Apparent $300 Eee PC turns up in the form of the 701SDX

Nothing's quite official just yet, but the folks at Eee PC News have gotten their hands on some pics of a hereto unheard of Eee PC 701SDX model, which they speculate could well be the sub-$300 (we're guessing $299) Eee PC we've been hearing about it. From the looks of it, that seems to be a pretty safe assumption, with the netbook packing a 7-inch display and ditching the webcam to save a few bucks. No word on any specs, unfortunately, but Eee PC News seems to think there's at least a chance it could ditch the Celeron of the original Eee PC 701 in favor of an Atom processor, and pack either a 4GB or 8GB SSD drive, plus Windows XP for an OS. If ASUS's history is any indication, however, we should know for sure soon enough.

[JM @ Oct 15th 2008 6:56PM]

Maybe I don't know how these things work, but how much space would you have left on a 4GB SSD after XP?

[Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Oct 15th 2008 7:14PM]

You can install XP with updates and clock in at around 1.5 GB I believe. So... 2.5 GB free?

[Reader @ Oct 15th 2008 7:17PM]

Depends on the XP, nLite is a godsend. I have a SP3 image that's only 300 or so MBs created from my original XP cd that was something like 600mBs.

[sracer @ Oct 15th 2008 7:27PM]

I have XP w/SP3, MSOffice 2003, and all of my organizer and reference software installed on the internal memory... takes up 1.5GB in total, I have 2.5 GB free.

[Mike @ Oct 15th 2008 9:07PM]

I use nLite just like how Reader does, and with all of my drivers integrated and updates and everything, my CD image is 350mb. Installed its under 1gb i believe.

[tha-don @ Oct 16th 2008 1:00AM]

i have an nlited copy of xp with sp2 and also installed office 07 (word, excel, and powerpoint) separately. that takes about 1.5gigs also. i slapped in a (pretty bad) 8gig sd card which helps quite a bit.

[scootinger @ Oct 15th 2008 6:56PM]

Or it could possibly be the version of the Eee 900 series with a 4GB SSD, Celeron, and Linux that they are selling in Target stores for $299. I saw it the other day at the store and it caught me by surprise...I had never heard of it! (not surprising considering the confusing multitude of Eee models)

http://www.target.com/ASUS-8-9-Netbook-Computer-Linux/dp/B001E1OQL8

[Phoenix987 @ Oct 15th 2008 8:06PM]

Not to ruin your hopes and dreams, but Target has been selling those Eee's since a little bit after they were released.

My local target has had Eee's in stock for months, and the models you mentioned are not new ones- they're ones that have been out for months already.

[Rollins @ Oct 15th 2008 8:12PM]

I hadn't seen one at a Target until a few days ago, and they haven't been on the website for more than a month. Apparently your store was special.

[Sukhminder @ Oct 15th 2008 6:57PM]

Seems like Asus is getting the point of netbooks and lowering prices.

[iEye @ Oct 15th 2008 6:59PM]

What happened to that $199 price point?

Besides I'd rather take on of those $99 laptops, then install linux and apply every mod to make it look like OSX...

[Al @ Oct 15th 2008 7:05PM]

Which $99 laptop?

[iEye @ Oct 15th 2008 7:32PM]

Oops, my mistake... $89

http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/12/menq-international-lowers-the-bar-with-89-easypc-e760-laptop/

or the one that runs "gasp" win ce 5! oh the humanity! $99

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/27/keepin-it-real-fake-part-cxxvi-jointechs-99-jl7100-rips-eee/

[noyp @ Oct 15th 2008 8:27PM]

They both run Windows CE.

[Al @ Oct 15th 2008 10:19PM]

If it is running any CPU that not really an x86 compatible architecture then it is pointless as it does nothing specially over my WM phone or any smartphone for that matter. I want something that can run XP and/or a good linux distro not some crappy ARM one.

[Colin Jones @ Oct 15th 2008 7:04PM]

What's with all these names and codes these days... pretty soon, we'll have Asus Eee PC 7001SDXC2DLOLXP2!

[DBrim @ Oct 15th 2008 7:22PM]

You mean the Eee with the 7 inch screen, SD card reader, extreme capacity, a 2 dimensional monitor, comedy mp3s included on the harddrive, and XP service pack 2? I thought they released that last week.

[warrrennnnn @ Oct 15th 2008 8:20PM]

Anddddddddddddd iEye returns to second grade.

[happy_penguin @ Oct 15th 2008 8:44PM]

I wasn't aware he had ever left the second grade.

[Darryl @ Oct 15th 2008 9:38PM]

I don't think people would care about its model number if it were still decent, yet $199.

[bboston7 @ Oct 15th 2008 7:11PM]

i dunno. It looks like there is all this space that could be part of the screen, but is just case. I hope they don't cut too many corners.

[Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Oct 15th 2008 7:15PM]

You hope they don't cut corners on what may be their lowest priced model...? Dreeeeam land, friend.

[Ac14 @ Oct 15th 2008 7:43PM]

that extra space is so if they do cut corners, they wont cut the screen.

[skeptical @ Oct 15th 2008 7:21PM]

Far superior to the new MacBook!

[James @ Oct 15th 2008 8:02PM]

ieye youre an idiot please stop posting on engadget and join your tard friends at gizmodo.

[iEye @ Oct 15th 2008 8:06PM]

No until you admit that the iPhone is the best phone ever made.

[noyp @ Oct 15th 2008 8:29PM]

Are you serious? I'd gladly do that!
The iphone is the best phone evar made!

/crossed fingers

[happy_penguin @ Oct 16th 2008 1:33AM]

No... as a current iPhone user I can tell you it is not the best phone ever made. But that doesn't mean I don't love it because I do.

[bureX @ Oct 15th 2008 7:55PM]

Oh, come on... 4 to 8 gigs!? That's just way to small for today's standards, even for low-end netbooks like this one!
8GB flash drives are freakishly cheap these days... why couldn't they integrate at least a 16GB one inside?

[iEye @ Oct 15th 2008 8:01PM]

Because ASSus thinks they are on par with Apple products...

I have been running Ubuntu from a $20 8GB Kingston flash drive with no lag... mind you this is one of the lowest cost flash drice you can get, so they can do muuuuch better than that, but they want to sell you those fancy pantsy SSD drives so that you can run everthing you want on a 7" craptacular resolution screen...

I think they are going to have a Crysis when other better cheaper netbooks take off...

Perhaps HP crushing the suppliers is a good thing... moo ha ha!

[Shinigami @ Oct 15th 2008 8:24PM]

ASUS! Make the price drop to under $100 please :)

[KeegdnaB @ Oct 15th 2008 8:48PM]

What all these netbook manufacturers need to do is make more things like this. They've very quickly lost sight of the purpose they started making them to begin with.

Simple
Portable
Durable (meaning no HDD)


and above all


CHEAP

[ilh @ Oct 16th 2008 11:33AM]

Or...perhaps they expanded on it. They're still making the original 701.

[Tamer Brad @ Oct 15th 2008 8:49PM]

holy crap am i sick of hearing about the eee and netbooks in general

[Information Central @ Oct 15th 2008 9:14PM]

Look at the ridiculous bezel around that screen. These things look like portables circa 1990.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Macintosh_portable.jpg

[Viakenny @ Oct 15th 2008 10:26PM]

it's that bezel, or an uncomfortably small keyboard.

[Information Central @ Oct 16th 2008 3:08AM]

How do you figure? The idea is to have the screen fill the lid, not shrink the lid to match a puny screen.

[Rollins @ Oct 15th 2008 9:14PM]

Looks kind of like this: http://www.target.com/ASUS-Eee-Netbook-Computer-Linux/dp/B001EXE5MG/sr=1-18/qid=1224119619/ref=sr_1_18/602-3837577-3119810?ie=UTF8&index=target&rh=k:eee%20pc&page=1

Target also has an 8GB variant listed for $300, which is also due in 2-6 weeks. No webcam, 8GB memory, XP/Linux, sounds about right.

If it has an Atom processor, I'll grab the Linux one for sure.

[Lee, ChihCheng @ Oct 15th 2008 9:49PM]

The 8GB/512MB/Linux is $269.99 now. not too bad.

[KilgoreTrout @ Oct 15th 2008 9:27PM]

I would'nt pay 30 bucks for that 7" turd.
But when you hear that Sony dropped a grand from the price of the Vaio TT give me a call.
Nothing else will make me part from my MSI wind (improved) clone, not even the new Eee1001 with its wierd brown tinted cover.

[FOREX @ Oct 15th 2008 9:40PM]

While $300 is appealing, its not a great bargain when you can get the aspire 1 for 330/350 with linux or XP respectively. Bigger screen, more hard drive... and cheap. Cheap, with these things is what you're paying for. The only upgrade I'd pay more then $350-400 for would be a bigger battery.

[JPH303 @ Oct 15th 2008 10:04PM]

How about $279 with Linux and $349 with XP at Toys R Us? Yeah, them guys.

[Rollins @ Oct 15th 2008 10:32PM]

In the U.S.? I saw that the UK ones were carrying them, but I don't have one particularly nearby to check on their U.S. counterparts.

[Peter @ Oct 15th 2008 10:05PM]

ANOTHER ONE!!!!!!

[diode3diode @ Oct 15th 2008 10:12PM]

Come on Asus! Bring in the tablet Eee pc!!

[Peter @ Oct 16th 2008 1:44AM]

Does anyone know of a site that lists the various models of EEE PC laptops, what the differences are, and what the letters mean? I'm getting tired of seeing so many models, and I can't figure what every single one of the differences are. 70x and 90x and 100x was easy enough, and I know 'H' means spinny drive, but...cmon Asus.... spell it out... Even Asus's own site wont tell. There's just too many to remember now. My head only fits so many informations inside, and I have to prioritize.

[ilh @ Oct 16th 2008 11:32AM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_PC

There's a table a bit more than half way down.