@ARP: Seconded.

auslander

At that price-point and screen-size they should have upped the resolution a bit. That would make it a true travelers laptop.

ARP

Are you listening Apple? They have managed to fit a dedicated graphics card into a laptop that is smaller and lighter than my Macbook (not to mention cheaper), but if I want dedicated graphics and Mac OS I have to spring for a macbook pro and lug around a 15 inch laptop?

I've been thinking this since the 12 inch powerbook was killed off and now I'm gonna say it - there is something missing from you product line!!! If Asus can do it, why can't you?....

craig_16

@MickeyMoo:
You have a good point, though I think there's still a lot to be said pitting this against the MacBook Air.

Buying an Air as opposed to this would seem downright silly to me. Sure they have different form factors, but considering the features on this badboy it'd be hard for me to turn this down in favor of an Air.

Keebler

Kinda hefty but worth the GPU i guess 0_o.@ARP: yeah. take dvantage of that new graphic card

But seriously, the line is starting to blur here, throw in some few thing and you'll get a mini laptop. It would be a wonder if they could maintain the price range which would ultimately pull down full fledge laptop prices.

snowy_coke

@craig_16: it's probably simply and technically feasible to install OSX on the NB10 ... oops did I say that out loud? ... that would be violation of Jobb's EULA :)

Dizznizzle

3.5 lb is too heavy to mention in the same breath as the EeePC. These mini notebooks really max out at about 2.5 lbs, with less than 2 lbs being ideal.

Serolf Divad

@craig_16: Apple has always been about artificial product segmentation - well back into the early 90's - they can't (and shouldn't) match Dell's product lineup, if they made the macbook the way most of us would like it, then they'd cannibalize sales of the MacBook Pro. If the mini could run FinalCut, then why would people pay more for a Pro tower? It's unfortunate, but it's the way things are. IE: "Steve has decided that it's in your best interest..."

MickeyMoo

Too big, too expensive. Not so much filling a gap but spanning a gap that don't need to be spanned. Not smashing open the piggy bank for this.

Bob1967

for the same price you can get a HP TX2510 'tablet' pc thing they have...ok its not a light..but for the same price its got way more.

asus has got to stick to the 300$ range cheap netbooks...

if they're trying to jump into some new gap they should do it was way lower priced products because this gap is already well covered at the 850$ price range!!

henhen

A brand name on laptop speakers means two things: Jack and Shit.

dingus

I have OS X running nearly perfectly on my MSI Wind. Requires a different miniPCI WiFi card and no sound from the headphone jack (don't understand that one). But otherwise, I'm pretty happy!

Marcelebrate

what was once a good idea (eee) has now snowballed into the SUV-ization of inexpensive, minimalist ultra-portables. Do we really need this? Insanity....

joch

Aww come on. When is ATI ever going to come out with the external graphics card?

ripfire

@MickeyMoo: You're right in everything you say, but I still see no reason why apple can't release a 12-13" MacBook Pro at a price between the current Macbook and the 15" Macbook Pro. The only canibalisation that would occur then is people either paying more for an integrated graphics card or slightly less for the form factor they want. This is how things were before the switch to intel, so what's changed? Hell, I'd probably even pay the same price as the 15" Macbook Pro for a 12-13" one - that's how much I hate lugging around a 15 inch or larger laptop.

@Dizznizzle: I guess that is an option, but having read around it's quite difficult to get EVERYTHING to work correctly (sound, wifi, keyboard etc). Also, my brother asked me to try and install OS X on his Eee 1000H and the install failed half way through rendering the laptop unbootable. I couldn't even get to the boot selection menu. Avoiding these kind of problems is one of the reasons I went mac in the first place. Respect to anyone who does it though. F*ck the EULA. Hehe.

Anyway, back on topic... Having used an Eee 1000H I can tell you that the extra inch makes quite a difference in the usability of the keyboard and screen, and that the 1.6Ghz N270 is perfectly capable of running XP at surprising speeds. Add on dedicated graphics and 2GB of RAM and I reckon you've got yourself a winner. I can see this being popular amongst frequent flyers and chicks.

craig_16

@Serolf Divad: Yeah, it's heavier than an Eee, but good luck finding anything under 2 pounds - especially with a 6-cell battery.

Mark Wilson

Specs for the cheaper models are included in the gallery after the link.

[www.boygeniusreport.com]

Basically, differences in operating system, HDD capacity, and HDMI out presence, if I remember correctly from last night.

FlipSwitch

in context of the atom cpu and games, is a 256mb graphics card really sensible? my atom cored netbook with standard Intel GMA950 is fine with most old games (save lacking TnL support) and the cpu wouldn't really support any newer games that might require more graphics rendering... unless it is for vista or something...

xpeak

@craig_16: Craig, just buy an asus and stfu or else get a mac and stop whining. "Beggers cant be choosers".

redwingsmonk

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't having "an Nvidia GeForce Go 9300M GS 256MB graphics card" in a lappie with a "1.6Ghz Atom" processor just kinda useless? Wouldn't the processor be the bottleneck?

You know, because I have a 8400M on my 2.0 Dual Core 2Mb ram, and even games like Half Life 2 and Counter Strike Source won't run without lagging even on lowest settings.

I still don't know the bottleneck, but I know it's a hardware problem.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi: Yeah but now you can playback HD content without worrying about 100% CPU usage.

I doubt anyone's going to play any games with a 9300M. That's a weak GPU compared to a 9600 or a 9800.

strang

I´ve got an Asus eee PC900 myself
and I love it for it´s size and weight.

BUT....I´d not want it an inch bigger, or several "lbs" fatter, the whole point of the thing vanishes with these additions.

I already have a super lightweight Zepto with a kick a** Nvidia Card onboard with 512 mb dedicated ddr3 ram, 2 gb ram, ultra fast harddrive and only 2.3 kg in weight... this one is 2 years old now

...and still too heavy, but it DOES have all the features!

Guess what? I use the Asus!
The whole point of the mini pc - was portability, who on EARTH needs 2-3 lbs extra just to get "gaming capabilites"?

Buy the Zepto one then....you can´t beat their portable gaming machines in weight vs. performance ratio anyway.

But I still use the Asus...

JoOngle

$850? thats not that far off from something like an X61, which is a much more powerful all-around machine. would i really want to pay that much for something that is just for surfing the web and watching movies? i would be able to do all that plus run actual applications on the X61. Wasn't one of the points of the netbook concept to be small and inexpensive?

alainiala

@craig_16: I agree, the Macbook should have an option for a real GPU.

Shadowlayer