Asus Eee PC versus the CloudBook

PC Advisor pitted the Asus Eee PC against the Everex Cloudbook in a head-to-head in-depth comparison. It gave the Cloudbook the edge in design, but awarded the Eee PC the upper hand in weight, video quality, processor, touchpad, battery/fan, wifi, upgradeability, external ports, and BIOS/OS. It called it even in keyboard, storage, applications, and tech support.

However instead of declaring the Asus Eee PC the outright winner, PC Advisor recommended readers to wait a few months for the Asus Eee PC 900, the ECS G10IL or Everex's own updated CloudBook. All will sport larger 9" LCDs, will reportedly cost between £250 to £500 (around USD500 - USD1000). The current models' starting price point is about £200 (around USD400).

As the reviewer reasoned, "most consumers will ultimately be much happier spending a teensy bit more money for a slightly bigger machine."

Admittedly, USD500 is, relatively speaking, a tad above USD400. But USD1000 is nowhere "a teensy bit more money" than USD400.

Personally, I feel the market of the original Asus Eee PC 701 is quite different from the target market of the newer, and more expensive, models. In short, Asus is going off the original vision.