ASUS Eee PC S101 hits US November 1st for a steep $699

We went back and forth on price specifics for the States, and now it looks like ASUS has landed firmly in the "forth" category. ASUS's new "fashion-on-the-go" Eee PC S101 hits the States November 1st, and brings with it a hefty $699 pricetag. What you get for that price is a new super-slim enclosure (a mere 0.75-inches thick) and some stylish accents, but the specs are pretty standard for the higher-end of netbooks. There's an Atom N270 processor doing the heavy lifting, 1GB of RAM, a matte 10.2-inch 1024 x 600 LED-backlit display, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, multi-card reader, multi-touch touchpad, VGA webcam, 5.4 hours of quoted battery life (unlikely) and Windows XP. There won't be a Linux option offered in the States. All of this weighs in at 2.3 pounds, and there's still room for "hybrid storage" of a 16GB SSD and 30GB HDD -- but despite the laptop's slimness, it seems a bit of a reach at this price. The laptop comes in "copper brown" and "graphite" versions. Stand by for our impression later today.

Gallery: ASUS Eee PC S101 hits US November 1st for a steep $699

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[oZ @ Oct 21st 2008 2:58PM]

$700, 1024x600, fail.

[rcappo @ Oct 21st 2008 3:06PM]

And VGA out too. This is 2008 (soon to be 2009) all projectors and HDTVs have digital inputs (DVI, HDMI, display port). There is a difference even on a small screen from VGA to digital when sitting close to the screen like I do.

[zoopthegame @ Oct 21st 2008 4:00PM]

4 million eee pcs have been sold. I think the marketing department at ASUS must know something that your mind cannot comprehend.

[jorvay @ Oct 21st 2008 4:03PM]

Plus no Linux option. I am actually interested in this hardware, but at $700, I can't bring myself to pay when there should be a cheaper MS-Tax-free option. Hell, even if they kept the price at $700, they could at least put out a linux-based version with better specs (no Windows XP spec limitations). An atom and 2gig of ram would scream with Ubuntu/Fedora/Mint/misc. as the OS.

[Knives_Out @ Oct 21st 2008 5:56PM]

I agree. 1024 x 600 sucks. crank that resolution up.

[Reece @ Oct 21st 2008 2:58PM]

I'd tap that.

The touchpad, I mean.

[muddyh2o @ Oct 21st 2008 3:00PM]

it has a B key. I don't want it.

[StalematE @ Oct 21st 2008 3:34PM]

obviously you have a B key and you seem to have a use for it. like posting on every damn page that you don't want it

[Jeremy @ Oct 21st 2008 4:42PM]

Or else he's hitting Alt+66 on the number pad each time

[Wii @ Oct 21st 2008 3:02PM]

For $700 I can get a 17in full feature laptop lol

[oZ @ Oct 21st 2008 3:12PM]

Uh, which is pretty much the exact opposite of the market this is designed for. When I'm looking for a small laptop, I don't go "Oh, hm, I could get a 17" laptop for this same price! How about that!"

Certainly no 17" laptop with this footprint or weight.

[adobochicken @ Oct 21st 2008 3:17PM]

Is it .75 inch thick and 2.5 pounds? If u found one get back to me

[Patriks7 @ Oct 21st 2008 3:14PM]

Obviously you don't get the point of these small laptops then..
I mean I could get a desktop for 700$.. but I don't think that'd help me now would it?

[Michael Scrip @ Oct 21st 2008 3:51PM]

Remember when "ultra portables" were like $2000? At least this is a step in the right direction.

The Atom processor has opened the door to cheaper tiny laptops.

[Fanfoot @ Oct 21st 2008 9:01PM]

Jeez guys, lighten up.

I certainly never would have bought a netbook if it was $700!

A lot of these are selling precisely because they are cheap. We can all live with the limitations because of the price. And because we have other "real" computers to do all the things we probably wouldn't want to do on these things.

I agree, $699 is too much for this thing. I think a $699 or $799 price point is what I would expect for an Apple netbook. And I would expect it to be a lot more interesting than this thing. And I still wouldn't buy it.

And for anybody to deliver a netbook with THAT keyboard in late 2008 is really quite unforgivable. For fucks sake, move the freaking cursor keys down a row and give us a full size fucking right shift key!

[Jeff @ Oct 21st 2008 3:03PM]

I wish they would redesign the logo for Eee....its just abysimal.

[mvp @ Oct 21st 2008 3:08PM]

I wish they would just kill the name already, way to many products are carrying that name now.

[zoopthegame @ Oct 21st 2008 4:17PM]

I agree. the logo could look like this: eee

or like this: EEE

same with the DELL logo. These logos suck and they are clearly done by the CEO's niece who took a graphic design course over the summer.

[Lee, ChihCheng @ Oct 21st 2008 3:15PM]

You can't get any other 10 inch notebook/netbook in 1KG with this price.
Ans, S101 have good battery life, good 11n speed, 16G SSD have great
performance. (same as 7200RPM 3.5" HDD)

need a cheap 10 inch, get 1000H or Lenovo S10/Wind U100
need a light netbook (in 1KG), get 901

need a light 10 inch? only S101.

[Ian @ Oct 21st 2008 3:15PM]

This is where high end eeepcs and low end lappies collide with no clear winner.
Asus could win here but NOT with this offering.

Here's what they need to do.

Spec out a new eeepc with the new Intel Atom 330 + small grahpics card and allow for 800 lines resolution + HD of 100+GB. Hold the price down to $599

This sort of spec at around 3lbs would challenge both low end laptops and the expensive ultra portable laptops. All IMHO off course. Asus meantime coming out with an Atom 270 based unit for near $700.00 is a complete waste of effort IMHO.

[ilh @ Oct 22nd 2008 1:03PM]

...and lose the battery life with the 330 (it's a desktop CPU too!) and graphics. They've already said they're going for battery life and startup speeds next.

[y3k.nik @ Oct 21st 2008 3:15PM]

Is got a matte screen and a B key... i will take 3 thanks!

[KC @ Oct 21st 2008 3:16PM]

Well clearly from the pictures it would seem that the target audience for this POS is rich women who ride shotgun in their husbands Porsche so $700 seems like just the right price to squeeze a huge profit margin out of the wealthy and stupid.

[Nick L NYC @ Oct 21st 2008 3:21PM]

At least its nice than those POS sold at target for $349 & $399. I looked at the specs, they are a joke, same with this $700 thing. Little Ram, tiny hard drive no DVD.

[Reader @ Oct 21st 2008 3:41PM]

Jealous much?

[Nick L NYC @ Oct 21st 2008 3:19PM]

Looks like a joke like the rest of these netbooks. Then again what would you expect for only $699.

Go with a nice ultra portable sony or lenovo not this stripped down piece of junk that has a tiny hard drive, little ram, cheap video card.

[Ashwin @ Oct 21st 2008 3:35PM]

For most people this is their second laptop, not first. Buying a full-size notebook and a netbook is a better deal than a decent ultraportable usually is. The ultraportable offers less than the full size notebook in performance, and is still heavier than a netbook, and most likely will still come out more expensive than the combined netbook and regular laptop.

[Esat Dedezade @ Oct 21st 2008 3:22PM]

Hear that? Thats the sound of the original cheap netbook concept falling on it's sword, dying a painful bloody death...

[DssTrainer @ Oct 21st 2008 3:36PM]

no way for 1024x600
no way for Single-Core Atom
no way for single-touch touchpad (bring back touchpoint!)
no way. just no way.

[Phoenix @ Oct 21st 2008 4:07PM]

Don't you mean MULTITOUCH trackpad?

[DssTrainer @ Oct 21st 2008 4:54PM]

Does it have a multitouch trackpad?

[htd @ Oct 21st 2008 3:41PM]

it looks just like 1000H with 3-4cell battery and they want $699 for it instead of ~$470 for 1000H. 1280x720 would be a good solution, or 1280x800...

[digitallysick @ Oct 21st 2008 3:44PM]

Why of course i would want to pay double for the same specs as all the other 400 dollar netbooks....... lame

[MrBoB @ Oct 21st 2008 3:52PM]

*Sigh* You people just don't get it. Asus has got the low end market covered, they are now moving to gut what is left of the ultraportable market. $700 isn't that expensive compared to the $1600 Panasonic R7 or the $2700 Sony Vaio G-Series. They are trying to show that high end netbooks can compete directly with the more expensive ultraportables. Obviously they will continue to make the cheap netbooks, but they see an opportunity for growth by taking on the ultraportable market as well.

[L @ Oct 21st 2008 4:35PM]

Thank you for that post, at last a person with a brain. I'd almost given up hope :D

Why not offer a stylish netbook at a slightly higher price? Nobody forces you to buy it if you don't want.

And I don't get why people still take time to comment that they find netbooks generally useless. Isn't it kinda obvious by the sale figures that the general public thinks otherwise by now? If you don't care, well, how about ignoring posts about them? Not that hard, really.

[Fanfoot @ Oct 21st 2008 9:16PM]

Will they sell any of these, at $700? Sure. Will they sell significant numbers? No.

Sure, I want a netbook. I'll use it when my wife has the "real" laptop, a Dell XPS 1330. Or when I'm on an airplane and want to watch a video. Or to take on a trip.

But I don't really need it. I could live without it. And if was too expensive I would.

The 8.9 and 10" netbooks are settling in at

[Fanfoot @ Oct 21st 2008 9:17PM]

Will they sell any of these, at $700? Sure. Will they sell significant numbers? No.

Sure, I want a netbook. I'll use it when my wife has the "real" laptop, a Dell XPS 1330. Or when I'm on an airplane and want to watch a video. Or to take on a trip.

But I don't really need it. I could live without it. And if was too expensive I would.

The 8.9 and 10" netbooks are settling in at

[Zadillo @ Oct 21st 2008 3:53PM]

No mention of the GPU? I thought that more powerful graphics were supposed to be one of the features and differentiating factors of this model compared to the typical netbook.

[BigD145 @ Oct 21st 2008 4:07PM]

Wake me when it's under 200.

[steve jobs @ Oct 21st 2008 4:50PM]

looks like ill be waking you uo in 10 years. nighty night little bird

[Carl M @ Oct 21st 2008 4:18PM]

Still with the awful right-shift-key/arrow-key layout? What's up with that?
Was it designed by people who hate touch typists?

[zoopthegame @ Oct 21st 2008 4:22PM]

touch typists can usually figure out whatever buttons they need to push once they look at the keyboard.

keyboard layout doesn't matter. DVORAK, QWERTY, whatever, they can type on anything.

[FRZ @ Oct 21st 2008 4:31PM]

These Netbooks are getting confused with the ultra portables. Their prices just keep going up.

[modified @ Oct 21st 2008 5:21PM]

I know this is nitpicking, but I have always really hated the Eee logo. Now that I see it on a brown top it just makes that feeling stronger. Asus really needs some help in the design department.

[Zibri @ Oct 21st 2008 6:16PM]

Does anybody know what model is this one in this scren grab ??

http://i33.tinypic.com/xodxky.jpg

[Troels C @ Oct 21st 2008 7:04PM]

The price is just way too high for its purpose.

[Joe Bish @ Oct 27th 2008 5:13PM]

so... basically a 1000H with only a partial SSD (but still only 46GB overall), perhaps a few more memory cards (but SD cards are the future anyway), a thinner footprint (.75" vs