The Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Edition is the most expensive 10 inch netbook you can currently buy from Asus. That’s largely because it’s super thin and sports a designer edition lid, more RAM and hard drive space than most netbooks and Windows 7 Home Premium. But is that enough to justify spending $500 for a netbook? Peter at Netbooked seems to think so. He published a detailed review of the Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Edition today.

First, let’s clear something up. The 1008P Karim Rashid Edition doesn’t just come with a pretty lid. It also has 2GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. Those things alone will clearly drive up the price of any netbook. The netbook is also slimmer and lighter than most. And while it has a relatively wimpy battery that’s only good for 4 hours, unlike the Asus Eee PC 1008HA, this model has a user replaceable battery, and even ships with 2 batteries in some parts of the globe — which means you get up to 8 hours of run time (after swapping out batteries).

I’m not a big fan of the plastic doors that Asus uses to cover the ports, because they’re sort of begging to be broken off over time. But it does give the netbook a streamlined look when you’re not using any of these ports.

Peter does point out that the fan is a little noisier on this netbook than many others. And the laptop can get rather warm at times. It also has just 2 USB ports instead of the usual3. But overall, he was pretty impressed.

The Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Edition is a distinctive looking nettop, thanks to its designer edition crocodile-style cover. It’s also one of the thinnest netbooks on the market, measuring just 1 inch thick. Engadget has posted a review of the laptop and the good news is that it looks as good in person as it does in the pictures. The bad news is that the battery life is pretty subpar for a netbook with an Intel Atom N450 processor.

The Eee PC 1008P comes in hot pink or chocolate brown, with the brown color looking much more subdued. Overall, the notebook looks a lot like the Eee PC 1008HA, which has been available since last summer. But the new model ships with Windows 7 Home Premium, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and a removable battery.

Unfortunately, Engadget’s Joanna Stern found that the notebook lasted for just 3 hours and 20 minutes in a video rundown test, which is about 5 hours less than the score notched by the Asus Eee PC 1005PE. Oh yeah, and the Eee PC 1005PE sells for well under $400, while the Eee PC 1008P has a suggested retail price of $499.

It’s nice that you do get the extra memory, storage space, Windows 7 Home Premium, and designer lid for your money. But a higher capacity battery would also have been nice.

The Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Edition is an ultrathin netbook that’s pretty much the same shape and size as the Eee PC 1008HA. But while you can’t easily replace the battery on the Eee PC 1008HA, the 1008P has a battery door that lets you remove the battery and swap it out for a replacement. And it looks like Asus will be shipping the netbook with two 3 cell batteries in at least a few countries.

Swapping out batteries in the middle of a session isn’t exactly convenient. But it is one way to double your computing time. And since Asus says the Eee PC 1008P gets up to 5.5 hours of run time on a single battery, that theoretically means you could use the netbook for up to 11 hours without stopping to charge. Of course, battery estimates are usually inflated, but 8 or 9 hours doesn’t seem unreasonable.

via Eee PC.it, Netbook Italia, and Blogeee

The Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Edition is a designer netbook that features the same basic layout as the Asus Eee PC 1008HA. On the inside, it’s basically the same netbook as the Eee PC 1005PE, with an Atom N450 processor, 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, 1GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter Edition. But the thin and light design is more like the 1008HA — if the 1008HA had a designer casising.

The 1008P Karim Rashid edition has a distinctive design that comes in a handful of colors including pink, brown and black.

I got a chance to check out the Karim Rashid netbook at CES, but Pierre at Blogeee has gone a little further and posted an unboxing video and photoset showcasing this designer netbook, along with some battery and performance test results

Pierre’s review unit is a brown model which he says is completely fingerprint-resistant.

For the most part, the layout of the netbook is exactly the same as the original Eee PC 1008HA. But Pierre has confirmed that there’s a spot on the bottom of the laptop that lets you access the battery — something you can’t do on the 1008HA. The notebook also seems to get decent battery life, with up to 5 and a half hours of run time with WiFi enabled.

You can find more details and tests results at Blogeee.

Asus has reached an agreement with Boingo Wireless to bundle the WiFi hotspot operator’s software with new Asus Eee PC notebooks. Basically, if you pick up an Asus Eee PC 1005PE, 1008P, or 1201N, there’s good chance it will come preloaded with Boingo software for connecting to the 125,000 WiFi hotspots around the world.

Unfortunately, you’ll still have to pay if you actually want to use Boingo’s service. Access normally runs you $9.95/month for a US account or $59/month for global access. But if you sign up after purchasing a qualifying Asus Eee PC, you’ll get 50% off for the first three months.

The Asus Eee PC 1008P is basically an updated version of the Asus Eee PC 1008HA with an Atom N450 processor replacing the older Atom N280 CPU. Cosmetically the only real difference is that the new model has a chiclet style keyboard with space between the keys. But there’s also a limited edition version of the Eee PC 1008P that features a distinctive cover design.

The folks at NetbookLive got their hands on the Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection Edition. While the specs are pretty much identical to any other version of this netbook, the laptop comes with a leather case with a magnetic lock. And it features a distinctive pattern that covers the lid and base of the laptop. The Karim Rashid edition netbook is available in black, white, pink, and brown.

You can check out more pictures of the brown version at Netbook Live.

edit: astute readers might remember that Lee mentioned this one back in December

Designer netbooks are all the rage, apparently. Today’s new model is designed by Karim Rashid, and it’s all kinds of glossy, crocodile skin sexy.

Available in both chocolate brown and hot pink tones, the Asus Eee PC 1008P’s shell is painted up like a crocodile handbag straight out of Neiman Marcus. It’s essentially an upmarket version of the 1008HA.

Apart from its enhanced looks, the 1008P also sports a chiclet style keyboard and a slick slide-out battery (which you can check out in the pictures after the break).

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Asus

It looks like some of the first netbooks from Asus to use the upcoming Intel Atom Pine Trail chipset will be minor variations on existing netbooks. We’d already seen evidence of a new Eee PC 1008P. Now there’s a BIOS file hanging out on the Asus support site for an unannounced netbook called the Eee PC 1005P.

According to Eee PC Italia, the P in both cases stands for Pine Trail, or Pineview, which indicates that the netbooks will probably be virtually identical to the Eee PC 1005HA and Eee PC 1008HA models that are available today, except that they’ll have next-generation low power Atom CPUs.

The BIOS update also appears to be focused on fixes for ExpressGate, which means that the Eee PC 1005P will feature the “instant on” environment that lets you load a web browser, chat client, Skype, or a handful of other applications within about 10-20 seconds of hitting the power button instead of waiting 45 seconds for Windows to boot. Honestly, I’ve never found ExpressGate software to be that useful, but it doesn’t cost anything extra.

Asus Eee PC 1008PGO label (via FCC)

It looks like Asus has an unannounced variant of the Eee PC 1008 netbook up its sleeve. In documents filed with the FCC, we spotted this picture of a netbook described as the Eee PC 1008P/1008PGO. There’s not a lot of information about the laptop, but Asus tends to append the “GO” name to netbooks that have 3G wireless modems.

And if you zoom in on the only picture posted on the FCC’s web site, you can find some additional details which indicate that the Eee PC 1008P will have an Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 160GB hard drive as well as 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 and a 1.3MP webcam. It’s hard to make out the display details, but I’m pretty sure that like the Eee PC 1008HA, which is currently available, the Eee PC 1008P will have a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel screen.

It’s not clear whether the Eee PC 1008P and Eee PC 1008PGO are both headed to the US. So far most of the 3G-enabled netbooks from Asus have only been launched in Europe and Asia. But the fact that the company is showing the Eee PC 1008PGO to the US Federal Communications Commission is a good sign.

thanks Dave!