Atom-based Eee PC 901 pops June 3rd with Bluetooth for $650
By Thomas Ricker 
posted May 16th 2008 6:27AM
posted May 16th 2008 6:27AM
June's shaping up to be a pretty special month 'round here. In addition to whatever Apple's got up its sleeve and all the new gear set to announce at Computex, Asus will be launching its Atom-based Eee PC 901 just like we heard. June 3rd is the date for "a price below" $650. We assume that means $649.99. DigiTimes' reliable market channel sources claim the 8.9-inch 901 will also feature Bluetooth for the first time (you know, without a hack) while the rest of the tech specs remain the same. That's $250 more than the 10-inch, Atom-based, MSI Wind running Linux and launching on the same day. Oh ASUS, what have you done?Update: To be fair, it could be that the $650 Eee PC 901 model runs XP and the Linux-based Eee PC 901 will sell for (a lot) less -- the XP-flavor of the MSI Wind costs between $500 and $549.
OUCH! $650 just for the atom upgrade.
They have gone waaaaay of track from their orignial $200 ultraportable
I was looking forward to the eee 901, but their forcing me to go with the MSI wind. *MUCH* better value...
If I told you, even a year ago, that you could get a ultraportable notebook for under $700 that has a 1.6Ghz/1 GB/20GB SSHD/9" screen and bluetooth, wireless, etc, you'd have been very excited. Maybe the deal isnt quite as sweet, but this computer is still a bargain.
I think Asus has lost sight of what made the Eee so great. Price was a major factor. At $650, you might as well save a little more and get a real laptop.
what ever happened to the $6-$8 atom processor that would change the world? http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/30/atom-processor-to-cost-intel-just-6-to-8/
Asus has lost it.
and isnt the VIA faster anyways??
lotta doh for a sticker
intel is poop
honestly though, there isn't much point in the 901 or the wind. you can get a dell inspiron for $500 (battery's not as good but its faster and has higher res screen). these things are starting to overlap with the low-end laptop market.
I have found so many mix reviews on the msi so i was looking forward to the asus eee, I can't find any pricing, I canno't even find where it is for sell at. I have been to their web sight and all across the web. I thought it was being released on the 3rd??????
Besides the price tag, what are the main difference between the two. I need a new notebook for school.
throw in the firewire too and i'm sold
Lol. Not happening. Firewire isn't used by enough people... Why would you need it on a machine like this?
MacBook Air doesn't have firewire.
Kind of gives you an impression where thing are heading.
then again the MacBook Air doesn't have much of anything.
I would love to have firewire on a very small laptop so that I can capture video directly to an external firewire hard drive when I am on location. This can be done since firewire supports daisy chaining of devices from one port.
I've found that firewire drives typically perform better than USB drives, even though USB has a higher theoretical transfer rate. Though there are hard drive camcorders, they tend to use more compression than tape-based camcorders and end up with lesser quality video. Special purpose "firewire direct to hard drive" devices are expensive and don't serve the multiple purposes that a computer does.
@Luthyr
I have found that ESATA drives out perform both, and I'd prefer an ESATA port over a firewire port anyday.
uhm firewire is used by tons of people. ever heard of video capturing?
Video capture on an Eee? I could be wrong, but that is not at all what these machines are designed for. They are designed for a little casual web browsing and word processing. These are not 1.6ghz core 2 duo chips. They are designed for ultraportables and are not all that powerful (and I wouldn't be surprised if they charge $650 for the base atom and more for the 1.6ghz). Get a macbook pro and be done with it
Could ASUS turn out to be the Apple of the ultra portable generation? Apple started off marketing Macs as affordable $999 computers for casual users in the days when you could easily pay $3000 for another type of computer, but as we all know these days Apple is known for having a premium on price riding on the back of its brand name.
I hope they know what they're doing, because it certainly wasn't plain sailing for Apple to this point. They almost died in the 90s as a result of jacking their prices with too little product differentiation.
That has to be the most fanciful and inaccurate thing I've read this week. The Mac retailed for $2495 when it was released, which was a major drop from the $9,995 the Lisa went for. Apple didn't release a $999 Mac until six years later with the Classic - and that was the 1MB floppy-only configuration, which might as well have been an SE from 1987.
Asus has been adding features (and therefore price) because that's what people are buying. You're always free to buy a competitor, or buy an older/cheaper Eee.
As for the MSI Wind, I don't quite get it. As far as I can tell it's quite a bit larger, doesn't use SSD - what is there to differentiate it from budget laptops? The Eee is at least tiny and light as all hell, with no moving parts.
And finally for those that *are* interested, pick your Eee up at Costco - they have a no-questions-asked 90-day return policy - they'll even refund shipping. So you can buy one now and wait to see how things shake out next month, take a look at Atom benchmarks, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.
don't drink the Kool-Aid John.
Why beat up on apple about their prices? They make products and people buy them. I don't get why people get worked up over this.
I give up. How did we go from $199 announced last summer to $650 now. B e real ASUS.
Well demand reared it's big ugly head. They've realized that people are going for small and expensive, so they're testing the waters with small, a bit faster and expensive.
I've always said the little sh&ts were too expensive for what you get anyway....especially when you can get a $400 15" albeit with a celly proc. that can do more (as in store more and at least burn dvds and cds, maybe even webcam equippred) from retailers.
But size and weight and the low power consumption IS pretty appealing. It felt as if it could be something that always travels with me - like a cell phone and my wallet, unlike my 17" laptop that's awesome for travel or being out, but not as a daily companion.
At $650 I'll def. be swaying toward the Wind, if ever I decide to buy one of these things anyway.
I stopped paying attention to the EEE as a viable totebook when it hit the $500 mark, heck $400 was a tad too much for what you get on the old 7 incher. I just got a nokia e61i smartphone for $250, does the job pretty well for the ultra portable computing I crave.
I have one of those as a company phone, I must say , its like holding a housebrick to your ear.
I've also received comments on it like "Oh, I like your nokia patio slab"
etc..
Neither would BB look much better.
For E61i that doesn't look like your slippers try E51, virtually the same but no qwerty
650 dollars, is that what you want from us Asus?
Fail.
Asus is has now joined the darkside: corporate greed. Hopefully, MSI won't become so and maintain the relative low price point of the Wind. Shame on Asus.
At least they still offer the 7 inch models.
You have no clue the quality of the components or how much it costs it make but because you don’t like the price it is automatically corporate greed. That is pretty pathetic.
One of the major reasons the MSI Wind is able to be sold for less is because it uses a standard drive, not a solid state drive. Personally I want a solid state drive but I think the wind looks like a solid machine.
650$?!?!?
better the msi wind...
Great, Asus you just made my decision to buy the MSI Wind! Thank you!
i agree there doesn't seem to be any reason for the increase in price if the incremental addition does not add anything more that what your typical modding has done already.
we need to know more about the specs and a solid review. and again, if there's nothing substantially more to add that your typical mod can't do, then the price blows.
This thing looks cheap should have stuck with the other design. I'll take the MSI wind for $399
why fair?
that lowend xp licence costs 25$ ;)
the msi wind still looks better from the datasheets sofar
An atom and bluetooth doesn't add up to $150, even if it turns out to have a touchscreen it's still too much. No thanks Asus.
Especially without one positive benchmark in the Atom's favor. I'll stick with what's known/not cancel my PC900 preorder.
Why am I not surprised the price is increased even further. But then again, this was bound to happen, seeing how the Atom is in such demand.
Re: Asus trying to be Apple - The problem with this is that Apple's ace is both its software's ease-of-use and its hardware's perceived quality. Asus has neither. Its main claim in this market is as a first-mover, but in tech, that advantage is a fleeting one.
The Eee doesn't have good build quality. Both the MSI Wind & the HP Mini-Note surpass it in looks as well as functionality, not to mention any additional entrants (Dell, Apple, et al). I think Asus' marketing manager deserves to be fired for grossly misreading the market, and laying an egg on the pricing.
"Apple's ace is both its software's ease-of-use and its hardware's perceived quality."
Perceived?? Apple pretty much tops customer satisfaction & reliability reports every year. Lenovo & HP are the two others.
Man, I couldn't agree anymore; Amen to that
I just received my EeePC 900 on tuesday, and I am really glad I did not wait for Atom at that price point
Oh my! Asus is trying to make a profit. Shame on them!
We should boycott them.
I am tired of companies like Apple trying to cover their development cost and make a profit. After all, if I had their resources, I could build a better one for the same price as this rip off.
It's not that people are angry with them for wanting profit, they're angry because they misled us into thinking we would be seeing Eees at a given pricepoint, and now the prices are skyrocketing...
Asus should apologize for breaking budget on R&D and delivering a better product, then charging more! What GREED!
Personally I LOVE my EEE 701 (with hacked BT, 2GB ram, internal 16GB thumbdrive, etc), and I was looking at the 901, but now with this news, I think I'll grab one of these with the atom. Hopefully it has a touchscreen too. I'll admit, I'm an AMD fanboi to the bone, but I must say that the underclocked celery stick processor in my 701 still does what I need. Crap, I just broke fanboi rules by not immediately dismissing any competing product as overpriced weak junk...
Still, here's to hoping for touchscreen and a lower price point.
The ironic part is I find myself hating crapple for the very same reasons I am starting to like Asus... Oh well...
umm... I was being sarcastic. :D
This is absolutely ridiculous.
Damn you, Asus! Why do you make these more and more expensive?!
I'm in conflict now: The MSI Wind is cheaper and has better value, BUT it has a normal HDD, whereas the Eee comes with SSD. Decisions, decisions...
If you can really get by with 4gb-8gb, go with the EEE. If you need some decent storage, get the Wind.
I'll take the storage and the 6oz added weight of the spinning drive. When the prices come down on SSD drives, I can always swap it out.
After hearing the price on that Atom EEE I am having the same dilemna. I'm really done with HDDs in laptops and worrying about bad sectors all the time. But also the EEE is lighter than the Wind. Gah, MSI was so close but EEE still has the upperhand in my book. I'll wait for the reviews to come out to see if it's actually worth the price difference.
The Eee 900 and 901 come with 12 or 20GB SSDs, which would be enough for my needs. I'd also prefer a non-mechanical, silent and not as power-consuming storage that SSD provides.
Regarding design, the ECS G10IL is my absolute favorite. Unfortunately there's no news whatsoever about it.
MSI Wind is gonna hit a home run thanks to the Eee PC stupid pricing.. Heck! full sized laptops cost around $650.. Asus must be kidding us with this pricing stucture!
Oh yay, so at least £400 here I guess...
Theres no way they're going to be able to sell it at that price over the 900 and its competitors!!
I recon the price will come in lower that that tbh - maybe thats the top model considering it has bluetooth which isnt exactly an essential.
larger SSD, blutooth, long life battery, high speed atom for $650 anyone?? - no takers?, ok just swap that power hungry celeron for a similar atom then please :)
I havnt even considered looking at the wind yet but from what ive just read the eee has no chance against it!!
You say highspeed like Atom actually provides any sort of improvement in speed over the celeron? The speed increase is only 10% to 15% with the 1.6GHz Atom over the 900MHz Celeron according to current benchmarks.
Atom only brings lower power consumption, which is kinda irrelevant seeing Asus kept the old battery (from the 7" version) but put in a much much more power hungry screen.
Why does nobody mention the ECS G10IL?
@wedge: Thanks for the prompt. The ECS looks stylish, although the chiclet-style keyboard looks iffy. As the Engadget blurb says, it could use a name change.
A salient factor from this is that these (ECS, MSI) and others like them newcomers to the retail laptop market, which means that these things are probably simple to build. I think the commoditization curve on these will be steep, and we'll be seeing $300-400 baseline price point this time next year. I'm curious about their uptake with mainstream users, and whether their pricing will drag down the pricing for other brackets.
Probably because little is know about when and if its going to make it to the states. Me want, in black please. I don't want apple'sque crap.
I was wondering the same thing. I thought the G10IL was supposed to come out at the end of April? It's now mid-May and nothing. I'd take it over the EEE or Wind anyday.
Its good that his has bluetooth, now i can use my wiimote to play old scool games on my futured EEE ^^.
OOOooo, MSI wins this round
Wow, I saw the title in my RSS thing and it just had "Blu" on the end and I thought they'd somehow given it BluRay...
Where can you order the MSI wind???
After June 3rd (official announcement), you can probably find it at Newegg and other online retailers. I would guess more like 3-4 weeks after the announcement, though, at the earliest.
there's this great little new website called Google. its really fun and easy!
Apple's ace is their fanbase. They'd buy garbage if it had an official Apple logo on it.
I keed.
Well, I do but I don't. I truly believe that Apple's loyal userbase is the only thing they have going for them. You rebrand this Eee as a macbook and I would wager a pretty big bet that they'd be sucked up like sweet, delicious, cold lemonade on a searing hot day.
I don't think they're trying to be Apple, that would be absodiculous. I think they've just gotten a bit greedy and are testing the waters to see the limits of the EeePCs interest-base, and people who are willing to buy it at that price. I think they don't want to reduce the $400 pricetag on the lowbie ones - as they want to keep the profits coming in, so they also can't release these new ones at $450/500 because then noone will buy the 2g/4g ones, sub 400 ones. I predict that IF they don't sell like hotcakes a few months after release, you'll see a drop in all the models.
All speculation of course. It could be purely due to more expensive manuf./parts/labor/etc.
Now this I don't get. The only thing Apple has going for them is their fan base? Maybe 12 years ago, but today...
OS X is genuinely good technology, and has continued to improve (unlike Windows, that's for sure). Things like Time Machine, Expose, and launchd are excellent examples of how they've looked at old problems and brought new, interesting solutions.
Hardware is well-built and well-rounded. It's very price-competitive for what it offers. No, you can't get a cheap tower - deal with it already. I've run too many feature-for-feature comparisons in the past, but the Mac Mini, MacBook, iMac, and Mac Pro are all very competitive (the Mac Pro even tends to be cheaper!). The MacBook Pro is questionable.
The iPhone is also good technology, and extremely well-designed. Debate the keyboard all you want, and some will not buy it refusing to be "lemmings", but the thing works extremely well, and has an extremely compelling feature set. As an OS X-based platform, it's likely going to explode next month with third-party development.
The iTunes/iPod ecosystem continues to be strong. Nothing really to say there.
Their marketing, whether you love it or hate it (even I am getting tired of "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC"), is at least focused and firing on all cylinders - certainly never saw that before Jobs returned.
Marketshare is expanding - certainly wouldn't be happening if they were only getting by with their "fans".
So am I a "fanboy", or is Apple simply successful on its own merits?
the cult of mac scares me :(
You're a fanboy.
Oh Asus, you greedy bastards.
Its really sad when a company(ASUS) rips off their early adopters this way...I just cancelled my pre-order of the EEE 900 and will be using that money towards whatever Apple releases in June...IF the 901 has Bluetooth, a touch screen AND HSDPA/EDVO then I would pay $650.00...Thanks ASUS you will not be getting my money or any people I had told about the EEE I'll tell them to stay away from ASUS product now.
MSI wind for me too. The ee just isn't very practical at all.
Asus might not do too bad here in spite of the crap pricing. I mean, the MSI Wind is a great choice but only HD drive available until who knows when. October?
MSI dropped the ball there.
Many want the SSD option and Asus is delivering that in June. Yeah, it's not a huge amount of space so that is what a 300GB portable USB drive is for. Transfer a movie to the laptop and watch it. Delete it afterwards but still have the long battery life that SSD gives without having to worry about physical HD failure. I do wish Asus would make the EEE wider so the keyboard wasn't so cramped.
I don't like the design changes made between te 900 and 901, the grey on the sides and at the hinge, that's a bit smaller so please Asus make it the same and I'll buy it!!
@Cal, when did Asus ever say that the Atom based EEE would be "cheap". The original targets of $199 was not achievable, they released a $300 product and $400 model with significant upgrades.
Atom will carry a premium with added features. Everyone is all about the Wind right now, but the jury is still out on it. I see this version of the EEE is to take on the higher end HP Mini-Note. It should obliterate the C7's lousy performance, tacks on bluetooth and a revised shell that befits the price increase. If people don't see value in it, no one is forcing anyone to buy it.
The market, despite its pending saturation, is booming. Asus is making headway into bigbox. Unfortunately, the vendors are losing sight, IMHO. Sure, offer the $650 version, but release a stripped version for us tinkerers and bargain hunters that can DIY it.
I decided that the 900 wasn't worth the extra $150 and picked up a 4G, added 2GB stick and an 8GB SD card. Love it. Quake3 and slingbox at lunch, streaming audio all day, surf on the couch or patio in the evening. While it isn't a desktop replacement, most common tasks have been taken away from the Q6600/8800GTX power funnel.
I am really (genuinely) interested in what you are saying here. It is not often that someone (who has actually used the product) comes out with something useful to say about how they use it.
With these comments as encouragement. Can you please go on and tell me some more.
For instance, do you use it for Skype (do you know anyone who does ?). Can you use it for Web-cam stuff (Skype).
Have you got an office "type" applications on it ?
What o/software do you run ?
I'd go with the HP 2133 then.
With most in the comments, I agree. I've loved the EEE and I wanted the 901 so badly, but compared to what else you can get now, it's just too much. Now I'm really excited about the Wind.
I'm not knocking it if they use the dual-core Diamondville @ 1.6GHz & 8W, just no under-clocking this time ASUS :).
I think it's funny how people ask for one thing (like bluetooth, bigger screen, bigger SSD, Windows XP, Atom Processor) and then bitch at the resulting cost. The changes aren't in the span of years but months, why would they devalue something they just shipped, it wouldn't make sense from an economical or business standpoint.
I guess people for get how much this kind of portability cost a few years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subnotebook
I want:
16 usb ports
4 esata ports
4 firewire ports
bluetooth
wireless N
infrared
2GB standard, 4GB optional
13.3" optical-quality, scratch-resistant glass touch screen
full sized keyboard
DVD drive
E8500 overclocked {yes I know, desktop only}
1 lbs weight
8800M GTX in sli {screw it, lets have quad-sli with desktop cards)
500GB 2.5" HDD
128 SSD
silent operation
LED back-light
0.25" thin body height
10.2 mega pixel cam
triple boot: XP, Ubuntu, OSX
titanium casing
I want the whole thing washable in the dishwasher
but why stop there!
all for $199.99
Price is to high and have nothing to do with the original eee low cost concept.
:(
This is the one I've been waiting for, why is it so expensive
ditto, pal. This was supposed to be 550 TOPS.
I bought the Eee 401 in December thinking that I could buy a $400 upgrade in the summer. Now it appears that this is not the case. I think I made a good decision then, and my 401 will remain my only computer for a little while longer.
How much bigger is the Wind than the Eee, anyhow?
Christ, Asus is losing it. I don't understand, they seemed to have the right idea early on, and now it's just getting more and more ridiculous.
This thing just keeps getting more expensive. No deal Asus.
Or for $100 less, get a full sized, fully functional, REAL lappy with a REAL processor. Or $200 less, one with a Celeron or Sempron... Even a used D600 from Dell would be a better lappy this this overpriced PDA...
is their any chance the 8.9 cloudbook is coming? i like their specs over the eee any day.
hi, where will I be able to buy the MSI Wind?.. I'm in the US (TX)..
But ... i thought that atom processors were cheaper than celeron ones (because smaller) .... is that true?
150$ ..... thats way too much, they cant be serious...
I guess the whole idea of a nice little computer for under $500 bucks has been lost...
All we really wanted was the 2g or 4g or 8g with a bigger screen. The reason many people didn't buy the first asus was because the screen was too small and it looked silly with all that dead space around it. Then they released the 900 at 550 which is a stretch in price from the 299-349 versions. They can keep their windows OS and extra storage space. would have put ubuntu on it anyway. So yes MSI wind it is.
Call the Sony CEO (again): The race to the bottom is back on!
HSDPA ??? useless without it.....
The MSI Wind has the same options as the EEE 901, save for the SSD and Bluetooth, but with a larger 80 GB 2.5" drive, an LED-backlit screen, and a whopping 7 hours of battery life for $100 less. ASUS should give me a f*cking good reason for me to buy this for $650.
I won't buy one until it's less than $250...
Thomas Ricker said "To be fair, it could be that the $650 Eee PC 901 model runs XP and the Linux-based Eee PC 901 will sell for (a lot) less"
Not likely if the Australian prices give any hint of how ASUS are currently thinking. The 900 XP 12G model recommended sell is AU$599, the 900 Linux 20G model recommended sell is AU$649. That is around US$570 for XP, US$620 for Linux according to http://www.xe.com/
The price is getting pretty ridiculous, I was holding out for a 10" screen but after seeing an IBM Thinkpad X40 in the flesh I think I'll be going for one off ebay instead.
[IBM ThinkPad X40 P M Centrino 738 LV 1.4GHZ 1GB 40GB]= $465 with DVD-RW dock station.
ALOT faster than either CeleronM or Atom. Has a handy PCMCIA slot for a 3G Modem, and can actually browse the web comfortably.
Will even run Vista if I want to punish myself.
These little EEE/Wind etc. are fast becoming the new ipod, overpriced, underpowered and a peer pressure/ fashion statement must-buy lemming stylee =)
I liked the sound of the original Eee PC, but the 800 pixel wide screen was not enough for me.
So the only things I wanted were a higher density screen - something that is definitely possible if you consider the Fujitsu U810/U1010 which has a 5.6" 1024 pixel wide screen if I'm not mistaken (IINM) - but Asus had to go up to a 9 inch screen which is fine by me as they haven't increased the size of the case.
And longer battery life. And 802.11n wireless.
Surely they could have done that for under AU$600.
I like the Asus because it is so small - all the other 9" equipped UMPCs have a bigger case IINM.
I don't think the two XP and Linux variants would cost differently....look at the 900 we got now, same price but different specs. So may be we gonna get the 12GB SSD again with the XP and the 20GB to the Linux......I'll still do what I wanted to do before and that is buy the Linux 900 model and install XP on it (or most probably leave the Linux)....anyway if this new EEE go over the £330 ($660 approx.) screw Asus, I suggest people should stay way clear from them until the dick heads at Asus know they can't go against consumers!....like Sony with the PS3, enough backlash until they dropped the price (still waiting for a PS3 price drop with the 40gb)
ok, june 3rd has passed...what is the story?
It's June freaking 19th; WHERE CAN I BUY ONE?