ASUS makes Eee PC S101 official, 904HA images leak out

Just when we think things can't get any worse for the Eee's bedraggled reputation as a brand, along comes ASUS with a subtle deviation to give us some much needed hope. The "fashion-friendly" S101 ($699 to $799), which will ship in brown (seriously?), champagne and graphite hues, and feature a 10.2-inch WSVGA LED-backlit display, an SSD up to 64GB in size, 4-in-1 flash card reader, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, a VGA output, three USB 2.0 ports, 0.3-megapixel webcam and a multi-touch trackpad. In related news, we've got the remarkably heinous 904HA (shown after the break), which inexplicably comes in puke green and lollipop red (or black, phew), and includes a 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD, 6-cell battery and a $399.99 price tag. You're stoked, aren't you?

Read - Eee PC S101
Read - Eee PC 904HA; via EeePCNews

[andy @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:11PM]

wow, that thing is slim... feather light... should fit in an office envelope at a fraction of the cost.

[waiownsyou @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:15PM]

FYI: It's not feather light

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:18PM]

He's talking about the feather.

[EricR @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:28PM]

andy: you could cut your cake and eat it too!

[BigD145 @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:33PM]

Which weighs more: a pound of S101 or a pound of feathers?

[Saad @ Oct 4th 2008 1:59AM]

@BigD145

I would say they weigh the same. But the real answer is no one cares.

[SteveJ @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:43PM]

The E904HA actually is pretty appealing (well, in black, I presume - I don't see any pictures of the black version. The red and green are pretty terrible.) The price seems right (and that's the main thing), especially with a 6-cell battery. My question, and this is important to me: can you install Mac OS X on it via whatever means? More correctly, can you set it up for dual boot with both Mac OS X and Windows XP? Does the fact that the processor is an Atom present any issues for Mac OS X (or installing it)? I'd run Windows in Fusion, but the 1 GB RAM would seem to limit that. Can you upgrade to 2 GB or more?

[James @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:04PM]

I'm going to assume that "SteveJ" doesn't stand for "Steve Jobs"...

Let me try to answer your question though

It is possible to load versions of osx onto eee's but since you don't seem capable enough to google how yourself, I doubt you have enough tech savvy to pull it off.

If there is software you have to have on osx and you really want it in a slim case, I'd suggest you just pay the Apple tax and save yourself a lot of stress.

Otherwise, use xp and or try out Xandros, you might find it rather refreshing.

[Cybergypsy @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:19PM]

Its all about the OSX :(

[Cybergypsy @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:19PM]

Its all about the OSX :(

[SimonRichards @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:12PM]

No dual core? ='[

[Totalfixation @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:27PM]

I think he was referring to the dual core atom processor.

[SimonRichards @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:30PM]

The N270 is a single core processor.

[James @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:12PM]

That'll be on the version eeeeee s101 :P

[tbone @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:15PM]

nope, i already got a macbook, thnx anyways

[Zelatio @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:38PM]

Nope, I like my $2500, thnx anyways.

[y3k.nik @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:16PM]

mmmm lollipop... not so much puke...

[Mile @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:19PM]

But will it slice?

Thank you, I'll be here all day.

[Kiteless @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:32PM]

Yuk yuk yuk yuk!!!

It looks surprisingly thin, but it could be a trick of the angle that they are using. I am amazed that with a photo like this, no one is talking about how thin it is. I will be curious to see more pics of this as they come.

- Kiteless

[Rohit Kapur @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:38PM]

Really?

That's disappointing news.

[RikF @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:32PM]

1.8 cm according to the release

[Jeff @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:27PM]

The puke green includes chunks too.

That's detail for ya.

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:47PM]

Or... air bubbles in the protective film.

[eiki @ Oct 3rd 2008 6:12PM]

no, it's pretty patterns http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/10/03/eeepc.904ha.unveiled/

[Adderz @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:27PM]

I actually quite like the "puke" colour as the editor so eloquently put it.

Almost all Eee articles contain a variation of "Just when we think things can't get any worse for the Eee's bedraggled reputation as a brand"..its getting old, try writing something fresh. We dont need the "attitude".

[Todd @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:01PM]

That's the only reason I stop at Engadget... for the attitude. Sheesh!

[telepheedian @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:17PM]

I like the attitude factor, but the eee hate that has been going around here is even worse than the hate that went around for the Zune when it first came out. It's true that there are too many models, but the new models are filling some nice gaps in their line, its actually kinda nice to be able to get a machine exactly how you want it. These changes are nice, they just need to find a better way to present them. Finally, that green color really isn't that bad at all, I';ve seen some other Eees with it at a different angle, and it looks fine. And the brown looks pretty high-end, just what Asus was aiming for.

[Skazer @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:01PM]

Thank god someone else feels the same way. It's bad enough that a tech community like Engadget's is so childish over a product's naming system, but the Engadget editors themselves inserting hyperbole about it into everyone of their posts about the Eee is just plain annoying.

[James @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:21PM]

Thanks Adderz

I'm getting sick of it too!

Seriously, I just counted over 25 different models of laptops on Dell's site today! Yes, a little more organized, but still just list all the model numbers side by side and everyone would be just as confused.

The joke is an antique now so move on.

[auricom @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:18PM]

Well, at least this time they're reporting on facts, and not passing unconfirmed, possibly fan-made mockups as news.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/02/eee-marketing-getting-adorably-bitchy/

I find it interesting that out of all the people who responded, not a single one stopped to question the legitimacy of the supposed "advertisement." One that lacked any sort of Asus or EEE branding.

[Metkis @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:37PM]

Skazer: They wouldn't do it if every post about the EEE wasn't announcing a new model. Zing!

[jaypee @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:02PM]

You know what? I'm beginning to sense that the Engagdet editors think the Eee brand is watered down. You know what else? I'm sick of hearing them go on and on and on about it. We get it already. Move on.

[StalematE @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:36PM]

i like skinny netbookss, but i'll never turn down a fatty.

[7on @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:44PM]

That's what she said

[Chin-Poh @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:50PM]

I'm willing to trade thinness for a high capacity HDD.

[jack @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:22PM]

Fattys need love too...

[7on @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:43PM]

What'chu talkin' 'bout?

Brown is actually pretty stylish nowadays. My GF is wanting the Brown G1 when it comes out o_O

[jpillars @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:46PM]

looks nice, but with no Dual Core.. maybe hard to do stuff.. might as well get a Air :)

[RikF @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:33PM]

If you have an extra thousand dollars in loose change down the back of the sofa you might as well...

[Rogue_Genius @ Oct 3rd 2008 3:23PM]

If you're willing to pay $2500 for Air, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to show you..

[adhood @ Oct 3rd 2008 3:43PM]

Forget the bridge.
I've got some oceanfront property in Idaho for sale.

[Ogo @ Oct 3rd 2008 6:47PM]

I have some Lehman Brothers stock you might be interested in.

[Chin-Poh @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:48PM]

I like the looks ofthe S101, but for that price, the SSD had better be quite fast and I was hoping for a higher resolution screen instead of the numbing 1024x600 in just about all other netbooks. : (

HP's 2133 Mini-Note has 1280x768 and runs around the same price as the S101 but with the much inferior Via C7 processor.

[rahul @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:55PM]

So its basically a slimmer eee 1000 with presumably a decent speed SSD?
No expresscard slot, no tablet mode, same resolution as almost everything else, only 0.3 MP camera and only a marginal improvement in portability.
Do not want.

[Uchiha Sasuke @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:08PM]

Ha ha, This tells you what a hypocrite of a company Asus is. First, they release 20 iterations of their EEE netbook pc and overpricing them. Then, they compare their highest configured 1000H to a first gen Acer Aspire One. And now this, a total knock off of the competition, the AA1.

[g20k @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:22PM]

I'll go out on a limb :

What you see in the Asus Eee S101 is to be announced small 10" version of the Apple MacBook Air, which will start below $1000.
That will be Apples response to the netbook market and re-positioning of the Air line-up in Oct. 2008.

[RikF @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:35PM]

I'd be careful on that limb if I were you - you'll likely fall off...

[Jash Sayani @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:34PM]

I hate SSDs. They are damn expensive !!! Why cant they offer SATA drives for those who want more storage...?!!?!?
And the HSUPA is MISSING !!!!

[Rob Pereira @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:47PM]

I have a feeling people are curious of the size compared to a MacBook Air so I put them both into sizeasy.

http://www.sizeasy.com/page/size_comparison/18305-Apple-MacBook-Air-vs-Asus-Eee-PC-S101

[jfreder @ Oct 3rd 2008 3:27PM]

So the 904HA is the same price and has the same specs as the 6-Cell Aspire One. Anyone know reasons why it would be better to go with one over the other?