Asus details WiMax enabled Eee’s at CES 2008
January 8th, 2008 by asternAs reported on by Engadget, Asus in conjunction with Sprint and Intel announced today that they are going to be releasing Eee PC’s with WiMax connectivity at the CES 2008 conference in Las Vegas, NV.
Also mentioned at the conference were plans to upgrade the Eee’s LCD screen with multiple sizes ranging from the current 7 ” to 8″ and 8.9″.
Windows XP will be an officially supported/shipped operating system and a commitment to worldwide availability at launch and low-entry point MSRP’s was reiterated.
January 8th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Wimax + eee pc = match made in heaven, at least for me. News about the screen is great as well- I’m interested to see what the resolutions will be.
Windows XP is nice for customers who may have difficulty installing it on their own. Interestingly enough, I just switched back to the default operating system after using XP on mine since the first week I had it. I actually think I like the default system better…
-Ant
January 8th, 2008 at 3:26 am
….damn windows xp, i was hoping they wouldnt include it. Hopefully i can order one without it and avoid paying for a license i wont use.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:40 am
I’ve heard rumors that it will have a starting price of $999. If it does, I’ll feel let down by Asus. Otherwise, if it cost’s about $500 then I might be interested in getting one.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:49 am
I think I’ll just get a 7″ now. Don’t think the new ones ‘ll fit in my price range….
January 8th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Well if it had a price tag of $999/£500 i’d expect specifications that compare to a regular laptop in that price range. So forget a 4gb hard drive, for that money i want 80gb’s please, 2gb of ram, 2gig processor and a min of 8.9inch screen blah blah, It won’t help the price that XP will come pre-installed as i’d imagine we’d have to pay that little bit more for the licence. Now i’d prefer if it was optional and prices from low to high i.e. bare bones(no os), Linux, XP + license. Although how much of a price difference would that make? Now when i say this i think i speak for the majority of members on this site. The low price makes it attractive. That’s why i bought the 701 4g. For £219 i could afford to upgrade the ram as well. An UMPC that surfs the web, checks e-mail, streams video and even plays some games, the list goes on. But ASUS, push the price up to £500 and i think you have forgotten or fail to realize why this little machine has been such a great sucess.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Amen brother
January 8th, 2008 at 5:18 am
@lee: the $1000 did refer to a normal asus-notebook with wimax.
on engadget they say: “2:37PM - Finally, ASUS makes its WiMax commitment: will roll out WiMax this year, continue to add SKUs in future years. Perhaps most exciting, entry-level pricing for WiMax-ready notebooks will be $999 — that’s not the price of the WiMax Eee, although Jonny promises an attractive MSRP.”
January 8th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Hmm so now I wonder.. Should I get the 7″ or wait for the 8 or 8,9″ screens and see if they have better resolution?
January 8th, 2008 at 6:39 am
if there was no internal hardware change id be willing to pay $600 for a higher res screen….if it were higher id feel like i were getting fucked by waiting for the higher specd eee
January 8th, 2008 at 6:40 am
[...] I still don’t like the look of the 7″ screen. Today, news broke that a new version that should ship April ‘08 will have 7″, 8″ or 8.9″ [...]
January 8th, 2008 at 6:40 am
I was at the Asus Booth , I was asking when the other screen sizes , wimax , larger ssd sizes , and larger battery would be available . The battery will be sometime “around” February. and Larger screen size could be 12 to 18 months away from today which could be also how long the larger ssd and wimax could be available.
On a side note I seen at the scandisk booth 4 , 8 , 16 , 32 mini pci express ssd card that will be
available around February as well.
January 8th, 2008 at 6:55 am
“12 to 18 months away” how accurate is this?, if its very im gonna have to go for the 7″
January 8th, 2008 at 7:08 am
@Andy
well the EEE is so cheap and in demand that you could buy the current one and sell it when the new large screen one is available.
January 8th, 2008 at 7:37 am
in the same boat as andy here….n thats true jah but i dont need one till april so ill b pretty pissed if the new one is released before april but at the same time if i wait and nothing comes ill be a bit pissed >.<
January 8th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Reading this news makes me happy I took the plunge and got the 7″ 4G. As neuronisis mentioned, $999 puts it in competition with some extremely capable alternatives and I can’t see how an adding a slightly larger screen and Wimax justifies a possible doubling in price. There are so few places that actually have Wimax at the moment (and most that do have it as a trial) that it will be largely useless to the majority for 12-18 months.
Maybe that is why the guys at the Asus booth mentioned to Curtis the 12-18 month time scales. Seems reasonable for a company to wait until a technology can be widely utilized before spending god knows how much releasing a new product, especially when the 7″ is still selling thousands.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Calm down, people ! Eee is not going to be $999 at least not anytime soon. ASUS aren’t that stupid. They know the low price sells the eee.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:18 am
@Jah
Yeah I’m probably gonna get a 7″
Allthough I am still waiting to see if the “scandinavian” keyboard layout will arrive jan/feb, otherwise I’ll take the UK version.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:33 am
yeh…im gonna start looking for a black 4g in australia…
January 8th, 2008 at 11:15 am
@Knk
Asus probably want that.
January 8th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Like anything in the gadget territory you have to ask … what price, what for, to do what & where. I bought the eeePC because it beats having to transport my laptop in our travels around the world. The eeePC has all we seniors need as we travel and take up no luggage room. The LINUX apps and OS are speedy, and adequate.
The real issue for me is ASUS ongoing commitment to provide support, upgrades and fixes to the LINUX base & apps. OK ASUS, let’s hear from you officially !
Vic
January 8th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
It will be ready for xmas 08 or Q4, thats the best time for this things to sell I think.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
[...] сообщениям Engadget , EeeUser.comСегодня на конференции CES 2008, Asus совместно с Intel и Sprint [...]
January 8th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Hi, for the time being I guess this are just speculations (price and features), as with everything we should wait and see what are the real spec’s and what it going to be the cost of that before jumping into conclusions.
I think this little machine opened a market of portable devices that can do everything you want and does not break your bank account.
Hoping for good news in the near future.
January 8th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Anyone who doesn’t have an Eee at this point and wants one, just go out and get it and then when new technology for this series comes later we can evaluate whether to upgrade or not. I got my Eee when it first came out and I have been happy ever since. Yes, I would like a slightly larger screen of at least 8.9″ which would still technically fit in the same form factor, but for now the 7″ screen is ok.
January 8th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
By the way, I am sure someone must have mentioned this before but…. all the colors are now available at newegg.com. Pink, blue, green, black and white in the 2G Surf model for $299.99 are all available now. I own the 4G w/camera but the pink one might be great for my daughter….
January 8th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Price will go up because of the bigger display and Windows will only add to the injury (price), I hope ASUS still finds some space to give us options between Linux and Windows thats only my opinion.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
@patron: so true, but im pretty sure its not gonna be out by april and i need one by then…
January 8th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
$550 US is the limit I’d pay for any EEE PC…after that I’ll get a halfway decent 12″ for under $1000…like a Jetbook or something. Engadget said the bigger screen ones still currently have an 800×480 resolution :-/
yeah I preached about it’s about portability over massive amounts of usability, but there is a line in the sand as with all things
January 8th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
@fadumpt i think only the 8″ had the same resolution by the look of it the 8.9″ was higher res….
January 8th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I’d stick with the 7″ if the new screens are terribly much more expensive. Oddly, the bigger sizes keep the same resolution of the 7″.
Pictures!
http://gizmodo.com/342468/real-live-pictures-of-89+inch-asus-eee-pc
January 8th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Several articles I’ve seen are reporting 1024×600, not the 800×480 rez.
eg:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9056358&intsrc=news_ts_head
January 8th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
http://www.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.pixnet.net%2Fcrazyje%2Fpost%2F12637970&langpair=zh%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8
here is what is supposed to be an actual 8″ eee… Apparently there is no bump in resolution on it versus the 7″. perhaps there will be an increase on the 8.9.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:22 am
ok some clarification for all
the larger screen models (without wimax) are planned to be ready for 2nd gen eee, which is planned for 2nd quarter this year. the $999 is talking about another wimax laptop coming from asus, a full sized laptop, and has nothing to do with eee at all. the wimax eee on the other hand will come out after the 2nd gen
January 9th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Not sure I “get” why they’d put XP on this machine. The appeal is it is a cheap, but super functional machine. Much like Ikea furniture.
Windows just ads bloat to the mix, and suddenly the zippy little thing is going to feel incredibly underpowered.
My Toshiba’s motherboard just died, and I will be getting the eee rather than fix the Toshiba.
The eee is exactly what I need/want for when I’m on the road for business. When I’m not on the road, I’d much rather use a regular desktop.
January 9th, 2008 at 2:22 am
ASUS should license Mary Lou ’s OLPC energy saving dual mode 8.9 screen and the other energy saving features, including the battery tech that cost only $10 to replace.
See this Groklaw article link below, that explains that she has set up a new company to market the OLPC XO ’s tech to others (or else they are going to do their own version of the tech for commercial uses)? If ASUS does not license this, then Quanta will and beat up the Eee PC with a better Quanta version. If ASUS does not at least talk to Mary Lou about licensing this, then they will not like it when their battery life is compared to whoever does license this OLPC XO tech.
See:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080107182525297
Interview with OLPC’s Founding CTO Mary Lou Jepsen, by Sean Daly
Monday, January 07 2008 @ 08:00 PM EST
“Mary Lou Jepsen will go down in history as the founding Chief Technology Officer of One Laptop Per Child. She has recently announced that she is starting her own for-profit company, Pixel Qi, to commercialize some of the technologies she invented at OLPC while extending them. She calls it “a spin-out from One Laptop per Child.” And so naturally we had questions. Does this mean we will all soon be able to get an XO-like laptop for adults, no matter where we live? Sean Daly had the opportunity to conduct an email interview with Jepsen, and so we were able to get some answers to that and many other questions”.
January 9th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Also - any screen they do… should have jkkmobile’s Touch Screen as a feature as well.
I think that touch screen on a laptop is a perfect fit. They could use the “modem” port hole to store a stylus in, and then any complaints about the clicker on the Eee PC would go away maybe? Of course, they could do better with that as well.
January 9th, 2008 at 4:37 am
Does anyone know how much useable space is on the 2gb model?
January 9th, 2008 at 8:19 am
I have the 7″ 701 4gb Eee which I’m typing on right now. This baby is pretty cool and sweet. And I don’t regret buying it. Even if an 8 or 8.9″, 10″ screen with XP, Vista or whatever is coming I don’t care anymore. I already bought this thing (ordered from Taiwan) and playing everyday with it. Even my little nephews can’t pry this thing away from me. Yeah, if I want I can get a bigger an badder laptop but foremost I like the portable form factor. Just right, just nice. I even bring it to work and play games, surf via wifi etc.
If you like it, buy it. Don’t wait. There’s always gonna be a better spec Eee pc coming along, not just in 2008 but 2009, 2010 and beyond. It’s just getting better!
Even if you bought it today, and you realize there’s a better one on sale, you can always sell it off or give away to family members or whomever. I’m sure they’ll love you for that. I’m thinking the same thing. If an XP or Vista version came and with the same price as the current one I own I’m giving it away to my little nephews or my sister and let them play and learn to use the laptop. The Eee pc is cheap and affordable you can buy 1 or heck 3 even.
That’s really why I like the Eee pc. Because of it’s price. And no the 7″ don’t bother me. It’s just that, right. So, enjoy!
January 10th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
No way the bigger eee pc will be $900. Asus would be shooting themselves in the foot. I got the 7″ 2g surf and I’m THRILLED with it. I brought it to work today and I’ll bet at least 2 out of 3 people buy one now. People LOVE this little pc!
You got a GREAT thing going here Asus, DON’T SCREW IT UP!
January 11th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I would like to point out that the model with the 8 inch screen is a prototype and not a production model. Most likely, it retains the 800×480 resolution because the BIOS and OS haven’t been adjusted yet. The picture I saw of the new model is not clear enough to make out details but the 8 inch screen may be interpolating the 800×480 resolution to fit on the 1024×600 panel. This is probably done by the panel hardware similar to other notebook and desktop displays when they need to display resolutions lower than their native resolution. Also, remember that ASUS didn’t have any of the second generation Eee PCs ready for display when CES started so this may have been a rushed job obviously resulting in a less polished prototype.
January 13th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I know a lot of people like the 7 inch screen well enough but I just can’t stand side scrolling when surfing the web. I would buy one today if not for this fact.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:09 am
What’s with all this complaining about scrolling sideways?
Back a bit, we all coded for screen widths of ONLY 640×480. Decent websites should reconfig themselves for “small” 800 pixel screens. My phone gives me what I need in just 320×240. My iPod Touch is quite fine for it’s job at 480×320. Even for most websites
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see a higher res screen (and larger) but why not just accept something for what it is?
If you find the screen big enough with enough screen real estate to do the jobs you want, then this is the product for you. If it is, then get a full sized laptop instead.
And if you want a larger screen/more mem/more anything, what for them to release it.
One thing that bugs me about some websites is they are HARD CODED to small screen sizes. No matter how big a screen you have, you’re limited to a centre scrollable panel. See, there’s always something to whinge about
January 17th, 2008 at 12:21 am
If or when Asus comes out with a 8.9″ screen eeepc that finally has a decent resolution like 1024×600 or higher then I’ll get one. Otherwise it’s a no-go for me. I really hope they keep the fan otherwise it might have overheating issues with games or intensive apps. I don’t need or care about the Wimax - just give me a useful screen and ideally a 16gb hard drive.