14 DAY TRIAL // Asustek's Eee PC 401 ultra-mobile PC managed to sell 5 million units in just five months, but the company has greater expectations from its newly-introduced Eee PC 900 model. The Taiwanese notebook manufacturer finally pulled the veil off the 9-inch miniature notebook, that will come with a resistive touch-screen.
The new model will come with a significant screen resolution boost, that will increase the workspace from the archaic 800x480 to 1024x600. The Eee PC 900 comes with a plethora of novelties, including 1GB of RAM, 4 or 12 GB storage soldered directly onto the motherboard, as well as a pre-installed version of Windows XP. The Linux-based units will come with 16 or 20 GB of solid-state storage, in order to compensate for the pricing difference in its Windows-based counterpart.
The Taiwanese manufacturer also included an 1.3-megapixel built-in webcam for videoconferencing and instant messenger chats. According to the company, the new version of Asus Eee PC will feature the company's FingerGlide technology, that would allow the Eee to support basic multi-touch gestures on the trackpad mouse. Users can now perform pinch movements to resize images in real-time, as well as two-finger scrolling.
This is a worth-mentioning addition mostly because Asustek is the second adopter of this kind of technology, immediately after Apple bundled these features in its notebook line-up. "Vital feedback from a wide variety of users have been received, which has spurred us on to create more options to cater to different user requirements," said Jerry Shen, CEO of ASUS.
However, the greatest disappointment is the absence of the much-hyped Atom processor from the hardware menu. The Eee 900 comes with the same low-voltage Celeron M processor, but it now works at full 900 MHz speeds (the Eee 401 had the CPU speed capped around 630 MHz). The Atom processor is expected to arrive in the June release of the nine-incher.
The company did not offer additional information regarding its actual launch date, although it is for sure that the Eee 900 will hit the shelves at an estimative price of $500.