14 DAY TRIAL // Even though most laptop manufacturers have given up on the netbook concept, Asus keeps pushing new devices into its Eee PC product line and the latest to make its appearance is the ultra-thin X101CH packing Intel’s recently released Cedar Trail platform.
The chip used for this netbook is actually the Atom N2600, which is one of the first Atom CPUs to be built using the 32nm production process and packs dual processing cores clocked at 1.6GHz with support for Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology.
This is quite a far cry from the original 1.33GHz Intel Atom N435 CPU with just 512KB of L2 cache offered in the MeeGo-running version of the Asus netbook, and should offer decent performance as well as highly improved multimedia capabilities.
These are mostly due to the new PowerVR SGX545 graphics core that Intel has introduced in the Cedarview architecture, which can support hardware decoding for MPEG2, VC1, AVC, and H.264 Full HD content as well as for Blu-ray 2.0 content.
Taking a look at the remaining specifications, we get to see that the Eee PC X101CH is also equipped with 1GB of system memory, a 320GB hard drive as well as the standard 802.11n Wi-Fi, low-res webcam, and optional Bluetooth 3.0.
All of these, together with a 4-cell battery that can deliver up to 5 hours of running time, are packed inside a slightly thicker chassis than the one used for the original Eee PC X101 laptop.
The 10.1-inch screen has a native resolution of 1024x600 pixels and the operating system of choice is Windows 7 Starter.
As far as availability is concerned, the Eee PC X101CH is expected to arrive in February of this year with prices starting at $269 (about 210 EUR).
