Next-Gen Eee PC To Have Touchscreen and More
March 26th, 2008 by antIf you were disappointed about ASUS stopping plans for a touchscreen on the next generation Eee PC, you can smile now. According to touch screen manufacturers in this Digitimes article, ASUS will indeed be including touch panels in the next generation Eee PC.
A new article also on Digitimes, posted today, further explains that the 8.9″ Eee PC:
“will include touchscreen panels and possible GPS support, with shipments expected to begin in May or June, according to Kevin Lin, vice president of Asustek’s sales department. Pricing is projected to reach NT$15,000 (US$500)”
So, it looks like it might be the Eee PC 900 afterall that gets more than just a touchscreen!
March 26th, 2008 at 10:34 am
nice… they’re not leaving us much to mod tho! (bluetooth?)
March 26th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I’m liking the mention of possible GPS. I know I want an eee, but have been holding off to wait and see how easy it is to get GPS into the thing. Looks like Asus might just do the job for me.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Wow, that would be excellent. I would pay into the $600s easily for that.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I’m still wondering when we’ll see bluetooth. It seems like an easy feature to add, and probably more relevant than GPS.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Two words - Hell YEAH!
Two words again - Swivel hinge
March 26th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I hope the next gen. will have a vertical scroll wheel. 1024 wide will handle everything in that dimension but a lot of vertical scrolling is still required,
March 26th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Eheh, expensive PC
- I do not need bluetooth nor touchscreen. I will buy any other pc without that, in the hope to be more cheap.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Cool! I can’t wait for it… Hope Asus will keep modding it for the same price (€399)!
March 26th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
hmmmmmmm………………
what they are doing is making a much larger 4G, with more ram, at a higher price that also has a larger footprint.
ok then……………….
what is the market that they are aiming for with it?
at $600 i would start looking at a macbook for a few hundred more.
i think that the price point is $400 and when you go well over that the market drops off especially when the footprint gets about twice of the 4G.
part of the beauty of the 4G is the size and ease of use with the functionality in the eeepc.
dunno
i bought my 4G as a specific tool to do some tasks in a small package.
where is this heading to?
i would like to see ASUS’ marketing plan
it would be a shame to have an orphan machine if this market goes bust
March 26th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
It isn’t going to be twice the size -__-
It’s gonna be a bit thicker maybe and that isn’t a footprint increase in my oppinion.
If you measure the ease of carying by the thickness of a laptop jsut get a Macbook air…
March 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
UPDATE
I just found via Digitimes Asus’s FCC filings for the 900. They include pictures (internal and external) and the owner’s manual. Some news:
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=940941&fcc_id=%27MSQEPC9GE780%27
The internal images include a part labelled “Bluetooth”, though it’s not mentioned in the manual. The touchpad has a facility for multiple-finger gestures, including two-finger scrolling. No sign of GPS or a touchscreen in the manual. Digitimes is reporting that the new power adapter is bigger than the old one. From the pictures I’m seeing, it’s kind of a wash, though they move the transformer to the middle and off the plug. To me, that’s a big improvement. They also moved the plug to the back so the kensington lock doesn’t bump up against the power.
These look like nothing but upgrades. No mention of the webcam resolution, which I was reading would be upgraded.
I’d be interested to see what the XP build looks like: does it include lots of extraneous drivers and crapware? Or is it closer to the boot time and storage requirements of an nlite installation?
March 26th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
http://stuff.tv/News/Asuss-touchscreen-tablet-Eee-PC-gets-green-light/
*climax*
March 26th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I ordered the 4G yesterday… What do I do now? Call and cancel from Newegg? That touchscreen sure looks nice. Does anyone know if it will for sure swivel?
March 26th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Flippin’ sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!!!!!
I kinda doubt it will swivel though.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
The FCC filing, including the manual, didn’t include a touchscreen OR a swivel. I suppose it is possible later.
A swivel would impact durability and manufacturing cost, so it would come as a bit of a surprise.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Although GPS would be super cool, I agree that bluetooth seems a bit more relevant. On the other hand, it’s pretty easy to just buy and plug in a USB bluetooth.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
nooooooooo!!!!! now I have to buy a new Eee next year ~_~
March 26th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Cool but I will wait for the 3rd generation of EEE PC with 10″ screen, 1024 x860 resolution, 20GB SSD or higher, using Intel’s Diamondville processor (or whatever that is gonna be lower power consumption and nano-minute) running at 1.6GHz or faster with Touch Screen, Inbuilt Digicam. Wonder if they will soon maybe use dual core instead of this single core model and if so, will the EEE PC be so hot that it will explode finally since it has no fanning???
Asus is a bit confused right now with planning the 12-20GB for the linux version and 8-12GB for XP version on SDD capacity upgrade. Shouldn’t it be the othe way round?
March 26th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
@Jonathan
“will the EEE PC be so hot that it will explode finally since it has no fanning???”
You are wrong. Both the current generation and the new one have a fan.
“Asus is a bit confused right now with planning the 12-20GB for the linux version and 8-12GB for XP version on SDD capacity upgrade. Shouldn’t it be the othe way round?”
They are supposed to cost the same, so it is normal that the Windows version would have a smaller SSD drive, since this would compensate the increased cost of the Windows license.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:15 am
^^^ don’t forget the Uranium Pu-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Shame that it looks like the new one has a standard power adapter which looks big and heavy, unlike the eee pc 701.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:14 am
ha you are all wrong it wont have gps and touchscreen
it will have double touchpad
sad b i really want touchscreen and gps but what to do bette that than nothing
March 27th, 2008 at 6:52 am
According to this article (link below), the Eee PC 900 will have a Multi-touch trackpad, enabling scrolling and zooming with two-finger gestures, and Bluetooth. Despite what ASUS’ CEO previously mentioned, the power adapter will be much larger than the original.
http://www.dailytech.com/ASUS+Eee+PC+900+Captured+by+FCC+With+Bluetooth+Multitouch+Trackpad/article11259.htm
March 27th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Well, I really hope we get the standard resolution of 1024×786 pixels but I think someone from somewhere already found some driver and did that with current model. Read that somewhere months ago from a guy who spent another some $400-500 doing personal upgrade to his unit. He should have waited for at least the 2nd gen to be out soon instead but then he won’t have much to do when he tear it apart.
About the no fanning thing, I read from a PC mag reveiwer before he took the unit apart and all there is acting a coolant is a piece of some kind of silver film sitting on the keypad compartment to dissipate the heat????
About the storage issue, I guess if it has usb port you can buy a portable 250-500GB HDD and plug it in. But I think it is a idea they provide you the option to have the max 20GB SDD for unit running on XP.
Also I think a 10″ size screen will the absolute max and perfect size for a tiny notebook. The main drawback for me to buy one 1 is…
1. CPU at 900MHz is too slow for XP running experience.
2. 4GB SDD is not practical
Because for this EEE PC, storage even at 20GB SDD under it’s 2nd gen models is limited, I have decided to try my best to just stick to using PortableApp, meaning applications of all kind that does not require you to installed them into the XP registry system. First thing I will do is to back up the system registry file so that should in the event when over the time should I have installation and uninstallation too many programs and the PC started to go snail pace, I can just do a system restore to start all over again.
I think the 2nd gen model using of Intel’s Diamondville processor (or whatever that is gonna be lower power consumption and nano-minute) running at 1.6GHz minimal is a good acceptable starting point for running XP.
Just wondering what CPU the 5th or 7 th gen models of EEE PC will be running on in a year or two…
One last thought or two here for this post. I hope whatever gen model it is, the PC will get lighter if not at least stay under the 1KG benchmark, which is one of the top 3 major attractive for me in considering buying 1. Also, this is of course a wishful thinking.. do you think they can incorporate into this PC unit with the self-power generator like those from the OLPC(One Laptop Per Child) model?
Happy EEE PCing everyone.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:32 am
XP runs fine even on my old Pentium III 866mhz processor -__-
Even when the eee’s clocked@ 630mhz it runs xp flawlessly, so no need to whine about that.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:26 am
The link claims the “brick” adapter will be much bigger but reviewing the photos I don’t see evidence of that. While the adapter is a brick STYLE, it is NOT the standard brick size and appears very small.
As far as I can see from the data, this change only makes the PC easier to plug in, not heavier or bulkier.
The “it’s official” posts about GPS and touchscreen all came from a single Digitimes article. Engadget, Cnet, etc etc all cite that article, rather than any sources at ASUS itself. Combined with the FCC filing, I’d call this myth busted. The manual still doesn’t mention bluetooth, so it might be an option or later feature– all we have is a label on one photo.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Yay for touchscreen! Can’t wait for it to ship!
March 27th, 2008 at 11:37 am
whyyy they all lie so much is it that hard to get 100% sure infos about eee ???
March 27th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Can any1 tell me, if the eee pc 900 which is being released next month will have intel atom? or is that coming in later versions?
March 27th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
If it has a GPS then I hope they work out a way to play http://www.wherigo.com on it.
Now I would buy that!
As for touch screen my guess is they are making the touch pad to act like a touch screen with something called two finger use?
Blue tooth cool I am sure i will find a use for it.
March 28th, 2008 at 1:12 am
Whats the purpose of the touchpad if it will have touchscreen?
March 28th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Maybe the touchscreen is just a rumor, just like the $199 Eee PC was a rumor that was never confirmed in any official Asus anouncement. Somewhere on the internet someone writes something he heard or read, possibly something he misunderstood or a typo somewhere, and within hours hundreds of tech sites, blogs, forums post the news as a fact.
The Eee PC 900 manual that now can be found on the FCC website does not mention a touchscreen, but is very specific, including illustrations, about the multi-touch trackpad.
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=940941&fcc_id=%27MSQEPC9GE780%27
March 28th, 2008 at 5:32 am
I have to take back my words about the $199 Eee PC being just a rumor. Here is the original Asus Press Release that indeed mentions “an extremely competitive price of around USD $199 for the 7″ units”.
http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=7378
March 28th, 2008 at 9:34 am
What is the official price tag for the 2nd Gen 8.9″ screen models? Anyone?
And does any 1st Gen owner feeling a whole or a little bit ripped off given it’s only like in a span of 6 months that 2nd Gen model is coming out with bigger screen plus increase storage and faster cpu among other upgraded and new features?
March 28th, 2008 at 9:40 am
i will expect the price to be official when the unit is on sale for real - wait for amazon to have a listing for it and it may have a price just before it does go on sale.
personally i would not feel ripped by new product releases if i was first in line to buy anything. look at the iPhone early buyers.
it is fun to be on the bleeding edge some times.
March 28th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I fail to see the advantage or need of touchscreen. But maybe I am just too old and dont like things covered with fingerprints. =)
March 28th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Here is a picture of this 900 series Eee PC
http://blog.chowsquid.com/archives/163
Article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080327/tc_infoworld/96605
This article even mentions that there is a rumor of a GPS and a touchscreen.
“A few things the Eee PC 900 will not have include a touchscreen and GPS, the Asustek representative said, despite some news reports to the contrary.”
I wonder where that came from????
March 28th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
So does anyone have a concrete time of release and price, or is that all up in the air? Or do I just need to read a certain article, if so, can you plz point it out? I’m a hardcore linux user, and I am really REALLY interested in this next-gen EEE.
March 29th, 2008 at 6:15 am
Nothing definite yet. Release could be in April (as announced), but June-September, or even later, seems now a more realistic estimate to me. Also, release dates can differ many months in different countries. Prices were announced to start at $500 in the US or at € 400 (including VAT) in Europe. But also prices can change between now and later this year.
If you would have taken the trouble of reading previous blog entries and comments, you would have encountered this link several times:
http://blog.laptopmag.com/eee-pc-to-get-intels-diamondville-hard-drives-and-fashion-forward-style
March 30th, 2008 at 3:46 am
Seriously, in Australia the 1st G is already selling at $499 AUD even though our currency is a few cents short of a Greenback. If it goes up above $499 then the EEE PC will officially drop its partial name of Cheap or rather add a prefix “eXPENSIVE” to it and be called A Very “Expensive Piece of Cheap mini-notebook”.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
First time poster here, haven’t bought an EEE PC yet, but I’ll probably wait for the 900.
Here’s one interesting piece of news:
http://gizmodo.com/373820/windows-xp-eee-pc-available-at-best-buy-in-april-pricing-stays-sweet
If this is true, it makes a lot of sense that these XP 4G EEE PCs would stay at $399US, even though they have XP on them. My hunch is that ASUS had a lot of 4Gs built in reaction to how popular they became in such a short period of time, but they have since released the 8G, and they also figure that the 900s have been highly desired as soon as the 4Gs hit the street, because a 7″ screen was just too small for a lot of people. So, even though you’d think that the 4Gs would cost more with XP on them, it’s more like, in order to clear out inventory of the 4Gs that otherwise not sell anymore, they’ve reduced the base cost in reaction to the 8G and in anticipation of the 900, just like, say, Apple eventually reduces the cost of 1st gen models once they’ve released newer versions.
March 31st, 2008 at 3:37 pm
dont get why everyone wants XP on these? weirdos
March 31st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
As far as I know, there is no touch screen plan in the release of May/June.
March 31st, 2008 at 10:29 pm
cwhuang, are you from Asus?
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Why XP? Well, lot of apps are all written for Windows. All my favorite apps will not find its kind alter-ego in linux I fear, so yea…. XP for me still.
April 5th, 2008 at 3:33 am
Same size with 10″ touch screen + windows XP/Vista embedded system + 32 GB SSD, cost around USD550 in the next gen of Eee PC with be amazing. I guess lots of PC user will purchase it, even sales in the shop might buy one instead of a notebook PC or POS
April 7th, 2008 at 1:45 am
Its fine having a new laptop, but are they going to be able to keep up with demand?
June 24th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
If they can charge $500 USD for that, their sales will go through the roof. I’ll be first in line. Tablet, touch screen, GPS, SSD, light weight, $500, sign me the hell up!
Anything more than $500, their sales will definitely suffer.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Just another comment, sry that I’m double commenting here, this is the make or break moment for Asus. There is a TON of money to be made in this market, but they need to be very careful of their prices. To high, and people will lose interest.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
3rd post…extra sorry, I’ve ran xp on my 233mhz, 64mb RAM old ass IBM, which ran perfectly fine. 900mhz is MORE than enough.