Asus' Atom-powered Eee PC spied on web

Asus may be promoting the new Eee PC 900 hard, but some potential buyers are waiting for the promised Intel Atom-based version. Well they might: in addition to a snappier CPU, it'll sport a swish new look. So photos published by French-language fansite Blogee.net show. The shots sho a machine dubbed the Eee PC 901, and it's a …

[Anonymous Coward]

Will the UK be shafted again with a crap battery?

The current 900 is being supplied to the UK with a 4400mAh battery - smaller than that supplied with the less power hungry 701 and 30% smaller than the 5800 being supplied with 900s in Taiwan and the US! UK buyers are complaining to Asus in droves, but have so far only received a holding message. It would be nice if you could ask Asus to comment on this.

PS The 900 seems to have a new "friend" - see uk.asus.com front page. I presume she's seriously underweight to match the new battery.

[timz]

Firewall

I wonder if Asus will include the iptables module, and thus enable firewalls within their linux distro (without recompiling), for the 901.

Paris; because she probably cares about protection.

[Neil]

is it just me.....

or have Asus managed to just about ruin the good EEE name?

I mean, the 7" series were good. Flawed, but everybody loved it because they were cheap and small and the limitations were only mildly annoying. Then the 90x Series comes out, and Asus manage to give up all that good will by

a: Making the price so ridiculous that a decent laptop is cheaper

b: Shafting early adopters of each series by releasing newer ones so often

Sure the 90x series is better, but seriously, talk about gouging their customers!

I had a 7" model and sold it when i heard about the larger one, but now I see how they are shafting their (so far loyal) userbase, I cant bring myself to buy the newer ones. So It'll either be a Wind or a "real" lappy for me next.......

[robert]

gonna get one

sent back my original eee, but I think im gonna get one of these when they come out

[Anonymous Coward]

901 OS

Actually if you were to look at the "900" OS repository on the web and jump to "901" you would find all the precompiled xandros packages... oh after this probably all disappearing fast. But certainly there this morning.

[rory dobson]

So do we get...

...a new curvier companion model to complement the new curvier hardware?

Someone sultry on the beach perhaps...

Mmmmm... sultry...

[paul]

cheap

my eee pc cost £160. Anything more than £200 and I am not interested. I mean if I had all the money in the world I would buy a macbook air (and before the flames start and iboys get excited - put ubuntu on it).

[Andrew Ducker]

Keep them cheap!

I want an Eee with the larger screen, but I don't need more memory or more hard drive space than the original 701 came with. Asus need to remember that they're popular because they're cheap - and keep them that way!

[Anonymous Coward]

Mini Note

I'm holding out for the HP 2133.

Plastic? Pah!

Aluminium!

[Jamie]

Thank-you

Was starting to worry after a little scrolling that there was no picture of the machine enjoying some shade on the beach.

[b166er]

Curves

Will it be a drop-proof model with Bulgarian Airbags?

[Henry Cobb]

Why waste space on curvy model with pad?

That L-word company that took over the thinkbooks is also putting bulky pads on all of their models.

I had to go buy a trackpoint keyboard for my Dell so I didn't have to touch the bloody pad (how long can I keep this sick metaphor up...), also it lets me keep the laptop up on a shelf for better ergonomics while sitting at my desk. (Great display though, so I don't bother with a monitor. And all for $800)

Laptops with trackpoints instead of touchpads could either be smaller or have more room for say full size function keys.

[Richard Foersom]

CPU fan less?

As the Atom CPU is so low power, it will be interesting to see if this model will come without the need for a CPU fan. Would be a nice battery saving if the computer can run reliable without fan.

[DrXym]

I love my 701

It's very cheap, portable, hackable, quiet and functional. The screen is very pokey but it's amazing to have such a teeny tiny laptop which is so versatile and easy to carry around. I used it on a long train trip today with a 3G modem. The laptop, modem fit easily onto the train's seat tray with enough room for a little mouse.

If I had to fault it, it would be the screen size, and also the way that the Linux OS is set up. They've split the 4Gb storage into a read only and read / write half and use something called unionfs to make them appear like a single filing system. This works fine, but it is horribly space inefficient especially as patches appear. I would prefer a single partition and proper system CD to restore if necessary.

My biggest fear for the 900 models is they're getting too expensive. A 701 with a larger screen and perhaps 8gb SSD should be all that needs changing in my opinion. The current 900 spec is too expensive. I hope they see the light with the 901 because the market is getting very crowded and they might lose the lead they got from the 701 model.

[Steve Medway]

@neil

Yeah it's just you I'm afraid.

Well you and the other people who didn't do any research before buying a 900.

It was a well known fact an Atom based version was coming in June before the 900 even arrived. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread as they say.

[wim]

Linux version in Japan

Does anybody know a place in Japan that sells the linux version ?

Up till now I had no success finding one. Windows is the only option here.

[storng.bare.durid]

I wonder...

If the 901 will come with a curvier 'friend'.

Let's keep posting pix of the current one till we know, eh?

[Damian Turner-Steele]

Just a bigger screen

That is all I wanted from my 701.

[alistair millington]

Why the crappy battery

I read about the battery on the eee forums and thought it was all wrong.

Something worse than the 701 battery for the 901, what is the logic. Between price and the battery I won't be buying a 900.

Come on Reg - Ask about batteries and don't be fobbed off.

[Mickey Porkpies]

Feedback to Asus

I love my 900 it's great ( with eeeXubuntu) but I too was shafted with a useless 4400 battery. I have complained to Asus who are reviewing the possibility of replacing them. Come on Register get behind this and make them do the right thing and give me a laptop that lasts longer than a Xmas episode of Eastenders!!!!!

[Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware]

Re. battery

We did point the lower-than-Eee PC 701 spec battery out in our review of the 900 - where we also noted that we got not very much less battery life than we did with a 701, despite the 900's less capacious battery and faster CPU.

We've asked Asus to comment, but they have declined to do so. The company's under no obligation, of course, to supply the same spec here as it does elsewhere. And potential customers are under no obligation to buy until Asus sorts this out.

[Daniel Beardsall]

Enough...

...with the stock shot of a Paris Hiltonalike fondling her Eee on the beach. At least one article about the Eee where you don't use it, please? It's not as if this one was running short of images.