ASUS Eee PC 901 falls to a cool $500
For reasons unknown, netbook manufacturers (on the whole, at least) have been asking ridiculous sums of money for their wares, but now that the novelty of the sector is wearing off, we're seeing those figures start to head south. Following in Acer's footsteps, ASUS has evidently lowered the entry price for its Fine Ebony / Pearl White Eee PC 901 to $499.99. Yep, that's the one with an 8.9-inch display, 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 12GB SSD and a 6-cell battery. So, is that low enough for you, or are you waiting for the Buy 1 Get 1 offer that may never come?
[Thanks, Nathanael]
[Thanks, Nathanael]






















UK price drop please, then i'll finally get one
As George would say:
"dream on Florance!!"
Or the same price but a better second SSD, eg a fast 16GB instead of a slow 8GB...
Buy one get one free? Tell me more of this...
Sure, just ask Michelle Jackson in Neverland.
IMHO the keyboard's a little too small, but since Dell pissed me off today, I might consider it. Seriously, the bait and switch $99 "deal", the free shipping that turned into $25 shipping, and the horrendously slow dell chat thing was a turn off. I was ready to give them my money!
Still $150 too expensive.
Acer still wins in comparison, to be honest. Not knocking the Eee because its pretty decent and started this trend, but Acer still wins, in nearly every category.
Correction, 300$ too expensive.
acer aint win shit. asus build is light years ahead of that acer crud
In terms of build quality/price, they are equal. In terms of features/price, the Acer wins.
Sure, the more expensive Eee's have better build quality, but they are more expensive, and Acer still takes the win for having more features at a really low price.
I really like the Eee, but im looking at it objectively, and its clear the Acer is the better netbook. At least it retains one of the key selling points of a netbook, and that is low price. Asus has lost in that aspect.
I own neither, but am looking to chuck my iBook into the trash/give to family member so i can justify getting something like this. And the price of the Acer makes it a "why not" purchase. Not so with the Asus. I have to actually think about which one to get, since they are only decent in the 550-700 dollar range. All the others are pretty weak, especially the drive space.
I'll rather get its nephew... the "EEE phone"... P552w..
i would not purchase one for over $100, which means the price would have to drop to about $180, for me to find that kind of deal, and it won't, so I wont be buying one... sorry asus.
Acer still has 12gb SSD (It's 20gb linux / 12gb windows with EEE) and a 3-cell battery.
are you insane? the aspire is gaudy tacky CRAP! that touchpad EWWWWW! limited, weak, unreliable GARBAGE!!!!!!!
You jerk-off.
The MBA costs 1800 to start. This is a full 360% less money. And it has more ports and much better battery life.
Your comment was by far the stupidest ive ever read.
Cute...
hehe... that's cute...
Your username betrays you.
I'm assuming this is supposed to be a reply to Intellectual and Open-Minded as I was going to write THE SAME THING! and after both of us finding his comment to be cute... whaaaaaat...?
Directed towards Inte... and Close-Minded.
F*cking Engadget's comment system is so busted.
Still too expensive. These things need to get down to, at least, three hundred before they'll be getting any more of my money.
I can't imagine spending more than that on a machine that I would consider a third option.
Ah yes, Endgadget Users: Cheaper than the Chinese! Or is it just Australians in general?
You obviously have never managed to put your hands on a MSI wind (or even better a Medion mini Akoya) because these could have been my very same words before I tried one of my collegues' machine.
Now , after a furious betting on e bay, (even if I could just have bought the MSI wind at the mall), I own a white mini Akoya, and you can buy my 12" Vaio on e bay for a very decent price.
Haha. Funny. Spooky. It's all I had to say. I'm tried at being upset with these types. I see no evidence in his open-mindedness in his comment.
Previous comment meant for zomg0t.
WTF?! Fix this non-cooperative shit, Engadget!!! It's ridiculous!
Yes, read his comment history. Every comment has something to do with either Apple or how much MS sucks. Close-minded POS
You both said cute less than a minute from each other, both of which I still have to figure out why it was cute....strange...
Don't feed the trolls.
Honestly, I can't be bothered to keep track of all of the ASUS Eee products. Is this the one I should look at or is there some other that's better? Is this one as small as the Dell or bigger like the Acer? What's the keyboard like? Etc.
The Acer, while imperfect of course, is $399 for the 6-cell version with 160GB/1GB/XP. So it still seems as if this is at least $100 too expensive even if you ignore the hard drive space. That said, 12GB is probably okay since I think an XP install with a reasonable set of programs like Office is in the 8GB range, and I ASSUME this thing has an SD slot for some media.
sounds like its time for someone to take his mid-day nap
AA1 still owns all netbooks in price and value. The EEE 901 should at least match Acers 399 price point. I don't know why anyone would pay 550 for the MSI Wind and EEE 1000
Bigger hard drives.
If the AA1 was $399 with a 16GB SSD I'd have ordered one by now.
8GB is nice and all, but 16GB is really the absolute minimum for me
Well, I don't know about the US market, but in Japan you can get the msi wind with a 120GB HD for almost the same money (OK it's about ¥4000/U$37 more). So why would I want the EEE PC?
I'm still leaning towards the Lenovo IdeaPad S10. I checked out the EEE as well as the Acer at Best Buy, the EEE keyboard is too small but I did like the Acer.
Yea, when I caught wind of the Lenovo Ideapad S10, I shit myself, because I had just received my eee 901 in the mail. Son ova bitch. The S10 ohh soo purdy. And I had to correct this comment 1000 times because of this tiny ass keyboard.
Even the 1000H has dropped down to $449 on amazon. But it is only available in black (or fine ebony)... wish they had it in white!
You are a mega-10 liter-douche apple fanboy. And I hate you.
Make them top out at $400 and keep the entry fee at $299 and you'll have some winners.
It sounds about $150 too expensive (the specs are close to the Acer less storage), but the argument of SSD vs. Hard Drive reminds me of the issues DAPs had back in the day. I've been happy with my Acer (battery life is a little short) and would like to know why most of the netbooks don't reach any kind of parity in price point with it. Is Acer making a smaller profit margin and counting on volume?
I always though the high price on the 901 was partly Asus had to protect sales of the lower price models below the 901, 900, 701 series etc, partly bcause teh 901 actually IS better spec'd than the A1 (bluetooth, more storage, wireless n, larger battery), and partly because, Acer was going with a console-war price strategy : lose money initially and make it up later when they dominate the market and the BOM cost falls.
Yeah...when these netbooks became the shiznits it kinda seemed like Asus et al forgot they were supposed to be like $199 - $400 on the outside...nice to see these companies with their heads up their er...um...yeah...nice to see them coming up for air...
To date I think the only 'netbook' to actually sell for $199 has been the Razorbook, which I'm a hair away from buying. I know...I know, in a world dominated by the almighty Atom, a netbook sporting a 400mhz MIPS based CPU doesn't seem all that appealing (and admittedly a 624mhz ARM would be preferable), but at $249 (the price of the upgraded '400' model with LAN + WIFI + Modem integrated) I think it's worth it as a toy. I've looked high and low and thus far haven't gotten the skinny on what kind of graphics hardware it actually has but it's supposedly optomized for video. So long as it's got the equivalent of say an ATI Imageon graphics accelerator and 8mb of vram or more, it should be adequate...
For what these things do, 400mhz / 128mb is probably enough (works on my iPaq 4700). If it can do MP3's, SD Divx rips, casual web surfing, email, and VOIP (still trying to confirm the last bit) reliably for $249 then I'll take 2. And since my similarly spec'd PDAs CAN do all those things, I rather think it's worth the risk...
I thought the EeePC was actually thinner than the MBA. And it's definitely lighter.
Actually and the 1000H had a price CUT huge if you ask me 449@zipzoomfly
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10008846&prodlist=celebros
Who can beat this price and these specs?1000H FTW
Tottaly awesome!!!!!
Im not sure if it's thinner. But its def. smaller. Plus I don't consider the MBA a netbook; too expensive. So comparing these two is ridiculous.
They had to lower the price. The spec-2-spec comparison with the super ultraportable Everun Note with the dual-core processor and dedicated 128MB ATI card was ridiculous before this price drop.
Still waiting for the Everun Note....
http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/09/everun-note-visual-appetizer/
To be honest, i would easily pay 800 for the Everun, if only the battery life were not disappointing.
The battery life suffers from trying to be a laptop in a netbooks shell. Regardless, its an amazing netbook (and it is truly amazing they got that much power in something that small).
Full review is up now....
http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/09/everun-note-full-review/
Personally, I love it but watch out for short battery life!
Steve.
The Air is not a netbook........
GOD.. I'm so fucking sick of hearing about the fucking Eeeeee.
Enough already.
Engadget... why don't you actually 'research' and find something new to write about... its the same shit over and over and over.
Eeec pc, Oled, the Wind, more Eeee..... blah blah blah. Oh.. another Zune! WTF
Dude, its a huge trend in laptops. Of course its going to get a ton of coverage.
Laptops were starting to be seen as replacements for desktops. Now they are trying to replace laptops with netbooks, since 90% of the time, your doing some processor unintensive crap anyways, like going to Engadget.
Now laptops are staying on desktops, and netbooks are the mobile travellers. Its time for desktops to make their comeback (in terms of the majority, i still cant live without a powerhouse PC).
Once you've tried to handle the MSI wind or even better its reincarnation as the Medion miniAkoya, if you 've got any brain and just a crumb of good taste, you'll never consider any other netbook until atom dual cores start to ship.
cute. very cute. but too smal. anyone with a brain realises the eee 1000h is the only game in town right now. ssd isnt cutting it yet. cant go smaller than the 1000 keys. acer is flakey and fugly. wind is flakey. both have hidden costs. asus listened to the criticisms and the 1000h addresses them all. quality product. dell are all hype, tricks and delays. lenovo ditto. forget your false hopes of competition, there is none. wise up and get the 1000h
And for me to think that you walk and talk your "Intellectual and Open-Minded" name.. You f*ck.. Grr...
Acer Aspire One:
160 GB HD
1GB RAM
XP
8.9 in screen
399.99 USD
6 Cell Battery
I am an Eee early adopter and lover but that is the best deal I have seen in netbooks, maybe in all of computing, in a long time
I haven't seen it available to buy yet though. I would like it in white ,but I think us Americans only get it in blue.
It's available in white. I preordered it on Amazon just the other day. Sold out now though.
If you care only about specs, it's a good deal. But have you tried using the system? It's incredibly ugly and has poor build quality, and if you opt for the Linspire OS, it is the worst linux incarnation I have ever seen. It's really slow booting and especially coming out of sleep mode (takes about a minute).
Also the touchpad is horrendous. Putting the touchpad buttons on the sides instead of at the bottom was the worse usability decision i've ever seen on a laptop.
@ Project December
You really HATE someone for preferring a different technology than you do? If that's true, get a life. If not, choose your words more carefully.
Looks like I'm getting the Eee from Amazon now. Free shipping? No tax? Hell yeah! I was gonna get the Dell, but because it was $100 cheaper. I'll get used to the keyboard.
You are SO not intellectual and open-minded you Apple fuck.
From start to middle and end, you my friend are a fucking failure.
Air != netbook
Fail.
Damnit i just bought one of these.
Call and demand a price change refund if it was less than 10ish days ago.
14 comments? Are you idiots serious?
The troll is fat and jolly. He has found a new place to feed.
The best thing about the Acer Aspire is going to the web page and listening to the music. I feel like I'm watching a porno. :) Wah-chucka-wah-chucka-wah-chuck-WAH-wah
Sweet.
Wish they'd drop the price on the Linux 10"...
@Sam
It's not exactly that. He fucks up all relevant posts with his irrelevant comments. The MBA is NOT a netbook. If you think I hate him because he is SIMPLY an apple fanboy........then you are an ass.
12GB for $500? Soo not worth it, I don't care if its SSD, I'll wait my extra 30 seconds of boot up time. Call me when they've got something thats at LEAST 60GB....
Publiciy or article? I still prefer the gorgeour Acer one mini laptop with Linux onboard for 349.00$
@ serial 8-ball mouse
you made it 15 comments.
After seeing 8.9" in person I am really leaning to a 10' screen, but the only one I can find is the wind for $150 more than the Asus ($550-buy.com)and 1/2 the HDD size 80g.
Pulling the trigger starts getting harder and harder, we need a site that gives a full list and all the companies to promise a break until november so I can actually decide
So if I bought a 901 about a week ago off amazon, will I be able to get a price correction?
ARG STOP MAKING US MAC USERS LOOK LIKE FUCKING DICKS
OS X IS AWESOME BUT MY MACBOOK IS BUILT LIKE A PIECE OF SHIT
Maybe for $500 this computer won't crack all over the fucking place like my $1200 MacBook has.
Hope to see some price drop in the ASUS N10.
Here is a classic exemple of how a jerk would look considerably better keeping his mouth shut insted of blathering nonsense hoping that the world would notice his miserable existence.
Take note kids.
Here is a classic exemple of how a jerk would look considerably better keeping his mouth shut insted of blathering nonsense hoping that the world would notice his miserable existence.
Take note kids.
When the price hits $250 then I'll get one until then not interested