The T91MT has an 8.9-inch 1024×600 screen with a 256-level pressure sensor, runs on an Atom Z520 processor with 1GB RAM, a 32GB SSD and all the standard wireless and connectivity. It weighs 960 grams with the battery, which is pretty sweet, and comes preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Multitouch does come at a bit of a premium though, with the T91MT set to set you back $999.

[Asus]

Should we consider $US500 a good deal?

Yes and no. The formfactor is thin and quite small — 3cm thick and just 1.45kg. That’s great. It’s a big-screen netbook… which I guess is a small laptop.

I mean, I’m not arguing that this is probably the most promising netbook of all time. But remember when we were getting Core 2 Duo computers like this from Dell/HP/etc for the same price? Yeah, they were chunky machines. But what happened to those computers? Where did they go?

I know I’m not hallucinating here.

Yes, the 1201N looks like a very cool little laptop, and I’m pumped to use an Eee that can handle HD video on a beautiful screen and through tempting HDMI-out. I’m not really upset about the Eee itself. I’m upset that the budget, jack-of-all trades laptop has virtually died as we’ve seen this artificial performance cap put on the budget laptop market. Then again, maybe Ions have enough power that none of us will mourn the loss of cheaper, fatter Core 2 Duos. When reviews hit and the dust settles, we’ll know for sure.

Until then, read Laptop’s impressions: [Laptop via Netbook Choice via Engadget]

These Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz Windows Home Servers can back up to 10 PCs and serve all the files you want. It has two 3.5-inch bays for up to 2 terabytes of storage space, with one Gigabit Ethernet port, and six USB 2.0 ports to add more storage or whatever you want. [Asus via Hot Hardware via Engadget]

The Asus G51J 3D is the first laptop to feature NVIDIA’s new 3D vision technology, and it takes advantage of a high performance, 15.6-inch 120Hz LCD that, when coupled with shutter glasses (yup, you still need glasses) garnered these praises from Laptop:

…unlike the TriDef technology that powers Acer’s 3D laptop, titles optimised for 3D vision give you a great sense of depth without negatively affecting gameplay. On first person shooters, for example, we found it difficult to aim when using the Acer 5738DG. On the Asus G51J 3D, you don’t make any compromises in terms of control or accuracy.

For the 3D tech, you’ll take a resolution hit (there’s no 3D 1080P display option) and pay a $US200 premium, making the full gaming $US1700.

Keep in mind that Acer’s system, while utilising only rudimentary polarised glasses 3D, costs under $US800. [Laptop Mag]

They say that sub-$400 netbooks are 20 per cent more likely to fail in the first year. But no real surprises there.

SquareTrade says it randomly selected over 30,000 laptops and netbooks covered by its warranty plans for the study. Brands with a minimum of 1000 laptops included Acer, Apple, Asus, Dell, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba. Accidental damage and software issues handled by the retailer were not included in the numbers.

Summary below, while the full report can be found at: [SquareTrade]

• Over 31 percent of laptops will fail in the first three years of ownership.
• Of these failures, two-thirds came from hardware malfunctions (20.4 percent) and one-third (10.6 percent) was reported as accidental damage.
• Asus and Toshiba were the most reliable manufacturers, with fewer than 16 percent having a hardware malfunction over three years.
• Netbooks are projected to have a 20 percent higher failure rate from hardware malfunctions than more expensive laptop computers.
• Manufacturers proved to be a more reliable determinant of reliability than the type of laptop and should be a greater factor in making a purchase decision.

The increased responsiveness and gesture-based control better be worth the wait.

RegHardware also reports that the Wi-Fi/Ultra Wide Band aerial has been made an external dongle, because the keyboard’s metallic body reduced the signal. A planned non-metallic version will integrate the wireless receiver.

At Computex, the Eee Keyboard’s netbook-like specs included a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 16GB or 32GB solid-state hard disk, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI and battery (no word on its capacity). Considering it’s now pushed out to early 2010, hopefully they’ll swap in one of those new Atom processors, too. [Reg Hardware]

The thread is only five pages long, but multiple users are claiming the exact same “0xE8000065″ error message when trying to sync their data. The issue appears on P55-based motherboards from Asus, MSI and Gigabyte, and it seems like Windows 7 64-bit is more prone to the problem than its 32-bit brother.

Keep in mind the P55 is a new chipset, and unless you’re computer is brand-spankin’ new or you’re the DIY type, chances are you have a setup that works perfectly fine.

If you do have a new P55-based motherboard, Microsoft is looking into the issue. Hopefully a fix for you unlucky few will come soon enough. [The Register via Engadget]

Unfortunately, the guys at Maximum PC didn’t have any USB 3.0 devices to run the card through its paces. All we know is that Windows 7 boots fine once it’s installed, and it gets similar USB 2.0 transfer rates to other controllers out there.

That said, we all know that USB 3.0 is going to be blazing. As long as the card performs anywhere near as fast as we expect from USB 3.0, the fact that it’ll be out “soon” and won’t cost much is good enough for me. [Maximum PC via CrunchGear]

Maybe all the interest in Android 2.0 got them interested again.

As a reminder, Smartbooks are just Qualcomm’s name for netbooks that use ARM-based processors, which are needed to run Android. (Acer actually ported Android to Atom processors for its Aspire One netbook). Nvidia is also pushing its ARM-based Tegra chip for Smartbooks. [Shanzai (translated)]

It has 10 USB 2.0 orifices too. Personally, I’d just wait for a full USB 3.0 board, where every port’s USB 3.0. Otherwise, you’re just gonna feel cramped and then dumb, when you have to buy another board. If you must have the 3.0 now this slab supports CrossFire and SLI with a pair of PCIe x 16 slots, a pair of Gigabit ethernet ports and eSATA. Of course, there’s no price or date for this thing yet, which makes it a little less exciting, perhaps. As exciting as gimped USB 3.0 motherboards can get, anyway. [Register]