The ASUS S101 slim Eee PC - not worth buying?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 10 October 2008 07:06

Opinion and Analysis

With the “credit crunch” and “global financial crisis” draining people’s funds, buying an S101 right now is just for fashion, when an Asus Eee PC 1000 or 1000H (with hard disk) does exactly the same thing with the same parts in a slightly thicker chassis.

2009 will also clearly see many more netbook manufacturers go for ever slimmer designs, with slim set to be the new standard, likely without any particular premium.

If you want the slimmest netbook of 2008 for Christmas, you’ll most definitely be looking at the Asus S101, and nothing will stop you from getting one as long as you have $1000 spare or are happy to put it on the credit card.

But given that you can almost buy two Asus Eee PC 1000 models for not much more, or you can just get one Asus Eee PC 10000 and keep the extra cash in the bank, the slim S101 may be too fat for wallets in today’s economy, with better deals surely on the way in 2009.

We’re also yet to see if America’s monetary implosion will see the US dollar drop in price, with worldwide currencies rising against it as happened earlier this year, thus making technology imported from China a lot cheaper for us, while being more expensive for US citizens.

Predicting currency movements is something that even financial people can’t get right, so I’ve no real idea what will happen here.

But while I really, really like the idea of the S101, and am sure it will sell despite its higher price, if I was in the market for a netbook, an already slim Atom model with a longer life 6-cell battery is far more useful to me than a few millimetres shaved off the thickness.

Would you buy an Asus S101, or would a cheaper 1000 series model be your preference? Share your thoughts in our forum!