8.9-inch Eee PC to launch early, without Intel's Atom?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted April 8th 2008 5:15AM
posted April 8th 2008 5:15AM
posted April 8th 2008 5:15AM
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The new HP machine is not as revolutionary as the EEE PC. HP machine is really a shrunk conventional laptop and lacks the style of Sony's tiny machines and the phenomenal value for money of the EEE PC. And where is the solid state drive - the key reason for the EEE PC's chuck it in the backpack reliability? And what is with the HP's glossy screen? (Annoying, I know, I have a MacBook.) I'm going to get either the current EEE PC or this new model if it's out soon. Way more innovative - and I'll stick to Linux. HP is for MS road warriors, sales people etc. Sure it will do fine too.
Did I miss something then?
Reading Notebook.com it says that the base HP comes with OpenSUSE and 4GB flash storage. So yeah, the shiny screen but otherwise?
Hold up? Aren't these 'older dual-core' ULV's faster than the Atom?
It's a Win-Win!
well i wouldn't say win-win, because you trade the raw processor power for battery time!
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/c7-m_ulv/
VIA C7-M ULV Processor Range
Model Speed/FSB FSB TDP (Max)
775 1.5GHz 400MHz 7.5W
772 1.2GHz 400MHz 5W
770 1.0GHz 400MHz 5W
779 1.0GHz 400MHz 3.5W
doesnt seem like that much of a power drain.
@brickwood:
we're not talking about those crappy via-processors ;)
:| woops
They can be slowed down considerably for mobile use. i have mine set to 1000 when plugged in, 720 when on the road and 500 when i need around four hours use.
google eeectl, or go to eeeuser.com,
Does AsiaPac mean Australia too? :D
Any thoughts on the pricing structure for the eee line after these come out?
HP already lost by using VIA CPU, not Asus is thinking not to use Atom. Atom is one of things we have waited, do not dare to remove it.
MSI Wind PC and ECS G10IL still might be the winners. I am going to wait and see.
its about time to market man. People want these mini laptops NOW as spring is starting, not in 3 months. Intel jerked arround too much and delayed the atom untill june. If anything i would blame intel for being slow, and praice asus for getting an 8.9" model now. Based on all the official releases i've been expecting them to release the 8.9" with a celeron processor, and then re-release with atom processors and all the extra color-options in june/july when they have enough atom's to ship.
Way to go Asus
I don't think the 8.9-inch Eee was ever going to launch with Atom. Like the in the context of their roadmap for the system in the coming year. The 900 series was always a VIA-based system.
Well, that was odd. What I thought I typed was "like the touchscreens, aesthetic redesign and WiMAX, Atom was only ever mentioned in the context of..."
You're right that the 900 series was never going to launch with Atom, but you're wrong to assume that that means they will have Via processor.
Asus said from the start that the 900 will have the same Celeron processor as the current 701s. Not Via.
Whoops, my mistake, I thought they were on VIA CPUs already.
Nice, now we can bench it if the atom variant releases to spot a performance/battery life difference.
Not bad, the ULV core-duo processors would be a nice step up to the Eee PC.
Current (old) ULV core-duo chips are the Core Duo ULV U2400/U2500 chips which come in 1.06 GHz and 1.2 GHz with a nice 2 MB L2 cache.
Hell of a lot better than the single core 900 MHz (Celeron M ULV 353) underclocked chip with a 512 KB L2 cache.
Then again, who knows if thats true or if the core-duo chips will be underclocked too?
Yeah, personally I'd prefer a C2D to an Atom for the performance. I'm starting to waffle again, and I think now I'll just get a $600 regular laptop with enough horsepower for some basic gaming rather than an EeePC 900. Also, they always said they were launching with the same Celeron in the 701, they never said they would launch with Atom and in fact said that they would put Atom in after the initial launch since Atom is delayed. Also, performance-wise Atom is probably going to suck, although the battery life could make up for that.
In the UK, google shopping gives links to retailers that claim a 12GB XP or 20GB Linux for £305 inc VAT - available 'early May'
Hey, where is the DELL entry in the UMPC market?
Their silence / ignorance / lack of action in the fastest segment of the PC market is amazing...
What is going on?
Good question. I'd take a Dell over Asus, Acer, Everex, HP, ... any day. I've had only good experiences with the handful of Dells I own.
Where is Windows Mobile in the UMPC market? Seems like it'd be a natural extension from PDA to include a keyboard and a larger screen. (Key to this market segment seems to be price -- look at the failure of the Palm Folio for instance.)
What processor will Acer's use? I've always been a fan of Asus but if they aren't going to delivery the goods, I'll check out other alternatives.
Are you certain it would be cheaper? I'm not in the know, but under the impression that the 4G SSD in the current EEE PC is approximatly the same technology in those 1G USB thumb drives that most of us have a drawer full of, rather than the high speed stuff like the 64G SSD's have. If they are simply thumb-drives on crack then i imagine the flash memory is much cheaper than a spinning hard drive.
I don't know about this one...But I'd REALLY like the Eee, and want one, bad, if they did one thing a little differently.
Have an old-school platter drive, with just like 40, or maybe even 80 gigs on it. And lower the price $50. Not that it's too expensive now, but the cheaper drive would let them do it, and make me want it even more. Solid state is cute and all, but I want a LITTLE more disk space than is affordable that way.
All these pointless posts about a pointless pc are why i switched to gizmodo
..but still find your self coming back here.
By your sentence structure, I can tell you'll fit in quite well over there.
i would wait for atom, 3 hour battery life is annoying.
They wouldn't use a core dup. they would use a core solo processor or celeron processor. Duo is too expensive.
So, what would be a fair battery time guesstimate with the atom? I don't think I'll be able to hold out for much longer, and if it's less than 1h difference I'll take the plunge and get the ULV model. If not I'll have to research some means to put myself in hibernation till the official release date.
supposedly atom is supposed to be sub 1w, but who the hell really knows. anyway the drain from the bigger screen and other new nonsense they put into it will be plenty, so i highly doubt we're going to notice a change until they start making everything more efficient as a whole, as apposed to dropped one thing by 3w only to raise another by 2 and another by .5 and another by.. you get the idea.
As I am not a road warrior(yet), and am willing to brawl with anyone over that single wall plug at the local starbucks, 2.5 to 3 hours would suit me fine.
Wait dual core processors? No, I swore that these would launch with the same 900mhz Celeron in the current EEEs. And they are still much better than the horrible Via processors, its true, don't flame me.
If they could get like the older Core Duo U2400 processors, that certainly would be nice.
Didn't I hear somewhere that the Atom processors aren't much better than the current 900mhz Celeron ones? I mean in performance, I think its mostly power consumption where the Atom shines.
atom performance is roughly p3 equivalent unless i'm mistaken
My birthday is April 17th. These need to be out by then.
me 2! *internet high five*
you guys rock
my birthdays april 19th. and they won't be. they said around may which is really june. and if they really wanna push my buttons, july.
darn it, mine's on the 15th! better find another excuse the wife will buy if this comes out later than april.
I want my Palm Foleo! Seriously, why did that never get the chance to be successful but Asus and HP can???