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

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 19 June 2008 20:04

Opinion and Analysis

Laptop Magazine in the US has published a full review of the new Asus Eee 1000H PC.

Like a turbo boosted Eee PC 901, it also comes with the same Intel Atom 1.6Ghz processor, but has a few nifty tricks all its own.

The biggest differences are a 10-inch screen with the same 1024x600 resolution, the replacement of the solid state storage with an 80GB 2.5-inch hard drive running at 5400RPM – and a BIGGER keyboard at last!

Laptop Magazine reports the keyboard really easy to type on, and despite the right shift key being in an odd position to the right of the ‘up’ arrow key, the bigger keys mean less mistypes and a nice typing experience all around.

As for battery life, Laptop Magazine says the 1000H “lasted an impressive 4 hours and 28 minutes with Wi-Fi turned on”.

Plug into Ethernet when you’re sitting at a desk, or turn Wi-Fi off, and the battery will last longer – as it would with brightness turned down a bit, although Laptop Magazine didn’t specify what brightness was used.

There’s also the size and weight differences compared with the 901’s dimensions which are 22.5cm(W) x 17.5cm(D) x 2.2cm to 3.9cm(H) and a weight is 1.1kg.

The 1000H is 26.67cm(W) x 19.05cm(D) x 2.54cm to 3.81cm(H) and a weight of 1.451 kilos. So a bit bigger and heavier, but with a larger screen and bigger keyboard, this is more than acceptable.

The final big difference? The price. It’s US $649, and while that might translate to AUD $685 at the current exchange rate, it probably means at least $100 if not more added to that cost when sold in Australia, with an Asus PR representative confirming to me as I write this article that the 1000H will come to Australia “later this year”.

Looking at Amazon.com, the US price of the Eee PC 901 is US $549, when it’s AUD $649 over here.

But $100 extra in Australian dollars, meaning AUD $749 for the Asus 1000H, if that’s what the price ends up being – is still very good, even if you can buy Celeron based Windows laptops as cheaply as AUD $400-$700 in stores.

They may be just as inexpensive, but they’re not as small, don’t usually come with Linux, and don’t have as long a battery life.

All these new inexpensive computers also face competition from the Asus Eee PC clones including the Acer Aspire One, the Dell E, the HP MiniNote and the MSI Wind, with the Wind causing waves in the US for being priced at only US $499, as opposed to the 1000H’s price of US $649.

So, the Eee PC 901 is due in stores in just a few days, and no doubt will be popular – as will its newly price-reduced siblings. The inexpensive PC revolution. There’s no stopping it!