Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 05 July 2008 15:57
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Just a day or so after Acer’s Aspire One goes on sale in Australia
comes news that the Asus Eee PC 904 will shortly go on sale in the UK,
muddying the waters over which is the best value ‘netbook’ to buy.
Wow, yet another new Asus Eee PC?
We know all about the
Acer Aspire – an 8.9-inch model with 1024x600 screen, Intel Atom 1.6Ghz chip, 512MB memory and 8GB storage for Linux and 1.5GB memory and 120GB storage XP of memory, a keyboard that is 85% the size of a regular keyboard, USB ports, Wi-Fi, a webcam and more.
We also know it is going on sale at AUD $599 with a $99 cash back for the Linux model, thus being $500, or $699 with a $99 cash back for the XP model, thus being only $600, putting pressure on the
already released Intel Atom-powered Asus Eee PC 901 which sells at AUD $649 and has the same size keyboard as the Eee PC 701, which Acer says its Aspire One keyboard is larger than.
But we also knew that the Asus Eee PC 1000 was going on sale in the UK
very shortly, with a keyboard 92% the size of a regular keyboard and a 10-inch screen, while coming with an Intel Atom 1.6Ghz chip too, with both SSD and hard disk options.
The Eee PC 1000’s keyboard size claims to be the same as the HP MiniNote 2133, also 92% the size of a regular keyboard, and as we’re testing one of these HP models we can definitely say that the keyboard is much nicer to type on than the smaller keyboards on the Asus Eee PC 701/900/901 series machines.
So, to add to all these new models comes the curious Asus Eee PC 904. According to
What Laptop Magazine in the UK, it sits in the same chassis as the Asus Eee PC 1000 series, meaning that same beautiful 92% size keyboard, but has a few key differences.
Naturally, however, the larger keyboard is an important distinction and should prove a very welcome and tempting difference indeed.
But what else? Please read on to page 2.
