14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS has experimented with quite a variety of product concepts over the years, but its Eee Keyboard has garnered a far higher level of attention than other projects ever since it was first previewed over a year ago. In fact, it was very well received at last year's Consumer Electronics Show and also won the first place at the CeBIT-PreView 2009. Now that the PC supplier has finally finished putting the final touches, the Keyboard PC has been made official and is eager to stream HD 720p videos to any display device within five meters.
The Eee Keyboard is, essentially, a keyboard with full PC specifications. Basically, it has its own CPU, memory, graphics, connectivity and video-output capabilities. Measuring 145mm(L) x 425mm(H) x 10mm front ~ 24.4mm back(H) and weighing 1.1 kg (2.4 lb), the silver-colored product “lends itself perfectly to a myriad of uses at home and in the office.”
For consumers interested in the exact specs, the Eee Keyboard is powered by the 945GSE chipset and the Atom N270 central processing unit and has a “durable and shock-proof solid state drive” with a capacity of up to 32GB and 1GB of DDR2 memory. There is also an HDMI output, a Broadcom 70010/70012 video decoder, an 800x480 Multi-touch Panel on the right (for navigation in absence of an actual HDTV or Monitor), 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Gigabit LAN, Bluetooth and an internal battery that can last for up to four hours.
“The lightweight, space-saving EeeKeyboard PC lends itself perfectly to a myriad of uses at home and in the office. The high-speed wireless multimedia and communication capabilities of the EeeKeyboard PC can be enjoyed with any HDTV, monitor or projector. Connect the EeeKeyboard PC to a HDTV in the living room to turn it into the family multimedia entertainment center; hook it up with a monitor in the study or office and use it as a normal PC; or pair it with a projector in a conference room for presentations,” the press release states.
One of the more noteworthy features of the keyboard-PC hybrid is the Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Wireless Display connectivity, which allows it to stream HD 720p videos and non-video files up to a range of five meters and 10 meters, respectively The official announcement does not mention anything regarding availability and pricing. Fortunately, Amazon was careful to, at least, reveal one of these details by setting the PC-keyboard hybrid up for pre-order, for $599.