Eee PC 900 Coming to USA May 12 for $549
April 23rd, 2008 by antASUS has confirmed that the new ASUS Eee PC 900 will begin to be sold in the United States on May 12. Two models will be released: a Windows XP version (12GB) and a Linux version (20GB). The price will be $549 for both models. You can read more at Computer World and Notebook Review.
Also, the complete specifications of the Eee PC 900 can be seen here.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Ah at last!
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Wow, 20GB flash storage.. That’s quite much. I’ll still be waiting for the atom CPU (will come in July, right).
Is there any chance that the 900 Atom might be slightly cheaper?
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Bring it down to $499. Things are becoming more expensive in the USA as our economy is collapsing. We can’t afford it.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
ohh don’t cry. Americans are spoiled too much.. Everything is cheaper in USA than rest of the world and you are still complaining.. :/
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:55 pm
*Prays for 701 Price Drop*
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:38 pm
That sucks that the 12 and 20gb storage is just 4gb + an SDHC card. That essentially makes it a $90 upgrade from the 4g to lose half an hour or more of battery life, gain .3-.4″ in size, and get an 8.9″ screen.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I am not clearlyunderstanding the storage. is their an extra 16 gig of internal flash memory.
Or are they packaging the 900 with an sdhc card.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Is it coming with teh 5800mAh battery or is it the crappy lower end one? I don’t think the low end battery is going to cut it.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:48 pm
nevermind on the storage question. I got hooked on phonics and found out for myself. The only thing I dont like about my 701 is the screen size. Im glad i bought my 701 at costco, returning it to get the 900.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
eeeuser is by far the best eee community (forum, wiki). Just wish the news on the front page came out quicker…
Sorry, but this news is already a few days old, and has been covered in the forum and other sites. It’s also not the only piece of news that was posted late either.
Maybe consider adding some of the forum’s senior members as authors?
This place should be THE one-stop site for eee PC related info.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I will buy one (with XP)! I really like the Eee but the 7″ screen (at 800 x 480) is just too small, 9″ is ok since there is no size/weight penalty.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Sounds great! Now will it be out in Galaxy Black this year or next year?
Also, I agree with saab_rider - great community, but the front page could really use some extra effort.
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Finally the price is right, and that second flash ssd in the mini-pci slot is sweet!, I believe that it functions as a normal hdd. I would love to have a linux / windows dual boot. (xp on primary, linux on the mini pci ssd.)
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 pm
anyone who is whining about the price needs to get a clue. you’re paying a “premium” for portabilty. would you rather throw a larger 14″ laptop into your bookbag full of crap or a smaller laptop that can fit just as well as a small textbook? yeah…its the same reason i bought the 4G over a larger laptop. $150 more for larger screen and more storage? why the hell not. i too am waiting for the atom version. maybe even be cheaper since the atom costs so little to produce.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Wish the extra 16 was in the computer so I could load up another card with stuff, but the real question: doe anyone here really know if the atom is better than the current cpu… speed better? battery life? any one read a white paper on the little sucker? Give people give cause I want one but am willing to wait… dooooonnnn’t want to, but will… thnx
April 24th, 2008 at 2:19 am
I think it’s worth waiting for the 10″ version
http://eeepc.itrunsonlinux.com/the-news/1-latest-news/63-asus-will-launch-an-eee-pc-with-10-inch-screen
Especially if you already own a PC 701, this seems more value for your hard earned cash & it will also feature the Atom (which should consume less power)
I’m a happy PC 701 user & I’m only thinking about upgrading if the 10″ version would cost me about 400 Euros.
April 24th, 2008 at 3:03 am
@lops
Seconded.
There’s nothing more pathetic than hearing the spoiled kid whining.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Got a Q for you Eeebrains… If I got one of these from the States, could I swap the power lead and use it in the UK or will I need to get a step-down adapter? Thanks!
April 24th, 2008 at 6:29 am
@Bratman
The extra 16Gigs is NOT an SDHC card it is a second SSD inside the machine (PCI port) with ~40Mb/s access speeds.
A german site gave some benchmark results for the atom/Celetron processors
for the same processor speed the atom is slower but with better battery life
so all depends on the speed of the Atom processor.
For me the difference in price easily covers 1G RAM +16G fast SSD (See the price difference of the airbook with the SSD) almost 2X the screen real-estate a,d the 1.3Mp webcam.
April 24th, 2008 at 6:57 am
@DaveTheHutt
You should be able to swap the powercord to the power:
adapterhttp://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inline/7344-IMG3346s.jpg
Don’t remember what that exact type of plug is called, but lots of electronics use them.
April 24th, 2008 at 6:58 am
I’ll try again…
You should be able to swap the powercord to the power adapter:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inline/7344-IMG3346s.jpg
Don’t remember what that exact type of plug is called, but lots of electronics use them.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Whew, at the possibility of it being $500, I was in danger of having to buy one. At $550, it’s firmly out of range. That’s a bit of a relief.
(And to those complaining about the complainers… low cost was one of the original big marketing points of the Eee. If their customers feel betrayed, it’s Asus’ own fault for setting the original target so low and raising it so quickly.)
April 24th, 2008 at 7:54 am
@Dave The Hutt
Check out jkkmobile.com for 900 unboxing video. He ordered one direct from Hong Kong and it apparently came with a UK plug. Waiting to see what he does with the 900 given all the mods and hacks he did to the 701.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:12 am
The configuration of the 900 is 4GB SLC SSD(~40MB/s reading speed) soldered on the board + 8GB/16GB MLC(~30MB/s reading speed) in the PCI-E slot for the XP/Linux version resp.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Hehe, nice, gotta love em, now the rest manufacturers need to hurry up bringing price and performance wars!
April 24th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
So does anyone know if the version with XP wil be a stripped down copy or will it be just the regular bloated version?
April 24th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
@Sanddancer
Some trimmed-down verdion of XP, it appears.
http://www.google.dk/search?q=eee+%22version+of+xp%22&btnG=S%C3%B8g&hl=da
I’m personally putting Windows FLP on it for maximum performance.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I find it interesting and a bit distressing that, in the official announcement, no mention is made of amount of RAM. Nor of clock speeds. Sure, the rumors are flying about … 1MB and 900MHz … but who knows?
April 24th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
if it only had the HP MiniNote’s display …
mind you, the HP is selling from $499.
and no, the clockspeed will be 630 MHz by default.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Asus
Please pre-install the English Dictionary for Open Office, on the USA Eee Pc’s.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Anyone know when this will reach Japan?
April 25th, 2008 at 1:46 am
@ Smiffy
Thanks for the reply, if that is the case then I think the 900 w/linux and add a cutdown xp pro is the ticket, I read above that the xp version doesn’t have the linux stuff
April 25th, 2008 at 7:31 am
@David Murphy:
The extra $50 just makes it too much for you? Seriously? Like, you go from “have to buy one” to “way to much” in $50? I don’t get that. I know $499 and $999 are, like, psychological “price barriers” to many people, which is why you don’t see too many products priced at $501, but think about it. Fifty bucks. One decent dinner.
This is what that $50 gets you, over the 8GB EeePC 701:
4GB more storage space and Windows XP OR 12GB more storage space, if you prefer Linux
Multi-touch trackpad
A better webcam
Newer, smaller power adaptor
And, oh yeah, a larger, higher resolution screen.
You’re probably thinking something along the lines of “Multi-touch is just software!” or “I never use the webcam!” but, considering the current high-end Eee costs you $100 just for 4GB more storage - no Windows, larger screen, nothing - I really don’t see how you can say that this is a bad deal compared to the current line-up. It’s not. If that extra $50 is just that unbearable for you, fine, but don’t blame Asus that you don’t seem to grasp things like “value.”
And before anyone says I’m some crazed Eee fanboy, I’m not. I’m planning on getting a Mini-Note. It’s just that people who are all “They’re giving it a bigger, sharper screen and more than double the storage and they dare to charge $50 more for it?!?!?” just piss me off, sorry.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:50 am
That was pretty well formulated.
It’s too bad he probably isn’t even around to read it :/
April 25th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Mog ……… Amen.
I also find it hard to believe that $50 (or even $100) is such drastic cut-off point for these posters. (They probably waste far more $ in time cruising these forums if they do it while at work!).
April 25th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Thanks Malmer
April 25th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
does anyone know if the cpu will be upgraded? The press release isnt very clear on this.
April 28th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
@Bob “He ordered one direct from Hong Kong and it apparently came with a UK plug”
Not surprising; Hong Kong was a territory of the UK until a decade ago. =|
May 6th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I think its almost defeating the purpose. What Asus has basically done, is create a UMPC that was cheap, not the $199 that we all wanted, but it was $299, fair enough. Now they’ve made this one, which is 550 bucks, for that price I can go buy something much more powerful. So all there really trying to do is move out of the low price market, and make some more $$$. Crap. Thanks Asus. As for portability, theres nothing wrong taking my 15.4 inch HP around, it what 6-7 pounds? Big deal. The only reason I wanted one of these is because of its price, which my friends, is slowly getting higher and higher.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
First of all, the purpose of Asus creating these laptops is to cater to lower income family that could not afford mid- to higher- end laptop. I guess the lower end model (700) with a price tag of $299 seems reasonable. But $550 for the 900 model is a bit too much.
The 900 model seems to be able to perform flawlesly with the higher performance processor and higher memory capacity on both Flash and RAM. However, the price tag on the 900 model is a bit too hefty. $550 + for a laptop that only have such a limited memory and screen. I understant that Eee is designed for portability and lower-end user, but for $550 i rather put it on a full-feldged laptop with a decent processor (perhaps Core Duo) and higher memory.
But on the other hand, i am willing to get the lower end 700 model for the price of $299 as the main purpose for these line of laptop is to promote affordability. It seems to be a great and affordable laptop for general computing purpose inclusive of internet surfing, email and basic office application. But i would surely upgrade the RAM capacity on the 700 to at least 1GB. (If it’s possible). It seems to be a great machine for daily general laptop for checking email and light surfing over the internet.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Err, would it be unreasonable to buy the Linux version to get the larger memory and then install Windows XP on it, to get a XP machine with 20GB?