Rumors from the Inquirer About the Various Eee PC Models
September 24th, 2007 by antRumored information from the recent Intel Developer Forum has been posted in an article on the Inquirer website about the upcoming Eee PC model lines. They speculate that there will be at least four different varieties:
Models: 700-C / 700 / 701 / 701-6
700-C: 2GB, 256MB DDR-2, no camera, 2cell battery, no wifi, wired ethernet, 56k modem, $199 price (they also say this model will be available on tender only…)
700: 2GB, 256MB DDR-2, no camera, 4cell battery, wifi, wired ethernet, no modem, $239
701: 4GB, 512MB DDR-2, camera, 4cell battery, wifi, wired ethernet, no modem, $299
701-6: 6GB, 512MB DDR-2, camera, 4cell battery, wifi, wired ethernet, no modem, $399
We are not fully sure how accurate this information is, however the inquirer does claim that it is straight off of an Intel data sheet. If this does turn out to be accurate, the 2GB/246MB boost on the 701 model seem to be a solid upgrade from initial speculation. However, if the speculation that the 700 models have soldered on SSD and RAM components is true, you would pretty much be forced to buy the 701 if you wanted 512MB of ram- which isn’t so bad as you’d technically be getting the speculated “$399″ model for the $299 price.
But of course, as always, this is just more speculation!
For the full article, click here.
September 24th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Ok, so you go from the 700 to the 701 and get +256mb and +2GB for $60. From the 701 to the 701-6, you pay $100 for +2Gb alone! That doesn’t make sense.
September 24th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
That’s what I said! Oh, you forgot the camera! Though for $239 you’d think they could throw in a .3MP camera.
September 25th, 2007 at 1:46 am
Apparently the expensive models also have higher resolution screens.
ASUS are starting to piss me off, tell us the specifications already!
September 25th, 2007 at 4:47 am
If this is true, it is $100 price decrease of 4GB/512MB model than in previous speculations.
But $100 for 2GB of storage in highest model is really strange.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:43 am
What does “on tender” mean?
September 25th, 2007 at 6:37 am
For me, the important question is whether there will also be better batteries available. I need a way to max out battery life.
Let’s see…
September 25th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Battery life is an issue for me too. some 10 years ago we had laptops which could go 10 hours on a charge. Today’s batteries seldom seem to get more than 2-3, and go downhill rapidly. It is my impression that the display is one of the chief power wasters. I would even take monochrome if it would help
September 25th, 2007 at 11:39 am
at least the prices look reasonable now for the model that i was looking at (4gb, 512mb ram).
September 25th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
On tender only? what does that mean?
LarryS: the biggest energy uses within a laptop is probably backlight and cpu
September 25th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I think the power consumption of the cpu varies a lot with type. Some of the older slower ones had relatively low power drain.
“Tender” can have a variety of meanings, but I would assume that they are referring to the committed purchase of quantities of machines.
We have yet no idea what terms of tender they have in mind (if any).
Maybe I am totally off base.
September 25th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
So did anyone email the various places taking pre-orders to get confirmation of that 701-6?
September 25th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
I e-mailed Citrus Micro, and they e-mailed back stating that the prices and specs they have up are those that were confirmed by ASUS. They said that they thought the prices/specs that we all had come to know were the ones that the initial shipments would have, and that the Inquirer prices/specs, if true, would probably be ASUS’s plan for later on next year. But they did say that this was going off of the best information that they have at the time, and that ASUS has not shipped the computers yet (on Monday afternoon).
September 25th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
I really hope the 4gb model is the 299 one. That would really just make my day. 2gb is just too small for everyday use. I know I could easily expand it with like a 4gb SD, or just a pocketHD, but you know.
September 25th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
What I would like to know is two things:
1. How much actual free space the 2G version has and
2. How does a $200 laptop (as per the original specifications posted) suddenly gets up to $400…
September 26th, 2007 at 4:15 am
Juan @14: I assume you’re American, right?
The US dollar has been on a steep downhill slide — almost a devaluation — for the past year. AsusTek are not a US company, and the components that go into their products are not made in the USA. Their price in US dollars is therefore creeping up for exactly the same reason that the dollar price of crude oil is at an all-time high — because the dollar is in the tank.
September 26th, 2007 at 6:45 am
There have not been officially announced specifications and pricing for different markets and regions yet. According to the latest rumors the cheapest model will still be $199, probably aimed at developing countries and not available in the US and Europe. But everything about final specifications and pricing is only rumors and speculation so far.
(And yes, the weakened US dollar will inevitably cause raising prices in US dollars.)
September 26th, 2007 at 6:47 am
I am italian, and i can bet that the price in euro will be more heavy that the price in dollars (clearly i hope not). €_€
September 26th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Vikinger, I’m from Spain and I’m sure the price will be as 1$=1€ or more…well, we always could use eBay and get one from USA very cheap hehe, 215€ por the 701 is a great price.
September 26th, 2007 at 7:17 am
I agree the price for us europeans is going to be higher that the US. (the same has happened with Vista where the UK English version is almost 50% higher than the US English) but I hope that the ebay is going to work miracles….
September 26th, 2007 at 11:12 am
new pics from a spanish review:
http://www.hispazone.com/contnoti.asp?IdNoticia=2396
September 26th, 2007 at 11:38 am
I got a call from Citrus Micro in regards to my pre-order…the guy I spoke to seemed to think I’d have mine in-hand by the second week of October. Oh and like one of the guys above - he seemed to think the models listed in the article from the Inquirer was data from Intel…not from Asus and that the 6GB model wasn’t going to be released until next spring at best.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Loading windows XP is a lot faster than I thought!!
September 26th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Need long battery life.
Why don’t they just license the low power (viewable outdoors) screen technology from the folks at the OLPC project… as there is a woman that was working with OLPC (I think) who invented it. Then, I wonder what the Eee PC battery life would be? 3-4 hours is…? Of course then we could do the buy one donate one that OLPC is offering for two weeks (and get less of a PC but more battery life)? Where is the perfectly designed one of these $200 units for me? The ASUS Eee PC is the closest to perfect… but, we don’t know the specs yet, just speculation.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:53 am
no further rumors on the 8″ screen model we heard about some time ago?
Anyway, it is really disappoing to me that Asus have not communicated yet neither the release date nor the final specs of 2007 models…..
September 27th, 2007 at 3:41 am
Well, what do you expect? I am impatient too, but I can understand that they do not give any definite information before the little machines are indeed ready to be shipped.
And about a larger screen…
Rumors have always ben that a model with larger screen is not to be expected this year.
September 27th, 2007 at 3:49 am
Gurugurutrex: I agree! Counting from when you press the power button until you are on the XP desktop was only 19 seconds! And that includes the BIOS post time.
September 27th, 2007 at 3:49 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNLs3GKCAog
September 27th, 2007 at 6:32 am
FrankBlack - thanks for the YouTube video link. It can boot from a USB device (this is a good thing, as you can use other Flash then, and other OS that can be external to the unit. I wish that not only booting from USB but that we could view a DVD Movie video using the “LIMP” LIVE CD that loads the DVD player software, then removes itself from the system, then you put in a DVD and play it. You put in a Matrix DVD and check out the graphics and quickness of the screen then with the LIMP LIve CD running.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/limp-vkk-ver1/
Of course this is only a 30MB Live CD, so why not build it into the Eee (somehow)?
September 27th, 2007 at 8:12 am
[...] Goal.com wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerptFrankBlack - thanks for the YouTube video link. It can boot from a USB device (this is a good thing, as you can use other Flash then, and other OS that can be external to the unit. I wish that not only booting from USB but that we could … [...]
September 27th, 2007 at 8:44 am
This is the reason why I didn’t preorder mine. I was so close to ordering it, I even put in all my info and credit card number, but then I thought about it and backed out because I wont just spend $299 on something I dont know about. Specs and prices are still jumping around like crazy. I do hope that 701 model will have higher resolution screen because then I am sold. But it seems to me that the price difference between 700 and 701 is that there is upgradable slot for ram and miniPCI to have wireless (G3) internet capabilities. But all of this is just spiculations and we just have to sit and wait til Asus releases some information and specs to us.
WHAT IS TAKING THEM SO LONG!!!
September 27th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
delayed until the end of october… http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20070926PD210.html
they’re probably having trouble with supply and they might be substituting parts, which would explain having to rebuild the linux distro…
September 28th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
My name is John Smith
September 29th, 2007 at 8:03 am
What I am most concerned about are the specifications and release date. It is time-consuming only to get informed of uncertified rumors. Can anyone with Asus air out sth official?
November 15th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I have an eeepc sitting in front of me, 1 hour out of the box and just put it on charge for first time, shame about the warranty sticker over the ram expansion slot. naughty ASUS, i wanted to expand to 2gb ram as i am in the trade .
nice notebook, but keyboard is too small for my 35+year old fingers… suite my 5 yr old son who it was intended for.
SRP £219 i paid £219.98 as cost price to trade!!! i think RRP of about £299