SMART offers Asus Eee PC 904 GO with embedded 3G

Netbooks offered as part of data packages are becoming a common strategy among wireless carriers across the world. Now the Philippines wireless carrier, SMART, is launching the country’s first netbook with built-in 3G. It will offer the Asus Eee PC 904 GO for an upfront cost of 1,000 Philippines Pesos (c$20) and a 24-month contract costing 799 Philippines Pesos ($16.5) per month. The contract allows a very reasonable 60 hours of internet access per month at speeds of up to 2Mbps.

The lifetime cost of the contract is P20,176 ($420) over two years which is not too bad considering a rather decent sized keyboard on the 8.9-inch model. The Asus Eee PC 904 GO is powered by a Celeron M processor rather than an Intel Atom and comes with 1GB RAM. It also has a 80GB hard-disk drive and 1.3MP webcam.

“As we innovate and offer more and more services under our mobile broadband portfolio, we hope to advance our ‘Internet for All’ agenda, to bring the benefits of broadband Internet to the grassroots,” said Orlando Vea, Chief Wireless Advisor of SMART.

Asus Fold/Unfold notebook will cost $1,000 – $1,500

Asus plans to bring its Fold/Unfold concept to reality by commercially launching the product in September or October 2009 according to a TechRadar interview with Asus’ CEO Jerry Shen. He also said that the new type of notebook will retail for somewhere between $1000 to $1500. We previously reported that a launch was being pencilled in for the third quarter this year, but this is the first time we have had details on pricing.

This new form factor has a keyboard that slides backwards as the screen is opened, maximising room for the keys, trackpad and palm rest. As we have discussed previously, this new concept is a very interesting development for netbooks as given the size limitations of netbooks and efforts by manufacturers to maximise keyboard space, we would be very surprised to not see this concept appear in an Asus netbook at some point in the future.

Netbook Review Roundup 20/03/2009

Netbook Choice’s roundup of netbook reviews from around the web on Friday 20th March 2009.

Asus Eee PC 1000HE @ Good Gear Guide
Rating: 4 Stars

Asus Eee PC 1000HE @ The Register
Rating: 90 percent

Asus Eee 1002HA @ Global Post
Rating: N/A

HP Mini 1000 Mi Edition @ Cnet
Rating: 3.5 Stars

Asus Eee PC 1000HE Unboxing Roundup

The Asus Eee PC 1000HE, successor to the best-selling 1000H, will not only come with a much improved keyboard but also a battery (rated at 8700 mAh) life of 9.5 hours per charge. It also has a chiclet keyboard like the new MacBook range.

A number of publications have unboxed the 1000HE over the last 24 hours. First up is Electric Pig who had just received the unit through the door and posted some initial pictures. Blogeee has a much more comprehensive range of photos, looking at every conceivable angle of the 1000HE. Lastly, Einfach-Eee.de has an unboxing video (in German) of the unit which we’ve included after the jump.

In other related news, Asus has announced that its Eee PC 100HE has achieved a record number of global pre-orders. The 1000HE is also ranked among the top three most wanted gadgets on Amazon according to the company. We’ll hopefully have our review of the 1000HE in the coming weeks. Read more

Asus Eee PC 1008HA UK pricing revealed

The Asus Eee PC 1008HA is one of our most eagerly anticipated netbooks. We have just found out that that the 1000HA is expected to go on sale in the UK at a price point of £359 (including VAT). Crudely taking the current exchange rate would give a price point of $511 in the US or €382 in Europe.

The 1008HA has some wonderful looks and the internals aren’t too shabby either. The 10.2-inch LED backlit screen supports a resolution of 1024 x 600 and is powered by an Intel N280 Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM. It will also come with a 160GB hard-disk drive, no SSD versions of the 1008HA are currently planned. It is just 1-inch thick and weighs 1.1kg. The unit is expected to be released next month.

Asus Eee PC T101H – Video hands on

Whilst CeBIT may have come and gone, JKKMobile finally got around to posting a hands-on demonstration of the Asus Eee PC T101H. The Asus T101H is a convertible tablet in similar vein to the 8.9-inch T91 but supports a 10-inch (1024 x 600) screen instead. The T101H also has a faster CPU in the form of a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU compared to the 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU found in the T91.

This bigger size also brings a bigger keyboard and an Elantech multi-touch touchpad, which has more features than the Synaptics touchpad found on the T91. Check out the video after the jump, which also includes a size comparison to the T91. Read more

Asus wins Red Dot Design Awards for S101 and S121

The Asus Eee PC S101 and upcoming 12-inch version the S121 are some of the most elegant netbooks on the market. The pair have been recognised for combining a sexy design with functionality by receiving the prestigious 2009 Red Dot Design Award. Other Asus design winners included the Eee Keyboard PC, P30 notebooks and ASUS Chocolate notebook keyboard.

The international red dot design award ranks among the largest and most famous design competitions in the world. Each year an international jury reviews and evaluates the submitted products according to stringent criteria like degree of innovation, functionality and the formal quality of the product. This ensures that the seriousness of the competition and its international acceptance is upheld. Some more info on the winners after the jump. Read more

ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Touchscreen video tutorial

For the more adventurous modders out there, a three-part video tutorial has emerged showing how to fit a touch-panel screen to the Asus 1000HE. Of course, you could just wait for Asus’ T91 due in late May/early June but that wouldn’t be half as much fun!

The tutorial was put together using a Hoda Technology touchscreen kit, and as we’ve seen in similar guides it involves opening the netbook bezel, slotting in the resistive touch panel and connecting it up to a USB header inside. The typical connection is made using the webcam USB socket, with a second USB header for the camera to reconnect to.

You can find the Hoda Touchscreen kit on eBay for around $99 (with varying shipping costs) giving you everything from the touch panel, USB harnesses and all cabling, and even the stylus. You’ll also get three more internal USB ports for future hacks. Check out the three videos after the jump. Read more

Asus limiting storage options for Eee range

Asus will be trying to make its product line less confusing by offering fewer storage options for Eee PCs. Currently, Eee PC models are available in each country with a choice of hard-disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drives (SSD), the company will from August offer only one version per model in any given country.

“We plan to make the product line a lot clearer for consumers. Currently you have a lot of choice of SSD and hard disk, but we plan to find the one consumers want the most and make the choice easier,” an Asus spokesperson said.

As a general rule, the “high-end” models are likely to come with SSDs and the more “mainstream” models with HDDs. The spokesperson stressed that Asus would still manufacture HDD and SSD options for each model, but would choose which version to sell in each market.

Via ZDNet.

Asus Eee PC T91 – First press shots appear

The first press shots of Asus’ 8.9-inch convertible tablet, the Eee PC T91, have appeared. This is ahead of a planned April/May release. Pricing has not been confirmed but is expected to be between $499 to $ 549 (c£500) on release.

As with the other close-up shots we saw earlier in the week, the net tablet looks very elegant in white with its black edges along with metal hinge. It is one of the few 8.9-inch netbook models planned for release, with 10-inches being very much the standard now. It’s certainly one of the most anticipated netbooks here at Netbook Choice (NbC), with its stylish looks and hopefully functional tablet. Its keyboard could be one of the most comfortable from Asus too. Hit the link for more pictures. Read more

Asus Eee PC 701 gets Multitouch mod

Whilst we are seeing some manufacturers such as Asus and Gigabyte show off their convertible-tablet models with touchscreen displays, we still are not yet seeing multitouch models. However, it looks like a prototype of the Asus Eee PC 701 with multi-touch was caught at CeBIT by Eee-PC.de.

Apparently it is just a concept design although it is unknown whether it was made my Asus, a third-party or just an enthusiastic modder. You may have also spotted that the netbook is running Windows 7, with its native multitouch support, making it far easier to get the panel up and running. Check out the video after the jump. Read more

Buffalo develops swappable SSD enclosure for Eee PCs

The solid-state drives that come with many netbook PCs are generally so small most users will want to upgrade them soon enough, but what does one do with the old memory? Buffalo has come up with a clever answer by developing 32GB and 64GB SSD (solid-state drive) replacements for the Asus Eee PC 901 along with a USB enclosure for converting the old SSD into an external drive.

The newer, faster drive is placed into the Eee 901 whilst the old 16GB SSD is taken out and placed into the enclosure, leaving you with a 16GB external drive. The idea is certainly novel and with SSD’s growing in capacity and coming down in price we can see other manufacturers developing similar systems for other netbook models.

The 32GB kit costs ¥12,700 (£95), while the 64GB kits is ¥22,400 (£167). Sadly it is only available in Japan for now where it is expected to release in April. However, if the idea catches on we’re sure to see them worldwide soon.

Via Portable Monkey.

Asus S121 previewed – style over substance?

There is no doubting that the Asus S101 is one of the prettiest netbooks on the market at the moment. It’s bigger brother, the 12-inch Asus S121, looks even better and according to the guys over at TrustedReviews, even nicer than Asus’ 1008HA.

Apart from the great looks they found the S121 a pleasure to use with excellent battery life along with it having the best Asus keyboard they’ve used to date. On the negative side, this isn’t the speediest netbook around (running at only 1.3GHz) with only 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD (rather than dual-storage system of the S101). Also, given a WXGA display, it seems that the most isn’t made of the screen as there is little chance of running HD content on the S121 given the weak CPU. Hopefully a refresh with the Intel GN40 or Nvidia Ion is on the horizon. Key points and more pictures after the jump. Read more

Asus Eee is best selling netbook brand in Japan

The Asus’ Eee PC brand is Japan’s favourite according to research firm Gfk, with a market share of 27 percent in terms of sales. Since the start of 2009, Asus has sold 60,000 Eee PCs.

The best selling netbook in Japan last week (March 2nd to 8th) was the Asus Eee PC 1000H followed by Lenovo’s S10 4068A. The Acer Aspire One claimed third spot according to Digitimes.

Photos of the Asus Eee PC T91 net tablet

Pocket-lint managed to get hands-on with the Asus Eee PC T91 this week and posted a number of close-up photos of this Asus beauty. The 8.9-inch convertible tablet which runs on Windows XP allows you to launch into the T91’s touch modes (based on a Linux kernel) through a touch of a button on its bezel. Whilst using a finger is fine for navigation the unit also houses a stylus tucked at the front.

To keep the size and weight down, the system will come with a 32GB SSD. It will also come with WiFi and Bluetooth. Additional options will include 3G modem, GPS and even a TV tuner. The T91 is expected to have a UK launch in May costing £500. Hit the link for some more photos. Read more

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