ASUS $199 Eee PC laptop

[dementedlemur]

Originally posted by: dighnThe 7" figure is only for the screen, the real size of the whole thing will be about 10-11 inches (first post includes dimensions). To me the Eee is nowhere near the portability of PDAs and the medison is comparable.

The 8.86x6.5 in and 1.96 lbs for the EEE vs 13.11x9.57 in 4.85 lbs for the celebrity is a substantial difference. While it's not really comparable to a PDA, it's also not in the same class as the 14" celebrity.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: dighn
The 7" figure is only for the screen, the real size of the whole thing will be about 10-11 inches (first post includes dimensions). To me the Eee is nowhere near the portability of PDAs and the medison is comparable.

Exactly what I was thinking. People who think the Eee is a PDA replacement have clearly never actually _used_ a PDA for any extended length of time. That said, I doubt the Medison is legit - I was only tossing it out there because it's news.

 

[Oil]

Originally posted by: dementedlemur

Originally posted by: dighnThe 7" figure is only for the screen, the real size of the whole thing will be about 10-11 inches (first post includes dimensions). To me the Eee is nowhere near the portability of PDAs and the medison is comparable.

The 8.86x6.5 in and 1.96 lbs for the EEE vs 13.11x9.57 in 4.85 lbs for the celebrity is a substantial difference. While it's not really comparable to a PDA, it's also not in the same class as the 14" celebrity.

That is what I was trying to say

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: dighn
The 7" figure is only for the screen, the real size of the whole thing will be about 10-11 inches (first post includes dimensions). To me the Eee is nowhere near the portability of PDAs and the medison is comparable.

Exactly what I was thinking. People who think the Eee is a PDA replacement have clearly never actually _used_ a PDA for any extended length of time. That said, I doubt the Medison is legit - I was only tossing it out there because it's news.

Saw in another thread that the Medison is a scam. Don't quote me and do your own homework, I'm just sayin what I am seeing.

 

[whistleclient]

size comparison

link

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: Fayd

Originally posted by: xSauronx
groovy looking but i couldnt tolerate using anything so tiny. i have a 14" T40 that i *love* but id never get anything smaller unless it was a PDA of some sort.

well, probably not. at that price it *would* be tempting.

well... the point of this thing is to be a PDA killer.

too big. its as good as a laptop to me because its not as easy to keep around as a PDA. i could deal with a blackberry or a motorola Q, but if im carrying a laptop it has to be large enough for me to comfortably use

the T40 fits the bill nicely. in place of a PDA i use a pocket notebook and a pen. im tempted to get a blackberry or something, but i dont think id use it quite enough except for work, and since they dont want to pay for one, im not going to bother.

 

[hans007]

apparently its 299 for the one with a 10" screen that fills the whole frame and an 8gb flash card.


i think if msrp is $299 for that, and there was some deal to get it for $250 ish i'd definitely want to get a 10gb one.

 

[geecee]

Now that it's August, any new news on whether this really will be available or not?

EDIT: Well, I just found this, which seems to indicate that it's release date has now been pushed back to Sept/Oct.

 

[Fayd]

asus has a link on their website...


http://event.asus.com/eeepc/


if that link dont work, just play around with it. sorry.

unfortunately, the machine i am currently on cant play that flash. (p2, 128mb ram) so i want someone else to go check that out and say what it is.

does anyone have any hard dates on prices and availability?

 

[whistleclient]

Originally posted by: Fayd
asus has a link on their website...


http://event.asus.com/eeepc/


if that link dont work, just play around with it. sorry.

unfortunately, the machine i am currently on cant play that flash. (p2, 128mb ram) so i want someone else to go check that out and say what it is.

does anyone have any hard dates on prices and availability?

that's the link from when it was first announced.
there are no hard dates yet.

there's talk about maybe late sept, but that's not official.
there's talk they might eliminate the 10" version and just have versions in the 7"-->9" screen size to avoid competition with other ultraportables.

 

[whistleclient]

Info by Zorroman, on another forum:




Hello to all, I have a ASUS North American Contact and I got some facts. First off I ran that Chinese article where they interviewed the ASUS CEO, that you recently posted, by my ASUS - North America contact.

He confirms that the specific facts and contents of the article are accurate, and true, with just one small error on the pricing. The last version/category on the Eee PC pricing should have been $369-399.

He goes on to further clarify the article, as it is wrote from an overseas perspective, rather then an exclusively USA perspective.

My contact clarifies the article like this:

(1) There WILL only be TWO Eee PC versions that will be sold in the USA. There are THREE versions in total slated for initial international release. But only two of those three will specifically come to the USA. The third will be sold overseas. This ?only overseas" model is the muchly talked about $199.99 cheapest version.

(2) Ok lets break?em down. The FIRST $199.99 version is in fact the two battery version referenced in the Chinese article. The 199.99 two battery version WAS going to be sold in the USA, but just recently it was decided by ASUS to NOT sell it in the USA. The price was targeted for $199.99, only in the USA. Now the 199.99 version will be sold overseas at the articles higher listed price of $229-239. Ok, everyones gonna wanna know why? The main reason is that ASUS determined from past experiences that the smaller TWO hour only battery versions would not be desired by USA market, so they choose NOT to sell the $199.00 version for the USA.

(3) The SECOND $269-299 version WILL sell in the USA. This will be the 7'inch 2GB version. It comes with 4 cell battery, 512mb, and wi-fi as standard. The differences in price is if you want 6 cell battery, or whatever other added optional feature will be available. IE case, etc.

(4) The THIRD $369-399 version WILL sell in the USA. This will be the 7'inch 4GB version. It also comes with 4 cell battery, 512mb, and wi-fi as standard. Again, differences in price is if you want 6 cell battery, or whatever other added optional feature will be available. IE case, etc.

(5) There WILL be TWO colors available in the beginning. There WILL be the white, and a black ASUS Eee PC 701.

(6) My contact also adds that the Web browser will be fully capable of playing ADOBE FLASH 9 on its browser, and it CAN stream Utube and google videos. He says a lot of people have asked him if the browser could or not, since it has been reported that the PALM FOLEO will NOT stream off of Utube or google video cause of its limitations.

(7) RELEASE DATE - Contact said still slated for late September. (I feel more probably like October....lol)

Well I hope this clears things up,

END OF MESSAGE





EARLIER MESSAGE REFERENCED: SPECIAL THANKS TO CCLO FOR THE BELOW INFORMATION:



There is another article (in Chinese) about Asus's EeePC from Apple daily in Taiwan:
http://1-apple.com.tw/apple/index.cfm?F ? ID=3724414

Again, only registered members can see the article. But someone posted the article here:
http://forum.twnuu.com/viewtopic.php?t=85

In the article, the reporter interviewed Asus's CEO Jerry Shen, who gave out some interesting information. I won't translate the entire article, but just list several interesting points:

1. Three versions of EeePC will be launched in September. Price ranges will be: USD $229-239, $269-299 and $349-369.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THIS IS TRUE, HOWEVER 229-239 TWO BATTERY EEE IS CANCELED FOR USA. (CONTACT SAYS THE LAST CATAGORY OF PRICES SHOULD BE 369-399)

2. After Asus splits out its OEM business, the branded business will focus on laptop computers and EeePC as the main product lines in the first stage. Cellular phones will be the main focus in the second stage.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THIS IS TRUE

3. Asus designed many new applications and interface for EeePC, including "voice command" functionality, which is similar to those built in cellular phones. So you can say "go online" to the EeePC and it will connect to the internet automatically.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THIS IS TRUE

4. LCD size of EeePC will be limited to 7-9 inches. The plan for 10" model has been canceled due to the overlap between the model and other ultra small laptops.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THIS IS TRUE , HOWEVER ONLY THE THREE 7INCH VERSIONS WILL SELL IN FIRST RELEASE, WITH OTHER SIZES PLANNED LATTER.

5. Asus will release another laptop model using 10" LCD and solid state disk. But this model belongs to "normal laptop" category.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER:THIS IS TRUE

6. The second generation of EeePC, which uses 8" and 8.9" LCD, is planed to be launched between the 4th quarter this year and mid 2008. The 8.9" model uses Intel's Menlow fanless processor (Note: maybe they meant Menlow plateform? see ktkhuong's command below).

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER:THIS IS TRUE

7. The $199 model comes with a 2 cell battery which lasts two hours. Other two models uses a 4 cell battery which lasts 2.5-4 hours. The 6 cell battery can support more than 5 hours of use.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THIS IS TRUE, AGAIN 199-TWO CELL NOT IN USA ANYMORE, OTHER TWO MODELS WILL COME TO USA. SIX CELL WILL BE A OPTIONAL FEATURE.

8. Asus faces a great pressure from the surging prices of parts. The challenge is to maintain enough inventory for parts....Flash memory is a headache.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THIS IS TRUE

9. Asus will produce 200,000 units by the end of this year, 300,000-500,000 units by March next year. After the second generation EeePC launches, Asus expects to produce 3-5 million units by early 2009.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THIS IS TRUE

The weird thing is that in the middle of the article, it mentioned the $199 model. But in the beginning, the article said that the lowest price range is $229-$239. I also find that the information about the "voice command" is kind of weird.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THE 199 WAS MENTIONED, BUT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE "199 SPEC CATAGORY", ITS NEW PRICING WILL BE THE 229-239, AND WILL BE SOLD ONLY OVERSEAS, CAUSE OF ITS TWO BATTERIES. NO MARKET IN USA.

Last edited by ZORROMAN2008 (Yesterday 11:52:39 am)

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Well, if they seriously expect people will still flock to buy this at $269-299, they are sorely mistaken... at this price, you're already in deep discount laptop territory, which offer bigger HD, DVD-RW etc...

Sorry ASUS, looks like you screwed the pooch on this one.

I was afraid something like this would happen - it all sounded too good to be true...

 

[Fayd]

yeah, but there's quite alot of speculation about zorroman's authenticity as well... as one other poster on that forum put it, he's going against most other rumors and hard evidence, to the point of going against asus's own press releases as well.

 

[Fayd]

btw, i'll still buy this lappy if it's a 4 cell, with 4 gig flash disk, at 250 dollars.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: Fayd
btw, i'll still buy this lappy if it's a 4 cell, with 4 gig flash disk, at 250 dollars.

Sorry, but too good to be true. Just like the original specs and pricing were, I should add. I honestly think the NanoBook is a better value at $600 (assuming it actually happens).

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Instead of Eee being a "must-have" killer piece of hardware, like the ipod a few years back, it's just being killed by ASS.US


seriously, this is less and less of a deal as time goes by... it'll turn into another Foleo pretty soon...

 

[Fayd]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: Fayd
btw, i'll still buy this lappy if it's a 4 cell, with 4 gig flash disk, at 250 dollars.

Sorry, but too good to be true. Just like the original specs and pricing were, I should add. I honestly think the NanoBook is a better value at $600 (assuming it actually happens).

well, i found where zorroman got his information.

it wasnt an asus contact, it was someone speculating on another board. his post is taken word for word from that post, save for a few points where the original author doubts on the credibility of the magazines that started these rumors.

all in all, i think it's still up in the air. (at least i'm hoping).

at 200 dollars, 2 hours wouldn't be usable to me. that's why i'll go for the minimum upgrade with a larger battery.

and honestly, the size is more important to me than the specs. (aside from battery life)

 

[Gigantopithecus]

If the media reader supports SDHC I'm in.

 

[inthell]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=8531

Possibly in store late sept. Nice.

 

[razor2025]

wow... Asus has effectively killed my desire for EeePC. There's no way it can compete @ $279-400 price level with the spec it has. Looks like the $200 price point was just to hype up consumers in US.

Like other's have said, you can easily find decent laptop @ $500 price point now. Bargain hunters can manage to score $400 laptops without breaking a sweat. I'm not sure how much the EeePC small stature can compensate for that, considering the 7" screen model doesn't look as good as 10" one.

 

[inthell]

^ isnt the 4GB version still $200?
"ASUS plans to ship four different models at $199, $239, $349 and $369 USD price points. ASUS targets the $349 variant towards mainstream markets. The $349 model will make up most of the initial shipments of the Eee PC. "

 

[razor2025]

1. Three versions of EeePC will be launched in September. Price ranges will be: USD $229-239, $269-299 and $349-369.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THIS IS TRUE, HOWEVER 229-239 TWO BATTERY EEE IS CANCELED FOR USA. (CONTACT SAYS THE LAST CATAGORY OF PRICES SHOULD BE 369-399)

Nope, even the lowest $229 price is more than the $199 originally rumored. The cheapest option will be the $269 option, which is just 7" screen with 4GB drive. With $100 more, you can score dual-core 14.1" laptop without a rebate. Asus fail.

 

[OoteR02]

Originally posted by: razor2025

1. Three versions of EeePC will be launched in September. Price ranges will be: USD $229-239, $269-299 and $349-369.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THIS IS TRUE, HOWEVER 229-239 TWO BATTERY EEE IS CANCELED FOR USA. (CONTACT SAYS THE LAST CATAGORY OF PRICES SHOULD BE 369-399)

Nope, even the lowest $229 price is more than the $199 originally rumored. The cheapest option will be the $269 option, which is just 7" screen with 4GB drive. With $100 more, you can score dual-core 14.1" laptop without a rebate. Asus fail.

where can you get a dual core laptop for 370?

 

[inthell]

Originally posted by: razor2025

1. Three versions of EeePC will be launched in September. Price ranges will be: USD $229-239, $269-299 and $349-369.

ZORROMAN2008 ANSWER: THIS IS TRUE, HOWEVER 229-239 TWO BATTERY EEE IS CANCELED FOR USA. (CONTACT SAYS THE LAST CATAGORY OF PRICES SHOULD BE 369-399)

Nope, even the lowest $229 price is more than the $199 originally rumored. The cheapest option will be the $269 option, which is just 7" screen with 4GB drive. With $100 more, you can score dual-core 14.1" laptop without a rebate. Asus fail.

you're forgetting that a 14" dual core laptop for sub $400 will most likly weigh like 5-7 lbs! take the Acer Aspire 3690 (single core) at 6.4lbs .

 

[ofacto]

You can now "preorder" it from Citrus Micro (thanks for you ever posted the link in the Daily Tech comments section):

http://www.citrusmicro.com/webdocs/Items/Details683.cfm

You don't get charged to "preorder" it, its more like a waiting list when they get final details they will call you up and you can then decide if you want to order it.