Even though hardware manufacturers have been going out of their way launching Atom-based laptops one after another, it seems that the Atom-powered mobile PCs eligible as Christmas gifts might turn out to have a very short “lifetime” indeed. According to leaks and pictures, it appears that an upcoming, albeit as-of-yet unannounced, Atom N450 “Pineview” netbook from ASUS will not only have superior performance capabilities but will even be thinner and lighter thanks to the fanless design of the low-power chips.

The ASUS Eee PC 1005P netbook will have a 10-inch WideSVGA mat LED-Display with a maximum resolution of 1024x600. The Intel Atom N450 processor will have 1GB DDR2-RAM to work with and the storage capacity of the netbook will amount to the 160GB offered by its thin hard drive.

The device will sport a wide range of Input/Output options, such as three USB 2.0 ports, a SD/MMC card reader and a 0.3-megapixel webcam. The laptop will also feature a VGA output for secondary display setups and has microphone-in and Line-out connectors. ASUS's Eee PC 1005P will run Windows 7 Starter edition and will be kept operational by a six-cell Li-ion battery.

However, the release will not consist solely of the Eee PC 1005P. It seems that ASUS has almost finished preparing the EeePC 1005PE as well. This netbook will have largely similar capabilities as the Eee PC 1005P but a more storage-capable hard drive and a thicker battery, which will enable the device to run for an astounding 12 hours.

The Eee PC 1005PE has a few upgrades, compared to its sibling, such as GMA 3150 graphics, the aforementioned larger storage capacity (250GB to be exact) and, instead of a mat screen, it has a glossy version of the same 10-inch WideSVGA LED display.

Of course, given that the products haven't been officially introduced (although the launch should come very soon), there can be no exact information on pricing and availability. Still, the prices are speculated at around 299 and 399 Euro.