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New Asus Eee 900 officially launched in Hong Kong

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

April 16, 2008, 11:51 AM

Is it still a UMPC, or is it just a decent version of a shrunken laptop? While very small form factors have often failed, Asus may have found the perfect niche, and is exploiting it for all it's worth.

Yesterday in Hong Kong, Asus launched the newest version of its Eee ultra portable PC, the Eee PC 900.

Improving upon some of the weaker features of its predecessor, the Eee 701, Asus' new version increased the size of the screen from 7" to 8.9", filling in the "blank spaces" where the speakers were mounted in the older model. It also increased the size of the touchpad and added multi-touch capabilities like those found in the latest Macs, and the built-in webcam (which was also omitted from the stripped-down 2G Surf models) was improved from .3 to 1.3 megapixels.

Processing power unfortunately remains the same. The 900 MHz Celeron M Asus was so fond of before Intel's Atom microarchitecture began to edge toward production, is the chip of choice for these PCs. RAM, fortunately, was doubled to 1 GB, and the SSDs come in 12 GB (Windows) and 20 GB (Linux) sizes.

These machines also appear to lack the built-in WiMAX support that some Eees and OQOs were demonstrated to have at this year's CES, and like forthcoming machines such as the Everex Cloudbook MAX promise.

The Eee 900 is expected to be released on May 1, with both the Windows XP Home and Linux models running for the same $3,998HK (512 USD.)

Add a Comment (4 Comments)

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By ajhall

edited Apr 16, 2008 - 3:03 PM

I am unimpressed, you can get a Dell with dual processor, 14.1 or 15.4 display, 80gb hd and CD for only 20% more. Same WiFi and ram, preloaded with SuSe Linux.

I think these are great toys, but you give up a lot of function to save a $150 - $200. If they were selling the new model for $399, I would say it was worth it.

Score: 0

By Tenoq

posted Apr 16, 2008 - 9:21 PM

The price increase on this model almost pulls it out of the niche Asus carved with the 700 eeePC. Although when you look at the specs you can see where your extra money is - it's not longer a super-cheap, super-portable laptop the original was.

That said, I'm still pretty keen on one. Don't suppose anyone has release dates for the US & Aus?

Score: 0

By Diam0nd

posted Apr 16, 2008 - 1:19 PM

Totally agree, I mean, do we REALLY have that much places with wimax atm? Nope. So do we really need to care about it missing wimax? Nope.

I think for 500 usd is a nice little notebook. Again, I repeat, LITTLE.

Score: 0

By Umapathy

posted Apr 16, 2008 - 12:18 PM

My Office has WiMax Antenna as per my understanding that need to be in the line of sight of the WiMax tower. I think the laptop lacks WiFi. I don't think any laptop is going to have WiMax in near furture.

Score: 0

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