14 DAY TRIAL // Until some months back, there wasn't much opportunity for variety, in terms of processing, when it came to netbooks based on the Intel Pine Trail platform. Then, the Santa Clara, California-based outfit released the Atom CPUs that support high-speed DDR3 memory. Needless to say, OEMs were quite eager to take advantage of the new functionality, and that eagerness does not seem to have gone away, at least not as far as ASUS is concerned. The PC maker just updated its website with the Eee PC 1015PD.
The Eee PC 1015PD is part of the company's Seashell laptop series and, like all netbooks built around the Pine Trail platform, has a display size of 10.1 inches. As already suggested, the configuration features one of the DDR3-supporting Atom processors, namely the 1.66GHz N455 and the more powerful N475, whose frequency is of 1.83 GHz.
The rest of the specifications are, more or less, similar to those of competing devices. Video capabilities are conferred upon it by the GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 3150 integrated graphics, whereas 1GB of RAM will give the CPU something to work with. The laptop also comes with a hard disk drive of 160 GB storage space, but consumers can replace it with a 250 GB or 320 GB option. As for connectivity and I/O, 10/100 LAN is present, as is 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a 0.3 megapixel webcam, three USB ports (two of which can be USB 3.0) and , of course, a battery, with 3 cells in this case.
The ASUS Eee PC 1015PD Seashell is pre-installed with Microsoft's Windows 7 Starter operating system and the Express Gate instant-on OS. Finally, the machine will be available in three color options, namely white, blue and black. Unfortunately, availability and pricing are still under wraps, but end-users can find full information on the official product page, which can be located here.