I should also add, just look at the price difference between the Macbook Air, really the only difference is the HD.

ThatOneWeirdo

@LittleJon: HDD's are actually cheaper than SSD's. Though obviously SDD's use less power.

ThatOneWeirdo

imho once they go hdd, then theres really no point to this thing.

@utube2007:

i'm with you on that. like most people, i kind of thought they had their starter model, and were planning on sticking with that niche' market.

i think once they start becoming a more traditional laptop company (using Oses like xp, hdd instead of ssd, and gets to the point where they are even charging basically what everyone else is) then things will just go down hill until they revert back to what they were doing before. If i want a generic generic laptop i'll go with one of the standard companies...no point in going to asus if they're not offering anything different from the competition.

jrghoull

Why would they use SSD's when regular flash is getting so cheap?

gamecrazychris

i think asus is just using this to introduce there brand to the masses; if you ask most people about Asus they have no clue who they are.

Start with something only a few compete in then keeping moving until you get to the main markets of Dell, HP etc. then have the market Dell, Asus, HP and etc.

utube2007

We have an internal network where I work which is secure and an external network which is open-access and available to anyone with a WiFi card. I'm looking for a solution small enough to toss in my Timbuk2 and pull out for web and app access. If it can run Google Docs and have some local storage, that's really all I want. If it means squinting, I'll do that too.

I'm a Mac guy as well, and will give up the OS for anything that doesn't have VNC running on it that I can use at lunch or on breaks.

vesuvian

It is small and cheap. Other laptops can compete in price or size, but this is pretty much the only alternative if you want both. I think we're really seeing the end of the idea that a sub-notebook has to be a pricier option than the standard sizes (cf. the Vaios).

I'm drooling all over this thing, and as a mac guy, that's saying a lot. I could definitely see myself running Ubuntu on one of these.

idoru

How is this different from a normal laptop? It's beginning to look like a UMPC in sheep's clothing.

dagamer34

i think as long as they stay under the $400 pricetag they are fine. but if it ends up in the 600-700 range then u are better off buying the lowerend laptops that are one clearance everywhere else.

sdsviet

If they add a HDD (having already increased the screen size) then isn't it starting to look a lot like any other small notebook PC? Isn't the price also going to look a lot like that of any other small notebook too?

LittleJon

@rospaya:
The wording is a bit off, in the original article they present it as a choice of staying with intel, or going to VIA. Might be a good idea to correct it though.

@takemetoyourtoaster:
It runs ubuntu pretty well, even with compiz enabled. That, and the USB ports, x86 processor, and higher resolution screen should be enough to sway anyone to the eee ;)
(i had the same dilemma : )

Synthaxx

at the moment a i would rather have nokia n810 than a eee pc, but if they do all of that and have it ~400 i would think about it, especially if it could run ubuntu.

takemetoyourtoaster

"Asus will move away from the VIA processors, instead adopting Intel's Atom platform in Q2, this year."

EEE never used VIA processors, so what's the fuss?

rospaya

I would like some more, err, manly colors. The only real choice I have now is black. I would like a cobalt blue, like the one on the new DS Lite.

As much as I would like to buy an EEE, there are many more gadgets higher on the list, such as a digital camera. My last big purchase was this Dell Inspiron 1420, so the Asus will have to wait a bit.

JaggedToaster

New York city sleekness"? Damn, it must be fugly!

Palestina

small pecs

Slartibartfast

@Ralph48: Ha, yeah. If it gets here anytime this year...

JaggedToaster

Here are two of the most important quotes from the interview:
"In the beginning of April we will be releasing the 8.9-inch"
"In the beginning and in April around the release date it will initially be higher and be around $499 in the United States."

Easily covered by my Economic Stimulus check!

Ralph48

Why would they use SSD's when regular flash is getting so cheap?

Solid-state drives are 'flash' memory -- both are just NAND memory. SSDs are more expensive because they use flash memory that is likely to survive much longer than the average thumb drive, have a similar or higher data density, and are intended for faster data write and read than many thumb drives. There is also some (trivial) overhead in order to have the NAND drive seem like a conventional IDE or SATA drive.

Going to cheaper NAND memory would reduce the price, but in return would result in bulkier drives, slower drives, or drives that began to fail earlier.

imho once they go hdd, then theres really no point to this thing.

If it remains a low-cost, highly portable device with a reasonable amount of usability, I don't see how that's going to change the average user's viewpoint on the thing. I've yet to see a general user review -- not a computer expert, but a normal Joe -- notice the solid-state drive. They'll go gaga over the small size and low cost, though, yet that's nothing that conventional hard drives can't avoid changing.

gattsuru

SSDs have far far more read/write cycles than regular flash drives. It's why the price difference is so great for what's essentially the same product. SSDs have fairly sophisticated programming that controls how often various parts of the drive get written to in order to improve lifespan. Regular flash drives do not.

Better screen is nice but I don't WANT a much larger footprint; if it gets too close to my macbook in size, there's little point. The advantage of the eee in its current incarnation is that it's just SO much smaller than anything else with that much power. And given how easy it is to switch over to XP if one wishes, I can't see why they're bothering to license it and risk raising the baseprice so much.

gyffes

@Palestina: I was hoping for New York city sluttyness, myself.

Windhawk

windows and a 20GB SSD? isn't the eee's whole purpose to be an affordable laptop? i've had enough of windows, especially for the extra cost, and at today's flash memory prices, 20GB SSD means you're paying at least a buck just for the storage space.

rimplestultskin

what via processors? my 4g surf has an intel celeron, and so do the other models as far as i know.

firesign

@firesign: Yup, all Eee's run underclocked Intel Celerons (667MhZ) in the Linux incarnation. I've tweaked my black 4G to run slightly faster but it's irrelevant on the base Xandros OS.

8.9" would be sweet, get rid of that bezel and put the real estate to some use. I don't think the footprint would increase all that much (think 2mm W/H?)

Bah to Windows. As long as they keep the Linux options available, I'll be happy.

shoegazer

I have the 701 but would happily trade it in for a 20GB running XP - I'm a Mac person but hate the fact that I need to ask a friend whenever I need my eee moded.

As for the higher price - still vastly lower than any other ultralight laptop.

Taureg