the more conventional 800 x 600 resolution as evidenced by a photo posted (no. 1) by shian0116 in the Mobile01 forum -




Note, however, the Asus Eee PC shown is running Windows XP. There are lots more photos in the thread, although most do not show anything new. Still, it is an interesting thread as it discusses Windows XP on the Asus Eee PC. Translated site can be viewed here.

Asus Eee PC good for Vista?

In a news article titled ASUS Eee PC Brings Computing to All dated October 16, 2007 in Asus' website, the company claims -

"Essentially, the Eee PC is a highly portable notebook computer with a difference, to make a difference: it is more compact than most notebooks; eschewing hard drive for flash storage, it is more lightweight and rugged; relying on Linux (users can also opt for Windows Vista), and industry-standard connectivity, it is also low-cost."


I have been an avid Asus user for years, even now. When my younger son's Acer died one week after its warranty expired, I bought an Asus F3S for him. When my top programmer/partner upgraded his notebook recently, he bought a top of the line Asus model. I have also used various Asus products through the years, some as obscure as the AP WL 330g which I carry around on my trips. Asus products are, by and far, reliable and provide value for money. (In fact, I just recommended to the dean of my old college to procure Asus Eee PCs for the students. My class will probably donate the wireless infrastructure.)

The whole Asus Eee PC shebang had us in a topsy-turvy spin from June up to recently - with the various delays and specs changes. Now just when things are beginning to clear out with the Taiwan launch, Asus wants us to believe the Asus Eee PC can comfortably run Windows Vista. Per Microsoft, even the entry level Vista Home Basic requires the following:

* 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
* 512 MB of system memory
* 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
* Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
* DVD-ROM drive
* Audio Output
* Internet access (fees may apply)

Does Asus really expect us to attach a USB 20 GB hard drive and a USB DVD-ROM drive just so we can hopefully run Vista on the Eee PC? What about the DirectX 9 graphics requirements??? More importantly Asus seems to have forgotten the charter of its Eee PC concept- easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play. I have yet to hear those phrases in the same sentence as Windows Vista.

Gee, Windows Vista on the Asus Eee PC. This I gotta see. Any takers, anyone?

Windows XP on Asus Eee PC

Photos from the Engadget gallery showing the Asus Eee PC running Windows XP.













Translated site can be viewed here.