Asus Eee PC 1201T reviewed – subpar battery life

Asus is certainly making the most out of its 12.1-inch netbook chassis. It currently has four netbooks sporting 12.1-inch (1366 x 768) displays. This includes the dual-core ION 1201N, the single-core ION 1201NL, the Z-series Atom 1201HA and finally the AMD Congo powered 1201T.

The guys over at Yugatech have tested the Eee PC 1201T. Whilst they liked the Seashell design, chiclet keyboard, crisp display and touchpad, they found it hard to get excited about its poor battery life and only slightly above-average CPU performance. Read more

ASUS Eee PC 1008P tested – great design, poor battery life

The Asus Eee PC 1008P-KR edition certainly looks different to most other netbooks out there. It marries the slim chassis of the previous generation 1008HA Seashell netbook with Karim Rashid’s exterior design influences.

Engadget put the Eee PC 1008P through its paces and found that it suffered from “performance issues at the expense of better design.” There’s no denying that the netbook is attractive and should appeal to the fashionistas out there, the brown model in particular. However, given its $499 price point, it offers less battery life than its cheaper peers including the Eee PC 1005PE. The model tested comes with a 1.66GHz N450 Atom processor, 2GB RAM and a 320GB HDD. Read more

Asus Eee PC 1005PE-H spotted in France with spec boost

Asus is prepping a revision of the Eee PC 1005PE netbook that will come with some improved specs. The 1005PE-H will come with 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD and Windows 7 Premium instead of 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD and W7 Starter found on the original.

Apart from that the rest of the specs are the same, including the 1.66GHz N450 Atom processor, 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) display, 6-cell 4400mAh battery, Wi-Fi (b/g/n) and Bluetooth. French retailer Fnac has it listed for €349 (€50 more expensive than the original), but there are no signs so far whether this will hit other regions.

Via Blogeee.

Asus Eee PC 1008P shipping with two batteries?

The Asus Eee PC 1008P-KR (Karim Rashid) netbook may be shipping with two batteries in parts of mainland Europe. The 1008P has been spotted as sporting two 3-cell 2900mAh batteries in Italian retailer Asus World.

This means buyers will get a quoted battery time of 12 hours (6 hours per battery). This hasn’t been confirmed yet so I’d take the news with a pinch of salt for now, but it’s great news for consumers if true. The Eee PC 1008P is available in the UK right now in low quantities for around the £340 mark.

Update: It looks like it is true, check the comments below (thanks Steffen and Stefano!)

Via Netbook Italia.

Asus Eee 1001P netbook in video unboxing

The Eee PC 1001P is the entry level Pine Trail netbook from Asus. It has typical specs that include a 1.66GHz N450 Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD and Windows XP. I like the fact that Asus has included 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) matte display with the unit.

nDevil has unboxed a German unit and it looks very similar to the 1005PE. We’ve attached that (English) video after the break, but there are a couple of additional videos (in German) that are also interesting. One compares it to the Samsung N220 and another times the 1001P’s instant-on OS. Check them all out after the break.

Update: Check out another video below where the bottom panel of the Eee PC 1001P is removed to show its internals. However, if you’re only looking to upgrade RAM, then this can easily be done by removing a solitary screw on an access panel. Read more

Tablet makers rethink strategy in wake of low Apple iPad pricing

The Apple iPad has certainly divided opinion since its official launch earlier this week. However, if there has been one universal positive, it is the low starting price of $499. Many expected a much higher price given Apple’s history of healthy margins on most of its products. Apple appear to be trying to carve this tablet market out for itself, and it has priced the iPad accordingly.

This unexpectedly low pricing has set the cat amongst the pigeons at manufacturers planning on releasing their own tablet products this year. The likes of Asus and MSI originally believed that they would price their products around 20 to 30 percent lower than the Apple iPad. But this was when a $1,000 price point was rumoured. The surprise $499 entry level pricing has caught many of these manufacturers off guard and will need to adjust prices even lower at the cost of margins. The end result is probably great news for the consumer as we’re likely to see quite keenly priced tablet products from the Taiwanese manufacturers.

Via Digitimes.

10-inch Pine Trail netbook shootout

The guys over at Laptop Mag have pitted six 10-inch Pine Trail netbooks against each other to find out a worthy winner. All models sport the 1.66GHz N450 Atom processor and various features were compared including design, performance and battery life.

The models tested were the Acer Aspire One 532h, ASUS Eee PC 1005PE-P, Dell Inspiron Mini 10, HP Mini 5102, MSI Wind U135 and Toshiba mini NB305. We won’t spoil the overall winner, but three models stood out. The Toshiba has the best keyboard and touchpad, whilst the Asus offers the best battery life. The HP is a great all rounder and great for business use. Click here to read more.

Asus prepping ION 2 powered Eee PC netbook for April?

We still don’t know exactly how Nvidia plans to introduce its ‘next-generation’ ION chipset/GPU into Pine Trail netbooks, but despite that Digitimes is reporting that Asus is planning an ION 2 powered Eee PC to launch in April.

The report goes on to say that Pine Trail netbooks should drop in price by the end of the second quarter as N270/N280 Atom-based netbooks fall out of the market. It also said that the Eee PC T101 touchscreen netbook will launch in February.

Asus Eee PC T101MT specs unearthed

The Asus Eee PC T101MT convertible netbook was first spotted passing through the FCC a few weeks back, and it was again on show at CES. The 10-inch version of the 8.9” Eee PC T91MT has been due to launch for the best part of the year, but its appearance hopefully means we will see it hit retail shelves in 2010.

The MT stands for multi-touch, although strangely Asus has opted for a 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) resistive panel, rather than capacitive. This means you need to exert a little pressure on the screen to get pinching to work. Asus has bundled a stylus and handwriting software into the package to make the most of its tablet features. Read more

Nvidia Tegra 2 Tablet/Smartbook CES Roundup [Video]

Following the official Nvidia Tegra 2 announcement, a whole number of different next-gen Tegra powered products were shown on the trade floor at CES. Rather than creating a post for every single one, we’ve summarised each below and attached any relevant videos. Most of these consisted of tablets, rather than smartbooks, but it gives you a good idea of what to expect over the coming year. Check out the Tegra 2 action after the jump. Read more

Asus Eee PC 1201NL: Single-core ION netbook spotted

The 12.1-inch Asus Eee PC 1201N is widely recognized as one of the fastest netbooks on the market right now. Hardly surprising considering it includes a 1.6GHz dual-core Atom 330 processor and Nvidia ION chipset.

However, it looks like Asus is planning on releasing another model in the 1201 Seashell netbook range (we already have the 1201HA and 1201T too). The new Eee PC 1201NL was spotted at CES with a single-core 1.6GHz N270 Atom and Nvidia ION chipset. It will be sold with Windows 7 Starter rather than Windows 7 Home Premium, found on the 1201N. Read more

Face-off: Four ION netbooks do battle

Laptop Mag has pitted the four current ION netbooks on the market against each other. This includes the dual-core Asus Eee PC 1201N, HP Mini 311, Lenovo S12 ION and Samsung N510. They compared each of the four across a number of categories including battery life, value for money, design as well as video and gaming performance.

It’s probably not surprising to hear that the Asus Eee PC 1201N won most of the performance tests, whilst the HP Mini 311 won best design and value for money. The Samsung N510 came out on top in terms of battery life. Choosing a winner seems a bit subjective as people will value different features more strongly than others. Click through to find out who the overall winner was.

Update: Engadget also has a good write-up of the above four ION netbooks head-to-head.

Asus Eee PC T101MT convertible tablet passes through FCC

Asus’ 10-inch convertible netbook has been on the cards for a while now and it looks like they may finally be getting around to launch it. The Asus Eee PC T101MT convertible tablet has passed through the FCC, pointing to the fact that it will launch with a multi-touch display (much like the 8.9-inch Eee PC T91MT).

The FCC filings do not reveal too much information apart from the product label and a picture of the back. Click through for these pictures. Hopefully we’ll hear more at CES 2010 in January. Read more

MSI Wind U135 hands-on impression roundup

The MSI Wind U135 was officially announced yesterday armed with Intel’s N450 Atom Pineview processor. The 10-inch netbook has already seen some hands-on impressions from both Engadget and Laptop Mag. The Wind U135 comes with a chiclet keyboard, 20 percent larger touchpad over the U130 and a new stripy lid pattern.

Engadget found that performance was pretty much on par with the Asus Eee PC 1005PE that was widely reviewed yesterday. The chiclet matte keys felt sturdier than the 1005PE. The plastic chassis feels solid enough and it’s good to know that the 6-cell battery only protrudes slightly. Read more

Asus Eee PC 1001P Pineview netbook announced

Asus UK has officially announced the Eee PC 1005P, 1005PE and 1001P netbooks. The first two we’ve already heard a lot about, but the 1001P has not been mentioned until now. I imagine it will be an entry level model although we don’t have too many hard details.

The Asus Eee PC 1001P will be powered by a 1.66GHz N450 Atom processor, 1GB RAM and a 160GB HDD. It will come with a 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) display and weigh 1.1kg. That’s all we know for now but hopefully we’ll get back to you soon with details on pricing and availability as well as a firmer spec-list.

Update: We’ve managed to gather some additional details on the Eee PC 1001P. It will come with Windows XP (not Windows 7), a 0.3MP webcam and a 4400mAh 6-cell battery good for 8.5 hours of battery life. The total weight including battery will be 1.27kg.

« Previous Page — Next Page »