Amazon has started to accept preorders for the Asus Eee PC 901, 1000, and 1000H. Asus has said the computers will begin shipping in the US on July 8th.

Amazon is charging $699 for the Eee PC 1000 with an 40GB SSD, 10.2 inch display, and Linux. You can pick up an Eee PC 1000H for $649 with an 80GB hard drive, 10.2 inch display and Windows XP. Or for $599 you can grab an Eee PC 901 with an 8.9 inch display and Windows XP or Linux. The XP version sports a 12GB SSD, while you can get a 20GB Linux model for the same price.

The new computers come in black and white, and you can place an order or search Amazon using the box below. (Disclosure: If you place an order through the search box, I'll get a small finder's fee).



[via Eee PC.net]

Sure, you can already pick up an Eee PC 901, 1000 or 1000H in Taiwan. And the company's been projecting a July 1st launch date for the UK for a while now. But up until this evening I hadn't heard any word on a US release.

But a reader contacted me today and let me know that he had called the Asus pre-sales department on a whim today and asked when the Eee PC 901 would be hitting the US. And without hesitating, the rep told him July 8th. I repeated the experiement and made sure to ask about the Eee PC 1000 and I was told that both models would be available in the US on July 8th.

Now, Asus has been known to miss ship dates before, but it's seriously looking like the company might be able to beat MSI in getting a 10-inch laptop with a 1024 x 600 resolution screen to market in the US.

On the other hand, Asus will be charging $599 or more for these computers, while the MSI Wind laptop will carry a $479 price tag. The Wind also has a larger keyboard and according to Laptop Magazine gets bettery battery life, which means it might be worth the wait. And who knows? Maybe we'll be surprised and MSI will actually launch the notebook tomorrow.

thanks Cass!

Update: It looks like the MSI Wind release date has been pushed back to July 7th.

You may not be able to pick up an Eee PC 901 yet (unless you happen to be in Taiwan), but if you plan to pick up the Linux model eventually and add Windows XP manually, Asus has you covered. The company has posted Windows XP drivers on its support web site. The files include:

• Audio driver
• Bluetooth driver
• Chipset Driver
• LAN driver
• Advanced Configuration and Power Interface driver
• Touchpad driver
• Graphics driver
• WLAN driver

[via Eee PC News.de]

PC World India is reporting that the Eee PC 901 will hit the streets in "late June" and that Asus will be dropping the price of Eee PC 701 and Eee PC 900. I'm taking this information with a grain of salt, since I haven't seen an official launch date yet and because computer makers have a tendency to miss their initial ship dates.

Also, PC World India says the Eee PC 901 will retail for $649, which is the same price we've been hearing, but the magazine claims the new prices for the Eee PC 701 and 900 will be $479 and $549. Last time I checked, the Eee PC 900 is already selling for $549, and the Eee PC 701 sells for between $299 and $499 depending on the configuration. So while it would make sense for Asus to discount the older models, I wouldn't put too much stock in these prices.

Also, since the Eee PC 901 will be the most expensive computer of the bunch, it's possible that Asus won't feel the need to offer any discounts to move the older models. After all, they're already a bargain compared to the newest PC. On the other hand, when you can pick up an Acer Aspire One or an MSI Wind with an Intel Atom CPU and 1024 x 600 display for under $500, Asus might have to do something to stay competitive.

The folks at CNet's Crave blog found themselves with an Eee PC 901, an Acer Aspire One, and a decent camera on their hands. So they did what anyone in their position would do, they started snapping photos of the two computers side by side, and even one image of the Aspire One inside of an Eee PC.

This particular image is a bit misleading, because if you look at some of the others you'll see that the Acer Aspire One is noticeably longer than the Eee PC 901. But it's also significantly less expensive (like over $150 less expensive, so I'm not surprised to see the Asus computer take advantage of any opportunity to literally crush the competition. Or munch on it anyway.

You can find a nice little gallery of additional images at Crave.

While the folks at bit-tech certainly aren't the first to dissect an Eee PC 901, if you can't get enough of those topless photos of tiny computers, you might want to check out the site's latest pictorial. It comes complete with instructions on dismantling an Eee PC and a fair number of high resolution images showing everything from the RAM and SSD to the Bluetooth adapter.

As I've previously reported, there appear to be several expansion opportunities, including a solder point labeled 3GCard, and a space labeled IDE3 with room for a hard drive.

In related news, the FCC has posted a series of documents related to the Eee PC 1000H. There's nothing particularly exciting yet, unless you get excited by SAR Reports. But there are a few snapshots of the inside of an Eee PC 1000H display.

[via Engadget]

Asus is releasing some more details about the upcoming Eee PC 901, Eee PC 1000, and Eee PC 1000H. When the company unveiled the machines at Computex last week, we got a look at the Taiwanese prices, which ranged from the equivalent of $559 to $658 USD. But it looks like it will cost a few bucks more to pick up an Eee PC in the US or UK.

Laptop Magazine got an official US price for the Eee PC 901, and estimated prices for the Eee PC 1000 Series:

• Eee PC 901: $599
• Eee PC 1000H (Windows XP with an 80GB HDD): $699
• Eee PC 1000 (Windows XP or Linux with a 40GB SSD): $649

There's still no word on when these computers will drop in the US, but we'll probably see at least the Eee PC 901 start showing up by the end of June or beginning of July.

It looks like Asus has already announced a firm release date for the UK: July 1st. PC Advisor reports that the Eee PC will cost £319 in the UK, while pricing hasn't been announced for the Eee PC 1000 series yet.

[via Eee PC News.de]

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.

While most of us will have to wait a little while to get our hands on the new Eee PC 901, tech journalists and bloggers who are in Taipei for Computex can just wander down the street and pick one up. Well, maybe it's not quite that easy. Joanna Stern from Laptop Magazine says she had to check with 10 different shops before finding one that had the computer. But ultimate, Stern and colleagues from Eee PC News.de and NotebookReview all managed to pick up shiny new Eee PC 901 units.

The laptops are selling for 17,300 NTS, which is about $573 US and run the Chinese version of Windows XP. The keyboards on these early production models were apparently a little bit bent, so all three proud new Eee PC 901 users wound up removing the keyboards to fix them. Hopefully that won't be necessary by the time these computers start hitting the states.

You can check out a gallery of unboxing and hands on photos at Laptop Magazine, while you can see some initial benchmark test results at Eee PC News.de.

Still confused about the differences between the Eee PC 901, Eee PC 1000 and Eee PC 1000H? Asus has posted a handy little comparison chart showing how the three models stack up against one another. If the image above is hard to read you can check out the original at the Asus news site.

For the most part, the computers are identical except for size, weight, operating system and the amount and type of storage they use. And of course price. But while Asus has released the initial pricing for Taiwan, I've learned not to pay too much attention to the Taiwanese prices, as Asus tends to have different prices for its computers in different markets. I'm willing to bet these computers will cost a bit more in Europe than in Taiwan, while the US pricing will be similar or lower to the Taiwanese pricing.

Early Asus Eee PC adopters have not been shy about hacking the heck out of their tiny computers, adding Bluetooth modules, extra storage, USB hubs, GPS, and touchscreens. But it looks like the Eee PC 901 could be the most hackable Eee PC to date. Jkkmobile was looking over the topless Eee PC 901 photos released by AnandTech this morning, and he found a few surprises:

• There's an unused PCI-e slot which could be used for a 3G HSDPA card
• There's a space for a SIM card
• There's room for a 1.8 inch hard drive or SS
  

In other words, it should be relatively simple for end users to add additional storage or a 3G wireless card. It should also be even easier for Asus to add those features in the future.

On the down side, jkkmobile also found that like the Eee PC 900, the 901 has 2 separate solid state disk modules. The operating system is installed on a 4GB SSD, while a separate 8GB or 16GB SSD is available for storage. This setup makes installing multiple operating systems kind of a hassle.

Engadget snagged a photo of an Asus Eee PC 701 sitting next to a 901 900, sitting next to a 1000. And as expected, the Eee PC 1000 is larger than its siblings, but not exactly enormous. If you look closely you can see that the Eee PC 901 900 is also a tiny bit larger than the Eee PC 701, but it also has a significantly roomier screen.

Just moments after Asus officially announce the Eee PC 901, the good folks at AnandTech posted the photos we've all been waiting for. No, not the official press shots. Those have been floating around for ages. Rather, AnandTech took the case apart and snapped a few image of the Eee PC 901's insides.

There aren't a lot of surprises, but if you've always wanted to know what an Intel Atom chip looks like up close and personal, now's your chance.

Asus has finally launched its new line of Eee PC computers. I say finally, because over the past few weeks we've learned so much about the Eee PC 901 and Eee PC 1000 that I didn't think there were many surprises left. But Asus did still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

First, the new computers will come in an assortment of colors, including those you can see above. According to Laptop Magazine, the colors are described as Sakura, Sweet Pea, Urban metropolis, White Peony, Pearl White, and Fine Ebony.

As expected, the Eee PC 901 will be be nearly identical to the Eee PC 900, but features a redesigned case and a shiny new Intel Atom CPU, which Asus says will help the computer achieve 7.5 hours of battery life using a 6600mAh battery. Just like the Eee PC 900, the 901 will come in two varieties. One version will come with Windows XP and a 12GB SSD, while the Linux version will have a roomier 20GB SSD.

The Eee PC 1000 will have a 10 inch display and come in two distinct models, the Eee PC 100 and the Eee PC 1000H. The Eee PC 1000 has a 40GB solid state disk, an Intel Atom CPU, 802.11n, Bluetooth, and up to 2GB of RAM. It also weighs 1.33 kg or about 2.9 pounds, which is a bit heavier than earlier Eee PC models. but it also has a nearly full sized keyboard.

The Eee PC 1000H is the Windows model, which comes with an 80GB hard drive instead of a 40GB solid state disk. It also weighs a bit more than its Linux sibling, at 1.45kg or 3.2 pounds.

Engadget has the Taiwanese prices:

• Eee PC 901: NT$ 16,988 or about $559 US
• Eee PC 1000H: NT$18,988 or about $625 US
• Eee PC 1000: NT$19,998 or about $658 US

It's kind of funny to see the Linux version of the Eee PC 1000 cost more than the Windows version, but those solid state disks don't come cheap. And I'm pretty happy to see that the Eee PC 901 will sell for about the same price as the existing Eee PC 900, despite early rumors to the contrary. There's no word on US pricing yet, but Laptop Magazine reports that the computers should be available in the US in July.

You can find more info in the official Asus press release.

While I wasn't expecting the Eee PC 901 to get an official introduction until tomorrow when Computex begins, Asus went and surprised us by showing off its latest subnotebook at the WiMax Expo, which also happens to be in Taipei.

There aren't a ton of surprises, but we can now confirm that the Eee PC 901 features:

• CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Atom
• Storage: 12GB SSD (Windows) or 20GB SSD (Linux)
• RAM: 1GB
• Display: 8.9 inch 1024 x 600 pixel screen
• WiFi: 802.11b/g/n
• WiMax: Yup
• Bluetooth: Uh huh
• Colors: Black and White
• Weight: 1.14 kg
• Battery: 4-6 hours estimated battery life

Intel doesn't officially unveil the Atom processor until tomorrow, so there's probably won't be any official word on pricing until then.

[via Engadget and PC World]

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Notebook Italia reports that Asus will not be killing off the Eee PC 900 to make room for the Eee PC 901. At least not right away. The 900 series comes equipped with a 900MHz Celeron processor, while the 901 will pack an Intel Atom CPU, possibly running at 1.6GHz. The upcoming 901 may also have other featurs including Bluetooth, and early reports indicated that it will cost as much as $650, while the Eee PC 900 retails for $549.

Honestly though, I kind of wish Asus would kill the Eee PC 900 and just drop the price of the 901 by a hundred bucks or so. Unless Asus has more surprises up its sleeve that we're not aware of, it's going to be tough to justify charging $100 more for the Eee PC 901 than the similarly specced MSI Wind. Of course, Asus has already built a name for itself in the low cost ultraportbale market, so perhaps the company can get away with charging a premium for brand name recognition. But I'd really hate to see it come to that.

[via Electronista]

DigiTimes is reporting that Asus has stopped taking orders for the Eee PC 900 in anticipation of the launch of the Eee PC 901. That doesn't mean the Eee PC 900 will disappear overnight. You can still find plenty of Windows and Linux models at online retailers including Amazon and Newegg. But it's possible that when the current stock dries up, those stores will be forced to replace the 900 with the 901.

This would make perfect sense, since the Eee PC 900 is sort of a transitional product that uses the older Celeron processor while the 901 will use the newer Intel Atom CPU. But it's also possible that the Eee PC 901 could cost as much as $100 more than the Eee PC 900. Earlier reports indicated that it would be available for "under $650," while the current generation of computers costs $549.

That means you might be stuck choosing between a sub-$400 Eee PC 701 and and a $600+ Eee PC 901. I think there's still plenty of room for a $500 in-between device. On the other hand, maybe this means the Eee PC 901 will be cheaper than originally reported, which also seems like a strong possibility since the MSI Wind, a mini-laptop with similar specs, will likely retail for just $400 to $550.

This shouldn't surprise anyone, but Asus will apparently be offering the upcoming Eee PC 901 in black as well as white. And Blogeee's got the pictures to prove it.

There don't appear to be any substantive differences between the black Eee PC 901 and the white model aside from the color. We're still waiting to get the official specs for the unit from Asus. But from what we've heard so far, the Eee PC 901 will cost $650 or less, and will pack an Intel Atom processor.

In a move that should really surprise no one, DigiTimes is reporting that Asus will not be packing WiMAX components into the upcoming Eee PC 901. While the company did state earlier this year that it planned to add WiMAX support to the next generation of Eee PC models, Asus officials have apparently determined that the market for WiMAX doesn't really justify the expense at this point.

DigiTimes says that Asus could still offer WiMAX equipped models to contract customers. In other words, if there's an internet service provider in your area who's willing to sell you a WiMAX subscription, you might be able to pick up a WiMAX enabled Eee PC through the ISP. But you probably won't be able to walk into a store and pick one up anytime soon.

The Asus Eee PC 900 has only been available for a few weeks, but Asus is already planning to launch its next, next generation Eee PC on June 3rd. DigiTimes reports that's when the company will launch the Eee PC 901, which we caught a first glimpse of just a few days ago.

The Eee PC 901 will replace the 900's Celeron processor with an Intel Atom chip. It will also feature integrated Bluetooth, and a slightly redesigned case. The new case has metal alloy hinges and the touchpad actually has two distinct buttons. The Asus logo is gone, replaced with just the Eee PC logo.

The new computer will be available for under $650 -- which means it will be more expensive than pretty much every other low-cost ultraportable on the market except for the top of the line HP Mini-Note models. Hopefully Asus will offer several versions of the Eee PC 901. Not everyone needs Bluetooth. And the Linux version may cost less than the Windows XP version. But overall, the $399 to $549 Atom-based MSI Wind is looking better and better.