Acer's Eee competition to have lower price tag, more beautiful eyes

According to a report on the lately-talkative Acer, the company's first iteration of Eee PC-competition will be somewhat cheaper than ASUS' current (and future) sticker prices. In a scant article, speculation abounds that the first wave of Acer-made 8.9-inch laptops will be priced around $350 to $400, while ASUS will market its 8.9-inch micro-top for $50 to $100 more. Word on the street is that Acer will launch its cheapo solution sometime in May, but ASUS will preempt the introduction with an April landing for the 2nd generation Eee. Of course, we're looking forward to the glorious future where laptops are simply free, all men live in harmony, and multi-colored unicorns once again roam the Earth.

[Ysleiro @ Mar 24th 2008 9:33AM]

kill kill kill.

Kill each other.

[Aguiluz @ Mar 24th 2008 1:48PM]

BOOM!

*dies*

[Matthew C @ Mar 25th 2008 1:19AM]

Boom is not very descriptive. Rocket? Shotgun? Sniper? Tank?

I mean congrats on killing the warlord, but how'd you do it?

[Ysleiro @ Mar 25th 2008 12:17PM]

For those that assumed I was being dumb. I would like to explain my rant.

"Kill each other" was towards Asus and Acer. I really meant to say "Hey Acer, drop your prices till they drop" and "Yo Asus, are U gonna let him do that to you son? !!!"

But hey.. we can have a laugh like my friends that commented.

BANG !!

[Raheem @ Mar 24th 2008 9:33AM]

Unicorns maybe, but free laptops? You're living in cloud cuckoo land!

[Andir3.0 @ Mar 24th 2008 4:21PM]

The unicorns are all happy on Planet Unicorn: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQJD1ura7G4

[ClaMs @ Mar 24th 2008 9:36AM]

All this is nice and good and all. But really, how useful are these little PCs? They're too bulky to be PDAs, too slow to be a proper computer...

Why is there even a market for them?
Anyone uses them?

[kr @ Mar 24th 2008 9:43AM]

Me. My EEE is possibly the most useful gadget I own.

[Ian @ Mar 24th 2008 10:02AM]

I just sold out my 701 and now await the 900.

I do most of my computing on a desktop and don't need a fancy (heavy) expensive laptop. What I need is something bigger than a pda with full functionality for when I am traveling. The eeepc and those like it fit the bill in price, size, weight and functionality. Do NOT think of them as replacements for full time PCs. Think of them as the do all traveling units.

[Nate @ Mar 24th 2008 10:17AM]

The Eee is more than powerful enough for its intended purpose.

[IT-Accountant @ Mar 24th 2008 9:38AM]

As great as the Eee is, competition is always good for the consumer. I'm looking forward to Acer's entrance into this market.

[Noel @ Mar 24th 2008 9:50AM]

If you think the Eee is not powerful enough as a PC, then its definitely not for you......

[Bruno @ Mar 24th 2008 10:11AM]

Cool. These are just perfect for people like me who travel a lot and use it mostly to surf the net and do some eMails. I've been using webbased eMail from Yahoo since it was launched like 10 years ago or so and now use gDocs for most of my spreadsheet calculations (all private not business).

And those small ones really are a great relief, cutting the bulk and overweight.

[Nate @ Mar 24th 2008 10:15AM]

It there any word on the storage type, and size, for this Acer?

Larger screens are nice, but I'm really not bothered by my 7" Eee. Larger storage, in a machine that's not complete garbage (Cloudbook), will get me to upgrade.

[Wes @ Mar 24th 2008 1:42PM]

I like the idea of a larger screen because it has the possibility of a slightly larger keyboard. I`ve seen the Asus Eees in real life /w a 2gb mod and they are really useful!

Downside for me is that I found my fingers? hands? were too big to type on the keyboard reliability. Eventually, I figured I`d need to carry around a usb keyboard if I were every to type with more than one finger, which seemed a bit bulky in itself, such that the advantage of the convenience of the eee over a traditional laptop is lost.

Unlessss, I could find one of those thin rollup-into-a-circle-like-rolling-a-sleeping-bag keyboards.

[Cal @ Mar 24th 2008 11:25AM]

Up to 12GB SSD I believe.

[Matthew C @ Mar 25th 2008 1:24AM]

I like as small as possible, with a keyboard i can type reasonably fast on. I have big hands, so I use a 12'. I CANNOT use the 7' EEE, and doubt the 9 would be that much better. They look cool, but arent practical ( for me at least.) If you're actually trying to gett written work done mobily, only a certain range of sizes are sensible.

this is like my 6th post on this page. wow.

[jimbodaddio @ Mar 24th 2008 10:28AM]

Unicorns are white.
(and, yes, I know that white is the combination of ALL colors, blah blah blah, but seriously...)

[J.Eaton @ Mar 24th 2008 10:22AM]

Actually white is the combination of all wavelengths when talking about light. In things like unicorns it is the reverse where all the colors make black. What you actually see is the color NOT absorbed by the pigment and reflected back. So multicolor unicorns represent inbreeding and are the heralds for the death of mankind.

(Yes I love my HP tc1100 more then these and wish the model line would have evolved instead of cancelled.)

[jimbodaddio @ Mar 24th 2008 10:34AM]

ok. granted. i bow to your superior knowledge of the light spectrum (duh) and unicorn lore. but what really concerns me (far beyond the death of mankind) is how your reply was logged earlier than my post. this suggests a rift in the space-time continuum that no number of unicorns of any color can explain.

[Jason @ Mar 24th 2008 10:57AM]

I am a messenger from the Leprechauns of the future. Sent back in time to avert this senseless tragedy. By teaming up with Gateway, and the power of Intel’s Core 2 Duo, the Leprechauns pulled a Pink Floyd with the rainbow bridge and sent me back in time.

I could have gone with the Unicorn sterilization method to save the future but Peta and Skynet were all over that plan. So instead I posted on Engadget, this way the Leprechauns can monitor the posts and realize that the time machine has malfunctioned and only transported me back 6 minutes.

[FRZ @ Mar 24th 2008 11:19AM]

That is highly retarted. LOL. If I had some tea, I would be spilling it all over my screen.

[Jim Goodman @ Mar 24th 2008 11:28AM]

oh.

[Jim Goodman @ Mar 24th 2008 3:02PM]

but wouldn't the time machine have transported you FORWARD 6 minutes?

[celerysword @ Mar 24th 2008 3:11PM]

That's it. I'm breaking out the neutrino beam chaser.

[Rhonda @ Mar 24th 2008 10:29AM]

I am looking forward to the competition but I must say I love my eee. Many of my co-workers are very envious. The eee is excellent for not only travel, but for note taking in meetings and general surfing. This is my "3rd" computer...certainly not a replacement for my desk top or my heavy laptop, yet this is one of my favorite computers.

[Marty @ Mar 24th 2008 10:52AM]

I welcome our new Unicorn overlords, and their tiny laptops.

[Hax Or @ Mar 24th 2008 10:58AM]

Acer's are awesome.

Back in the 90s I had an Acros, my friend had a fancy Aspire.

Now my wife is using an Acer notebook that's damn sexy and I think, a third of the price of a Macbook Air.

Bring on the EEE PC killer (I doubt it will be as successful as the EEE, but the fight should be good)

[Mo @ Mar 24th 2008 1:23PM]

Wow, I'm really surprised to hear that. I bought the Aspire in college with whatever money I could scrap together from the jar on the washing machine, the bottom of my pockets, etc. It was a terrible choice... it completely crashed and had to be reformatted, and then the fan gave out, it overheated, lost all of my data, and I finally just replaced it with a mac. Maybe this is a totally different model, but I'm so unimpressed by Acer that I don't think I'd spend another penny on this.
If it came with a unicorn, maybe... but I'd keep the unicorn and give the laptop away as a gift.

[dvdivx @ Mar 24th 2008 12:26PM]

What are the specs? No one knows. Still considering no one in the states is even offering prepurchases of the EEEPC 900 it might get here first.

[Andrew @ Mar 24th 2008 12:38PM]

Of course Acer is going to be cheaper... They are the low-end brand after all (in fact the lowest end brand, below that it's mom-and-pop shop no-name special).

[Valgas @ Mar 24th 2008 1:11PM]

The EEE 9" is the nicest looking of the current budget subnotebooks. Looks are important too. The EEE 9" specs are decent, if Acer launches a subnotebook thats nicer looking AND with comparable specs and an empty HDD bay so we can install our own if we want (is that possible or econimical?) I would consider. Maybe it will come with an HDD anyway?

[mors @ Mar 30th 2008 10:47AM]

pfft i'll stick with my XO...it looks way nicer. Women love it, it starts up all sorts of conversations with women when i am in a coffee shop/sports bar. They may call my little XO 'cute' and 'oh it looks like shrek' but w/e it's durable, capable and has great wifi...oh and the sunlight readable screen mode is nice when you want to do something outside.

[Mike Street @ Mar 24th 2008 3:36PM]

Multi-Unicorns are the future!

[drewls @ Mar 24th 2008 10:46PM]

This is great...I've been looking for something to replace my Dauphin DTR-1

[Matthew C @ Mar 25th 2008 1:13AM]

Acer sucks.

No- seriously- they use low quality hardware and their machines (esp. cheap laptops break like crazy). I don't buy there stuff- do to others experiences, but ive hear their service PR isn't that great either

[Matthew C @ Mar 25th 2008 1:17AM]

Ps. Dude- i really never minded the SOLID-COLORED unicorns.

... but thats just me.

[Max @ Mar 26th 2008 2:41AM]

I own both an Asus laptop and an Acer laptop.

My Asus was about 2000 bucks and has been in twice for service and is currently waiting for a battery and power cord replacement because both are hosed. Owned it for 2 years.

My Acer (I'm using now) was about 350 bucks from Wal-Mart and the little plastic latch to open it broke off the first month. I'm still under warranty, but instead of just shipping me the 50 cent part in a first class envelope (total cost less than a dollar), they want me to ship the laptop to them at my expense so they can replace the entire case and ship it back... Plus, everyone I've spoken with at Acer is a total jerk.

[Matthew C @ Mar 25th 2008 1:14AM]

Acer sucks. (see my comment)