14 DAY TRIAL // When talking about Asus' teaser for their Sirocco Eee PC netbook, we expressed our hopes the device in question was going to be something truly interesting (perhaps even powered by the AMD Fusion platform), especially since it was accompanied by the “Making Waves” tagline, but the reality is a lot less impressive, sadly. So, now that Asus has decided to go official with the Sirocco, it's become quite clear that the latest addition to the Eee PC family is nothing more than a Eee PC 1015PW that's received an exterior makeover, confirming earlier reports.
However, since every cloud has a silver lining, we'll have to notice the fact that the overall design and finishing (featuring texturized purple, gold, or pink paint, that do have somewhat of a “wave-y” pattern) is superior to the one provided by Asus' Karim Rashid line, which might make the “Sirocco” a lot more attractive for people who value aesthetics above all other aspects.
On the inside, however, things are far from what we'd call surprising, the 10.1-inch device being powered by an Intel Atom Pineview-M N550 CPU, accompanied by 1GB of RAM memory, 250GB or 320GB HDD (plus 500GB ASUS WebStorage), Bluetooth 3.0, Wireless-N networking, and just about all of the connectivity options we've come to expect from the netbooks in the Eee PC series.
The netbook also offers users a 0.3M Pixel camera (for easier VoIP communication), an Hi-Definition Audio CODEC, stereo speakers and a built-in microphone.
Moreover, the Eee PC 1015PW is also extremely portable, measuring 262x178x23.6~36.4mm and weighing just around 1.25Kg, including here the extra weight provided by the built-in 6cell battery.
Pricing and availability details have not yet been provided, but we shouldn't really expect these things to be a whole lot more expensive that the basic 1015PW.