ASUS Cedar Trail Netbooks May Land in Santa's Bag

Netbooks are scarcely mentioned these days, but they are definitely still around, and will continue to be so, as long as there are companies, like ASUS, ready to make more, like a new pair of Eee PCs.

10.1-inch netbooks managed to spread far and wide before tablets started messing with the market share of low-end laptops and notebooks in general.

ASUS is working on two of those things, netbooks that is, and has probably been working on them for a while in fact.

Their names are Eee PC 1025C and 1025CE, of which the latter will be more powerful, a high-end entry-level mobile PC, so to speak.

1025CE will have pink, blue and purple versions, while the 1025C will be colored black, blue, red, gray, white matte, glossy white, pink or brown.

Hardware-wise, they are powered by the Intel Atom 'Cedar Trail' N2600 and N2800 processors, based on the 32nm manufacturing process.

In that order, they run at 1.66 GHz and 1.83 GHz, respectively, and consume 3.5 Watts and 6.5 Watts of energy.

Also, their integrated graphics can perform HD video playback, the videos being stored on the hard disk drives (HDD) of up to 500 GB.

Other specifications include USB 3.0, WiFi, Bluetooth and 6-cell batteries that can last for up to 12 hours of continuous use and 21 days of standby.

The report which made the existence, or at least the impending arrival, of the two machines public also stated that they may be ready for Christmas.

Unfortunately, the prices were not given and, even though netbooks are known for being cheap, they may end up costing more than usual because of the entire hard drive shortage.

Though some are optimistic, others aren't so sure things are going to recover that fast, some even expecting the low supply, and the consequential higher prices of platter spinners, to last through the entirety of 2012.