Game changing Eee PC 900 to make Australian debut end of May

Stan Beer
Thursday, 08 May 2008 15:56

Opinion and Analysis

OK, the affordable sub-notebook charge has begun in Australia. Last month, the HP Mininote, sporting a 8.9 inch screen, a usable keyboard and a sturdy aluminium case hit our shores for $899. At the end of this month, Asustek will start selling the big brother to its Eee PC, the Eee PC 900 and priced at just $599 with some interesting new features, it could take off like a rocket.

One of the most attractive things about the Eee PC 900, which also has a 8.9 inch screen, besides its low price, is its weight - or rather lack thereof. At just under 1kg, the new Asus model weighs the same as the Eee PC and is 33% lighter than the HP Mininote. And unlike the Mininote, the Eee PC 900 is all solid state storage.

As promised by Asustek, the Eee PC 900 will be available in both Windows (XP Home) and Linux versions. For reasons that are not entirely clear, the Linux version will come with 20GB storage, while the XP version will be on sale with just 12GB. Flash being expensive as it currently is, the respective configurations will make the Linux model retail for $50 more ($649) than the XP version.

Asustek is also touting some significant improvements over the smaller screened Eee PC in its new model. The 8.9 inch screen of the Eee PC 900 has a much higher resolution 1024 by 600 display (acceptable for wordprocessing on an A4 page) and it introduces a multi-touch trackpad (FingerGlide) that enables two finger pinching for zooming in and out and single finger scrolling in a similar fashion to the iPhone.

The Eee PC 900 also includes a 1.3M Pixel webcam, built-in speakers and a 802.11g wireless card.

Powered by an Intel Mobile CPU and 1G of RAM, the new Asustek sub-notebook is not exactly a grunt box. However, for what most owners are going to use it for - web surfing, email, wordprocessing, simple games, music and movies while on the road and so on - it should be just fine. CONTINUED