Asus updates keyboard for Eee PC 900HA

The Asus Eee PC 900HA may be the same size as the Eee PC 900, but there are a number of differences between the two netbooks. The Eee PC 900 has an Intel Celeron CPU, while the 900HA has an Intel Atom chip. The 900 has 16GB or 20GB of solid state memory, while the 900HA has a 160GB hard drive. And the 900 comes in Linux or Windows flavors, while the 900HA appears to be Windows only at the moment.

But that’s not all. It appears the two netbooks also have different keyboards. Liliputing Forums member RedsGT recently picked up an Eee PC 900HA and he’s posted a photo showing the two keyboards side by side. It’s a bit like one of those “spot the differences” puzzles. It took me a moment to notice some of the alterations, but the closer you look, the more you find. Here are a few differences I found:

The 900HA has a Windows key, while the 900 has a home button.
The 900HA puts the ~ key in the second row, while the 900 has it in the top row with the Fn keys. This makes room on the 900HA to have separate keys for Prt Screen and Insert. On the 900 both functions are assigned to the same button.
The 900HA has a narrower tab key but wider caps lock and left shift keys than the 900, but it looks like it also has narrower keys for the brackets and backslash.

Some of the symbols on the Fn keys also appear to be different, but that shouldn’t affect anyone’s ability to type.

If you can spot any other differences, point them out in the comments.

Posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008, 10:10 am by Brad
Tags: asus eee pc 900, asus eee pc 900ha, eee pc

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Anon

When they do a proper arrangement of the cursor keys and right shift key I'll consider Asus, otherwise, the Aspire One is one for me.

dg

Perhaps you are comparing the Linux vs Windows keyboard, and not a 900 vs 900HA

Linux installed EeePCs all have the Home key
XP installed EeePCs have the Windows key

Steve

First diffrence i noticed on the white keyboard, there is no ctrl key on the direction keys side, were on the back there is, wich tells me bigger keyboard on the black one even if only slight, as i cant find were that key was moved too on the white one..

dg

Spacebar is extended into the space where the right Ctrl key would be.

DougC3

NeoteriX

Narrower keys for the period and question mark--

DougC3

The left Tab, Caps Lock, and Shift on the Windows keyboard all look wider, which causes all the alphabet keys to be a tiny bit smaller than those on the white keyboard, to make up for the difference.

The strange thing to me is that they would make wholesale, though subtle, changes in the keyboard without addressing the problem with the crummy right shift key and up arrow.

T. Lord

The white-on-black Windows keyboard looks much better to me -- tilde beneath Escape, bigger arrows, higher-contrast graphics.

"Bah!" I hear you say, "learn to touch type!"

I do touch type (however untutored), but there's a reason that typing in a nearly dark room is harder -- for me, and I know I'm not alone -- and why Apple's illuminated keyboards are really useful. Even if I'm not looking *at each key,* knowing the basic position of hand-on-board helps me type comfortably -- subtle, but a big difference.

I wonder if this means the keyboard of my on-order Eee 1000HA (which comes with XP) will be like this one; I hope so, even I'll be running Linux on it. I could always rub out the Windows icon if I really want to ;)

timothy