New Asus Eee PC 901 with Atom due late June, but where is the Eee 1000H?

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 19 June 2008 19:04

Opinion and Analysis

The Intel Atom powered Asus Eee PC 901 arrives before the month is out, with price drops for the existing 900 and 701 models. But when will Australia see the Eee 1000H model with real hard disk and larger keyboard?

The Asus Eee PC revolution kicks into higher gear with the impending release of the Eee 901, an enhanced version of the recently released 900 series, replacing the Celeron 900MHz processor with the new Intel Atom processor running at 1.6Ghz – or in a turbo charged 1.9Ghz mode.

The specs of both the 900 and new 901 series are almost identical, with the major differentiator being the Intel Atom 1.6Ghz processor, which promises – and delivers – much longer battery life.

According to a review of the new 901 at The Register, the original 7-inch Asus Eee 701 ran for 148 mins (2.4 hours), the 900 runs for 198 mins (3.3 hours), but the 901 really shines at 229 mins (3.8 hours) in the ‘turbo boost’ 1.9Ghz mode and even longer at 280 mins (4.6 hours) in the ‘super power saving mode’ with the processor running at 800Mhz.

The Register says these are “worst case” scenarios, too – with a video playing constantly until the battery died, with the screen at full brightness and the Wi-Fi on. Turn Wi-Fi off, do basic wordprocessor and turn the screen brightness down, and while they don’t estimate how long, it’s clear it will break 5 hours and likely go even longer.

Asus themselves quote a battery life from 4.2 hours to 7.8 hours, which may well be at the lowest brightness setting, but at least it shows that Intel’s attempts at really lowering power consumption have helped tremendously in making battery life last longer.

With its removable battery, you could even buy another one and get a 10 hour day from the Eee PC, although that would obviously add to the cost, and as I write this article I don’t know what that cost is.

In addition, rechargeable batteries do eventually die, holding less and less charge, so eventually you’ll either need to buy a new battery – or simply buy whatever the latest model Eee PC is by then.

Please read on to page 2 for plenty more on the new Eee, including the new price drops!