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Asus Confirms Specs, Price of Eee PC 904 and 1000
Ken E. writes "Asus seems to have completed its Eee PC laptop line-up, at least for the time being. The Taiwanese manufacturer has now confirmed both specifications and UK pricing of the Eee PC 904 and Eee PC 1000 — its two latest models. The Eee PC 904 is essentially an Eee PC 900 in an Eee PC 1000 chassis (big keyboard, 8.9in screen, Celeron-M 900MHz, Windows XP) and will cost £269 inc VAT. The Eee PC 1000 will cost £349 inc VAT for an Intel Atom (1.6GHz) chip, 10in screen, 80Gb HDD and Windows XP. Looks like those early Eee PC 900 adopters (£329 inc VAT, initially) have been stiffed. Still, that's progress, I guess ..."
They keep on bringing up the price and specs on these laptops. When they initially announced the EEE, they said it was going to be a $200 laptop. I still have yet to see one for $200, and with the way they keep on upping the specs, I don't think they will ever get to the $200 price point.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
$0?
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Looks like those early Eee PC 900 adopters (£329 inc VAT, initially) have been stiffed.
An early adopter "stiffed"? A technology buyer getting more stuff for less money if they just wait? No way!
Next, you'll claim that man has gone to the moon, or that Linux >> Windows, or Bush is disliked. You so craaazy.
Looks like those early Eee PC 900 adopters (£329 inc VAT, initially) have been stiffed. Still, that's progress, I guess.
No. They got a nice working computer for a price they found reasonable. Something better will come out for less money next year, and again the year after that.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
If you buy electronics, the price WILL GO DOWN in the future. This is not being "stiffed." This is reality. Stop whining. The fact that internet whiners got lucky ONE TIME with the iPhone is a freak occurrence. Do not expect your whining to every pay off for any of the millions of other electronic devices sold every day.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Every possible combination of screen size, chip, storage and memory have been packaged and named almost identically. Asus' plan to thoroughly confuse customers is complete.
The CEO saw the margins that these computers would make and said 'eeeeeeeeeeee'!
This is not a good thing for Linux adoption. Earlier articles today pointed to the increased adoption of Linux among housewives, attributed to sales of eeePCs and other cheap laptops. Now that these ones have XP on them, this can't be a good thing for the trend continuing.
This post brought to you by your friendly neighborhood MBA.
There are low-end but fully-fledged laptops (i.e. 10s of gigs, 512MB-1GB, 13"+ screen) of the OEM-unbranded type in this price range selling all over the Web in the UK. For 50 quid more, you get an Acer. And they all come with 12 month warranties, often extensible. Who actually wants the eepc?
I bought my 900 back in May for £329 so I guess that makes me one of the early adopters who are being stiffed, but to be honest that's just what happens whenever you buy electronics. I'll get over it.
I'm also not entirely convinced that there'd be that much difference in performance for my usage (casual web browsing) between my 900 and the 901, and a few extra gig of HD is fairly inconsequential when I have 320gb of USB drive for transfer/backup between my various computers anyway.
If I'd known about the new models back when I bought my 900 I *might* have waited for the 1000 series (the reason I didn't get a 70x was because I was holding out for the bigger/vaguely usable screen) but if I'm honest I'd still probably have bought then safe in the knowledge that whatever I bought, whenever I bought it, would be superceded within months anyway. Anyone who complains about their computer hardware being superceded needs to get a grip on reality.
what?
Looks like those early Eee PC 900 adopters (£329 inc VAT, initially) have been stiffed. Still, that's progress, I guess...
I know, right?
Like that first IBM PC clone I owned... Can you believe I (or rather, my parents) paid almost $2500 for a crappy ol' 8086 CPU with 256MB of RAM???
Bastards, just stickin' it to those of us who can't hold out for the $0.99 Walmart special on Quantum computers with a petabyte of memory and a sub-etha WLAN adapter! I say we sue!
<rant> I never understand this point of view. Especially with computer/tech hardware. Every one of us, when buying a new video card, or a new processor, or whatever, knows that within a few months, the price will come down on the thing we just bought, and a newer, better thing will be out. And I never see people bitching about that. But make it some shiny, all-in-one thing like an iPhone or this Eee PC, and suddenly there's this group of people who are outraged about it. What gives? It's life, you know? You can sit on all of your money and never buy anything, for fear that you could get a better deal tomorrow, or you can buy stuff today and enjoy it. </rant>
Not that the OP sounded all that bitter about it. It just reminded me of people who do.
Is getting smaller and denser all the time!
KEEP WITH IT
With JBOD rebuilding and MTF of flash we could have switchable 5 slot uber raid in every laptop.
Don't go back to HD's they are big, noisy, clunky and prone to failure!
This is what storage will look like .
I think that will have been 256KB of RAM, otherwise it would have cost a *LOT* more than $2500
I have always decided to stay out of the arms race attended by PC HW and SW firms.
Most of my HW is quite old, 7+ years apart from my early adoption of an Asus EEE. was I stiffed on the price? hell no - had it over half a year and makes a good wifi web station.
I understand the commercial reasons behind the rapid depreciation in HW and SW - but as far as I'm concerned my PC hardware is a tool, like my car. I'm upgrade only when there is a compelling reason or something breaks. Is the arms race a good or bad thing? well it promotes innovation and new technologies so I cannot really argue against it.
As long as I can still run an up to date distro on my hardware I'm a happy camper. An old PC will let me write SW, surf and do office tasks as well as a new one, and be just as net safe if I keep to a regular upgrade cycle.
I now have the good, expensive Vaio SZ, which is a great machine.
BUT for travelling around with and especially for an extended vacation (a month in aus later this year) I want something cheap and above all small and light. 13" is too big. The 901 has 1GB of RAM, a reasonable chip and a reasonable display. Sounds perfect.
Before this current spate of really small and low priced laptops, I'd have had to go for a Vaio TZ, and they are NOT cheap.
they had a 8086 with 256MB of RAM?!?
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
You get an 8.9" screen (greatest disadvantage of the 700 series is their 7" screen), larger resolution (1024x600) much larger SSD storage (20GB for the Linux version), touchpad that supports 2-finger scrolling and pinch gestures and still the same small form factor of the 700s. What's not to like?
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
I had an 80386 with 5 MB of RAM, so anything is possible.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Weren't these things meant to be cheep light netbooks? I got an email from ebuyer just the other day offering a laptop which isn't too much thicker/heavier than these (although it is slightly on both counts) with a core duo processor, 1GB of RAM, 120GB HD and a DVD +/- RW drive... all for £279.
This means they want me to pay a lot MORE to get worse specs, not great battery life, an older OS which won't be supported by 3rd parties for very much longer... I know it's slightly smaller; but really, it's just too expensive.
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Seeing as the 269lb 904 is in a bigger chassis, I would gladly pay 329lbs for the 901 since it is a lot more portable. The early adopters were possible paying for mobile computing. In fact, the 901 is still priced 30lbs higher than the 901 which means its price has gone down only 30lbs which is an acceptable premium to pay for early adoption.
Cheers!
Atheist: Buddhist in a Prius
Well, not really. The Asus Eee PC 900 was only launched in March 2008. It's July now, so that makes it.... oooh, a staggering four months before specs have shot up and the price plummeted.
Quick, buy technology product before it goes up in price!
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
They've always been available in both XP and Linux versions. The difference is that the original 700 version was out using linux first, and XP came later, the newer versions are doing it the other way around. 901 are now becoming available in the west, and so far it's all Windows XP. The cynic in me wonders if Microsoft called Asus up and said "If you ship XP versions one month before the linux versions, we'll give you a nice little rebate on your XP licenses. giddigy"
Belief is the currency of delusion.
So wait...I realize your last comment was sarcastic. At least I know Bush is disliked... If I take a bitwise right shift of Linux, I'll end up with Windows? Holy crap...makes me want to try a left bit shift...
I used to be chained to a desktop.
I got rid of the desktop, and got a laptop.
When I traveled, I didn't like the laptop so much
If you're on call and have to lug a laptop, it's annoying.
Sometimes you don't end up using it but you have to keep it around anyway..
Then I got a Nokia N800 and keyboard...
These mid-size ultraportables are nice if you need to do less than an hour's work.
For something in-between, these Asus systems seem real nice. Only reason I've held off is because the Nokia's working for me at the moment, and also with these things being so NEW it was obvious there would be some revision/model churn fairly quick.
You don't need a laptop case for some of the Asus.. just toss it in a standard backpack. It'll even fit in your pocket (if you wear cargo pants).
Am i missing something? What makes these PCs special? This is like bargain basement stuff from 2001.
I almost bought a 900 a few wEeeks back. I'm glad I didn't because now I can get a 900 for 399 with a 8.9' screen and 16 gig hard drive at newegg. Or find a good deal on regular 900's at lots of online retailers(100 Mail in rebate). Although the 901 is better, I'd rather save 100 bucks and get a slightly lesser processor. I mean the whole point of this thing is to be simple and surf the web. The upgraded processor isn't really worth the extra 100 IMHO. They really need to get these things in local stores nationwide, and then they'll be cooking.
-wondergod-
Really, this bothers me. With a 10" screen and a HD and a large keyboard, these things are getting very near to "normal" notebooks now. For me, the real advantage of the Eee PC was its small size and weight.
Well, the 80386 had a 4GB address space, so having a mere 5MB is easy. The 8086 only had a 1MB address space, so squeezing 256MB onto it would be a feat.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Seeing as the 269lb 904 is in a bigger chassis...
Sheesh! That laptop outweighs me.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
For those of us on the other side of the pond, that's about $529.66 and $687.18 respectively, using yesterday's exchange rate (i.e., the first one I found)
If I had a nickel for every time I had a nickel, I'd be richcursive!
Perhaps this has been discussed in the past EEE PC threads, but why are the machines with Linux on them selling for more, or about the same as that for the operating system from the evil empire?
In general, I understand that pre-packaged junk-ware pays for some of the cost, but is there anything more in case of these machines?
My brother did mention that some of his friends had to work for a company that Asus outsourced their driver development to (Camera, Video Card, etc.), but does it add that much to the cost?
Just doing some history checking. The 8086 or course cannot address anythingpassed 1MB unless you go into the Expanded Memory Scheme
There were many options but one was
The Intel Above Board/PC
64K RAM for $395
same outfitted with 2MB of ram it is $1000 (in 1986)
4 boards can be hooked together to get a maximum of 8MB = $4000.00
Forgetting about the 8MB limit you would need to hook together
128 boards (forgetting about that first MB in the computer itself) at
a total cost of $128,000. Now buying in bulk like that you may get a discount.
Does anybody want to figure out how long it would take to address all that
memory working with an 8 to 10 MHz processor paging 64k of the 256MB of RAM
at a time over a 16bit ISA bus.
Dear Asus,
The time has come. Drop VGA output and replace with HDMI output. Surely you (and your customers) would love the space savings of an HDMI connector over a VGA connector. As an added bonus, your customers won't be pissed that their laptops have a connector interface that is quickly becoming (already?) obsolete.
Thank you,
Mr. Sensibility
Only speak when it improves the silence.
... still waiting for the MSI Wind ...
That only makes the quoted prices worse. People in the UK and EU are looking for a 100 Euro or Pound notebook. If you figure in the lower value of the same processors, the $350 700 models should be available for less than $300 by now but essentially the same components are being sold for twice that. Finally, as the dollar fails, they should be looking to cut costs not raise them if they want to increase their share of huge US market.
If this is part of the M$ deal to put a stop to the growth of Linux on netbooks, it's going to work. Asus is not going to sell as much as they want, it's like they cut their throat to keep M$ happy.
Linux has been appended to Windows?!
No, with DVI-I. While it's bulkier (and more sturdy), thanks to carrying the VGA signal as well it doesn't have HDMI's (sometimes show-stopping) disadvantage of being unable to drive the still most common projectors with analog inputs.
SIf I take a bitwise right shift of Linux, I'll end up with Windows? Holy crap...makes me want to try a left bit shift...
It's actually saying to take Linux, and shift it "windows" bit places to the left. I have no idea what that gets you.
http://www.mhall119.com
An early adopter "stiffed"? A technology buyer getting more stuff for less money if they just wait? No way!
While you make a very good point, when a company pulls a product right after release and almost immediately replaces it with a better, cheaper version, that does suck more than normal. I don't actually know the timeline, though, just quoting TA:
At £269 inc Vat, the Eee PC 904 also considerably cheaper than the short-lived Eee PC 900. which means some early adopters will no doubt be kicking themselves...
so I checked.
You can't (which I am sure you already knew). The closest you can come is the travelmate 4720, which is about $800. You can get any number of laptops for $500, but none that I can find with a 13" screen. I'm sure that nobody that is responsible for deciding what specs a laptop will have view a smaller screen as a feature.
Also, small form factor aside, those of us who want an EEE also want it because it's pretty goddamned cool. I'll admit it.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/partners/partner.asp?mfrid=12
I pre-ordered one for my wife who loves her sister EEE but she refuses to pay 560 to 650$ (canadian) for another laptop in the house.
The new EEE is not an impulse buy anymore.
At 370$ (canadian), she's more interested.
Sure, if money was no object, Id get that 2,000 Toshiba Protege.
But since money is a consideration, the Acer One it will be.
I know at least 5-6 women who have an EEE, they all love it and they all use Linux even though most of them didnt even know it!@
With iPhones around and people desperately clinging to the clamshells of their ancient Psions and fixing the Eee's missing features by eerily advanced DIY, when will Asus et al. finally look/listen/learn?
It's actually saying to take Linux, and shift it "windows" bit places to the left. I have no idea what that gets you.
Well, it's shifting the bits to the right rather than left. If we assume that the Linux OS disk image is a single unsigned integer of magnitude around 8^(5e8), then shift that number right by a similarly sized Windows integer, then we always get a final result of zero. (Which would make the original statement False.)
Ok, so it's a bit bogus. Be that as it may,
P = -342.27273 + 72.72727*Screen_Size - 0.45000*HDD_Capacity - 0.5000*SDD_Capacity + 4.00000*OS
where:
P = price (in £ with VAT)
Screen_Size is measured in inches
HDD_Capacity is in GB
SDD_Capacity is in GB
OS = 1 for Linux, 0 for XP
--
Geology - it's not rocket science, it's rock science
Geology - it's not rocket science; it's rock science
Well, it's shifting the bits to the right rather than left.
Oops, my mistake.
If we assume that the Linux OS disk image is a single unsigned integer of magnitude around 8^(5e8), then shift that number right by a similarly sized Windows integer, then we always get a final result of zero. (Which would make the original statement False.)
I don't understand why we're not getting modded 'Funny' like the GP.
http://www.mhall119.com
The atom processor isn't really more processor for your buck, it is actually less but for a good reason. The atom is designed to be cheap to produce and power efficient. Most benchmarks show it performing about the same are the celeron 900 or a little better. But it does have a significant advantage in the power consumption category. In terms of power efficiency the atom kicks the celeron's ass. So they're really just two different processors. If you don't care about battery life the 900 will work. If you do the 901 would be a better buy. The 901 also comes with bluetooth and a weird new case design if that's worth anything to you.
The 700 line is a 9" screen form factor with a dinky little screen sitting in it like a VW Bug parked at a truck stop. My concern is device size, not screen size, so afaic, the 700 is the worst of both worlds. Not to mention the point made by the AC below that the 700 Linux boxen are out of stock left, right and center.
It's all about the information. And what we do with it.
Quick, buy technology product before it goes up in price!
I'm glad I did, just try finding a 368SX16 nowadays, or a Tseng ET1000 even. My grandchildren will be glad I acted when the market was just starting.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
a 14' notebook with 150G HDD, core2 duo and 2G memory that sells for $600? OMG OMG I'm getting so excited about it.
damm you must have had some fancy memory page system to be able to access all that ram with the 8086's 16bit address bus!
I bought a 900 (the 700 screen was just too small for me) and I've been very happy. I have a desktop that does all my high end processing/compiling/gaming/etc. But when I want mobility, the 900 is perfect. I'll pull it out in the living room to browse while I'm watching the news. Or I take it with me too and from work. I wouldn't do that with a regular laptop, but this one is so portable, it's like taking a book to work. I do kinda regret not waiting for the atom, but it might not be a problem. After seeing mine in action, several folks from work have already offered to buy mine off me...
We can get an Intel D945GCLF Little Falls Mainboard with a built-in Atom 1.6 GHz for 80$, 512MB RAM for around 15$. An external brand-name keyboard is only worth 15$, a 9" screen is probably only 50$ (if we go LVDS or whatever direct connections are called), a battery shouldn't be more than 20$ and we can buy 4GB CompactFlash cards for less than 20$.
Since these are all retail prices, my question is: where's the 200$ laptop?
Which is portability. Then people get that portability and decide they want better specs. The price goes up.
There's nothing wrong with this.
+++ATH0
I planned to buy one after seeing a colleague's. Then my main (power-hungry, noisy and Windows-based) HP Pavilion laptop had a disk crash and I decided it was time for a Macbook. My ex-programmer-but now-nurse wife fell in love with the Asus (the 4GB Linux version for £219) and we came home with both. We're both delighted, don't feel stiffed at all, and it's likely that neither will ever go back to Windows, at home at least not for home use. I've learned also to appreciate form factor and usability over raw speed (not that the Mac is lacking in that department). Now if someone call tell us how best to do cross-platform video chat with both machines and our Windows-based friends we'd be over the moon!
Touchscreen is so much better then a touchpad, even with bells and whistles like above mentioned scrolling and gestures. It's just so much easier to tap that OK button on screen with a finger! I'm not buying a small laptop without touchscreen, no way.
Well, higher-res, actually. 1024x600 is just not enough pixels. 1280x768 would give it the same amount of screen real estate as many full-size notebooks. And it's not impossible; there have been notebooks in the past with small WXGA screens, such as the Fujitsu P2120, with a 10" WXGA screen (and that was five years ago!)...
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
I hate it when people put half of their post in the title! I start reading what they have to say, but then realize that their sentence fragment makes no sense whatsoever...oh, I have to read that bit up there too in order to piece together your post. brilliant.
The Eee PC 1000H is available for pre-order. The specs: Atom CPU running at 1.6 Ghz, with a 10 inch screen, 1 GB of RAM, 80 GB HDD, XP OS and WiFi b/g/n. It weighs 3.2 lbs and has a 7.5 hour battery life (your mileage may vary). It costs $649.99 with free shipping. Shameless self-serving portion of comment: go to my site for the link http://backpackcomputing.com/
Yeah.. remember when music CD players first came out.. my dad, always an early adopter, paid $2000 for a Sony.. Now that hurts looking back.
waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
They keep on bringing up the price and specs on these laptops. When they initially announced the EEE, they said it was going to be a $200 laptop. I still have yet to see one for $200, and with the way they keep on upping the specs, I don't think they will ever get to the $200 price point.
The 2GB 7" model is $275 at BJ's today (last day of the sale). They sent coupons for them in the mail.
If the dollar hadn't fallen so precipitously in the past few years that could easily have been $200.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I really do not care as much about price as I do about weight. I lugged this: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:G40 around for a while. Of all the Eee PCs out there the 1000 looks the best. It's light. It comes with a reasonable keyboard. The SSD is just gravy. Imagine walking around downtown Chicago two winters in a row with a G40 weighing you down along with various server/computer parts in your hands during the winter (not to mention all of your tools etc.).
Oh, and for those who did not like my comment: http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=601273&cid=24027169 on a previous story; it is now my sig. You just might be too young to get it or have spent too long in your parent's basement. Apologies to those who do not have a basement.
I want my! I want my! I want my Eee PC!
Where is Bluetooth? I want to get an Eee to replace my N800 due to the larger screen, but I need it to work with my bluetooth GPS.
http://slashdot.org/~twitter/journal/206773
No no, the implication of ;)
Linux >> Windows
as a condition is that
Linux > pow(2, Windows)
Much more satisfying.
Holy crap...makes me want to try a left bit shift...
It's crazy talk like that which led to MacOS being derived from.. ah crap..
cats out of the bag now, isn't it..
There is no doubt how business runs. But the price tag is drifting further and further away from the promised of $200 price tag before launch, is still a disappointment. I also planned to buy one for my 3-years-old daughter if it was around $200 no matter the configuration.
...listprice in original article of Euros would be nicer (more people covering that part, also)...
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
Since you just did it yourself?
Come on, guys, lo-fi is cool and it always was.
I bought my eeepc 701 in January for $399 or so, and since then I have used it in the UK (where I live), Germany, Latvia, Lithuania (twice), Estonia (three times), Iran, and probably several other countries I can't remember.
My job is a net job and I love to travel. I just got done typing 4,200 words on the little keyboard of my eee (running Kubuntu 8.04 LTS), and I have to say I think my workflow is actually faster, smoother and more pleasant than it ever was on my old machine (a Clevo M520N, which weighs two kilos with a 2Ghz Pentium core duo M7200, and cost me about GBP500 or GBP600 if I remember, without the Windows tax). Not only do I very rarely find myself reaching for my big machine anymore, I was inspired by that half-assed Linux the eee came with to ditch the Windows on my main machine, and eventually install Ubuntu on both. I have converted some friends too, so good for Linux adoption.
And best of all, it has reduced the weight of my luggage to less than 8 kilos - so small that I can fit a tent and sleeping bag, along with everything I need for work, into carry on only! And, with the value of the device much lower than a normal computer and an easy backup of everything on a USB stick back at home, I'm less afraid to flash the thing around when I need to get down to work.
Tell me, I am almost as much of a geek as the next guy, but does anyone need those few extra Mhz of processing speed enough to travel with an extra bag? Isn't it worth the extra few seconds' wait for your program to load?
His Post made sense without the title as well (as well as being gramatically correct).
I really do not care as much about price as I do about weight. I lugged this: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:G40 around for a while.
Well, you should have got the X40 instead. Still can. Same weight at the Eee 1000, similar speed.
A used X40 with a memory upgrade and new battery is an interesting comparison the these new "bloated" Eee models.
you would be able to read the heading and continue reading body, creating a single narrative.
But the idiot box has you. Take the blue pill...
I won't pay more than that for such a device. For £360 I can get a (heavy) notebook that has separate graphics memory and will play a lot of older games.
For £360 I can get a fully functional desktop able to play all current games (if at lower resolution/candy).
I am kind of an isolated geek -- don't work with any linux users or the type of folks who have an eee pc. I would really like to test out and touch one of these. I went to best buy and they didn't carry them. I live in a big city (Washington DC Metro) and think somewhere around here would let me at least see what I am dealing with. Anyone know who stocks these for customers to touch?
You spelled Microsoft with a dollar sign. That's so cute, and it lends an air of legitimacy and righteousness to your post. More importantly, it injects a certain amount of freshness into the discussion, although of course I do believe you're pretty much the first person in this entire thread to even mention Microsoft at all.
Well played sah, well played indeed.
I don't like the direction of the Asus Eee laptops now. I was thinking they were trying to introduce an ultra-portable, ultra-inexpensive laptop. I'm seeing new models popping up for $599 and $699? Obviously turning in to "just another laptop." Where is the ultra-compact, wifi, durable $200-$250 laptop we're all clamoring for?
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"