Eee PC 901 hands on

Sascha from Eee PC News.de is one of three bloggers I know of who managed to get his hands on an Eee PC 901 while in Tapei for Computex last week. Yesterday he ran a few benchmarks and posted a first look at the new computer, comparing it with its predecessor the Eee PC 900.
As you can clearly see during his PC Mark 05 test, the Eee PC 901 blows away the 900 when it comes to graphics performance. The 901 also features a larger touchpad with two distinct buttons and a rougher surface.
The thing that I was most surprised to hear is that the Eee PC 901 features a 1-click overclock/underclock feature which seems very similar to the “turbo” button on the MSI Wind. It seems that Intel must be marketing the Intel Atom CPU as an easy chip to underclock and overclock since we’re seeing multiple manufacturers not only supporting speed switching, but adding a keyboard shortcut to change the CPU speed.
Of course, the ability to underclock the CPU from 1.6GHz to 800MHz when you unplug the power cable or hit the underclock button isn’t that surprising. What is a bit more unusual is the option to overclock the CPU to 1.8GHz. Typically if a company’s going to release a CPU that can run at 1.8GHz with some stability they’ll just call it a 1.8GHz chip and not a 1.6GHz CPU.
Of course, the higher the clock speed, the shorter your battery life will be. The Eee PC 901 comes with a 6600mAh battery, which provides more juice than the standard batteries that come with the Eee PC 900 or Eee PC 701. Under typical conditions, the Eee PC 901 battery should last about 5-6 hours.

Posted on Sunday, June 8th, 2008, 4:45 pm by Brad Linder
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  • Actually it's profoundly common to find chips that can overclock, especially 200 mhz. You can sneeze and overclock a modern desktop processor that much. With better cooling, you can overclock a modern notebook processor to stratospheric levels. It has to do with reliability, power consumption, and yield. I'd bet that some of these Atoms could run at 2Ghz or more, but they can't consistently manufacture those parts enough to want to warranty them at that speed, and they run cooler at 1.6 than they do at 1.8.
  • Right. What surprises me isn't the fact that you can overclock the device...
    it's the fact that two of the first manufacturers to include the chip in
    their machines are including a hardware button that will do it for you.
    Typically you need to install software or go into the BIOS to overclock a
    CPU.
  • crazyyellowguy
    goodness.. when will ASUS anounce the release date for the 901 and 1000 in the US. The wait is driving me crazy, I can't wait for the better preformance and battery life.
  • Roric
    Amen, the wait is killing me too! I'm even going to make a custom pocket in my jacket so I can have it on me at all times :)
  • Jessica
    This is ridiculous. It's June 20th; where can I buy an Eee PC 901!?
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