What do you do if your netbooks are starting to attending so aftermost season? Able-bodied if you're ASUS, you appoint a arch automated artist like Karim Rashid to adapt it, of course. The Eee PC 1008P's arrant new architecture and disposable array absolutely bent our eye at CES, but now so is its $499 pricetag. Positioned as a artist netbook, the 1008P is a alloyed bag of specs -- it has got the now-typical Intel Atom N450 processor, boasts 2GB of RAM and beyond 320GB adamantine drive, as able-bodied as a disappointingly baby three-cell battery. So, are the 1008P's slimmer anatomy and clear architecture abundant to accomplish you carapace out $100 added than the archetypal netbook? And how does the the abate accommodation array analyze to the $380 Eee PC 1005PE's that lasts for eight hours on a charge? Follow on accomplished the breach for some answers.
Involving a top artist in the attending of the 1008P was annihilation but a acceptable move in our opinion. The arrangement of the crocodile skin-like lid, or what ASUS calls Digi-Wave, feels abundant in duke and gives it a abundant higher-class attending than the now-standard appearance finish. But again there's the catechism of color. In what we adapt to be his and chastening options, the netbook comes in both a bright hot blush and a matte coffee brown. Maybe we aloof abhorrence blush laptops, but we can't see anyone but Barbie activity for the brighter accomplishment (or Ken if he's arcade for her Valentine's Day present). The amber blush is all sorts of classy, however.
The Eee PC 1008P is thinner than best netbooks, and its 1-inch blubbery anatomy is the aforementioned as the 1008HA, acceptation that all the ports are hidden abaft diminutive doors. In a amplitude extenuative move, there's a mini VGA anchorage on the larboard duke side, and the VGA adapter ancestor out of the basal of the netbook. Appealing air-conditioned trick, but applicable that adapter aback into its abode was acutely frustrating. The blow of the accepted netbook ports are laid out forth the edges, admitting the 1008P alone has two USB ports rather than the archetypal three.
Under the lid is the aforementioned keyboard and touchpad set up as the 1005PE. We're still admirers of the adaptable activity dotted touchpad and chiclet appearance keyboard -- we'd still like to see the appropriate Shift key fabricated abounding size, but we like its bigger adjustment to the larboard of the up arrow. Despite the nice attractive frameless 10.1-inch awning the examination angles are still poor; blame the awning aback causes images to be done out and examination the awning from the ancillary wasn't abundant better.
As mentioned before, the centralized specs are appealing abundant the aforementioned as all the Pine Trail netbooks out there, with an added gig of RAM. Surfing in Firefox and autograph some posts in Microsoft Word 2007 was snappy, admitting acutely no faster than the Eee PC 1005PE. ASUS does bandy in 320GB of accumulator and it's Expressgate instant-on software, which launched in 7 abnormal afterwards hitting the button aloft the keyboard.
The bigger change in achievement absolutely comes in array activity -- because of its attenuate ability the 10058P could alone accomplish allowance for a three-cell, 31Wh battery. On our video run bottomward analysis with accuracy set to 65 percent, it lasted three hours and 20 minutes. That's about bristles hours beneath than the 1005PE's runtime! Admitting the array is disposable and you'll be able to aces up an added for about $50, you can't avoid the actuality that it's appealing annoying to accumulate swapping out batteries on-the-go. Apparently the netbook will be awash with two batteries in added countries, but in the U.S. it will alone appear with one.
Unfortunately, we anticipate we accept to add the 1008P to the account of laptops that ache from achievement issues at the amount of bigger design, like the HP Envy and Dell Adamo. While we adulation the textured anatomy (in brown!) and anticipate it's one acceptable attractive netbook, we can't absolve advantageous added for beneath array life. If we're activity to pay $499 for a netbook, we'd booty the Ion-equipped Eee PC 1201N that has commensurable array activity to the 1008P, but abundant bigger gaming and HD performance. That's not to say the 1008P isn't absolute for those that are all about netbook beauty, but we're aloof ambiguous that's the case for abounding people, and appropriately we don't see why you wouldn't go with a cheaper advantage like the 1005PE with its eight hours of array life.
Thanks to the oh-so-revealing pages of the FCC, we already knew that ASUS had yet addition multitouch-enabled Eee PC in the works, but there's aloof annihilation absolutely like the achievement of seeing an official aperture launched to bless the absoluteness of being. The Eee PC T101MT is a swivel-screen netvertible that packs a 10.1-inch arresting multitouch affectation (1,024 x 600), Windows 7, up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a 160GB or 320GB adamantine drive, 0.3 megapixel webcam and a 6.5 hour battery. You'll additionally get a VGA output, a leash of USB 2.0 sockets, Ethernet audio in / out, an SD / SDHC / SDXC agenda clairvoyant (nice!) 500GB of internet-accessible ASUS WebStorage and your best of white or black. Per usual, there's nary of a acknowledgment of a amount or absolution date aloof yet, but you can analysis out what fun awaits you in the affirmation video aloof accomplished the break.
Asus and Intel assume to be bridging the gap amid the adequately altruistic efforts of the OLPC activity and their own Classmate PC efforts, and the contempo adventurous of mini-laptop attempts such as Palm's Foleo and VIA's NanoBook. Specs and barrage affairs aren't absolutely nailed down, but this new Eee PC band has absolutely a bit activity for it, alike as awash as this bazaar is getting. The 7-inch ultraportable is based on an bearding Intel chipset, and runs approved Windows XP or Linux after a problem, but absolutely shines in its "easy" approach that strips things bottomward to a barebones OS mainly for internet browsing (sound familiar, Foleo?). Asus didn't alike leave Palm abandoned with its Wii comparisons either, advertence that the Eee name, which stands for "easy to learn, accessible to play, accessible to work," additionally calmly conjures images of the Wii bold console, which is accepted for actuality novice-friendly. The Eee band will bang things off with the Eee PC 701, which will action 802.11b/g WiFi, Ethernet and a modem for connectivity, forth with a webcam, 512MB of RAM and a 4, 8 or 16GB beam drive for speedy, reliable storage. The absolute article is that prices for the 2 batter laptop are declared to alpha as low as $200, and the Intel / Asus duo won't be aiming this at massive authoritative purchases, but instead will be alms it to consumers through acceptable retail channels.
