ASUS Eee PC 900 packs a touchscreen and maybe GPS too

[HEXUS]

ASUS has confirmed that it's forthcoming 8.9in Eee PC will feature touchscreen support and hinted that integrated GPS could also be a possibility.

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[TheAnimus]

wow, soon it will be able to rival my mobile phone!

seriously i think they're in grave danger of loosing the point of the original Eee, cheap n small.

thats it, no silly touch screen (which if its not got good CPU to back up good software, and a tablet PC style orientation available is just pointless).

Mabye build in GPS and a high speed data, but surely mobile phones do all that, which everyone owns anyway?

[MSIC]

I wonder if all of the 8.9 inch models are touchscreen, or if it is suggesting that some of them could be made as touchscreen.
What sort of extra cost does touchscreen add, from a hardware only point of view?

[dangel]

touchscreen kit is about 20 quid retail for the original eee - plus some install time of course. It's kinda fun when surfing as 'clicking' the screen is a lot quicker than using a thumbpad for example.

GPS is a good move - people are already using the eee (1) for sat nav. It has a bigger screen than a mobile. Come to think of it - touchscreen and gps makes sense from a sat nav POV. GPS chips are er.. super-cheap and super-low-power.

I can't see these two additions as major cost items to Asus nor can I see them as being a negative addition to the package..

I agree on the cost thing though - although I still might check out the gen 2 eee on the basis it might have a better battery (which is a 50quid cost item for the original eee)

[Andaho]

If it comes with a touchscreen and GPS for under £300 I'll definately be buying one! I could easially mount a holding rack for it in my car - would be cool! - way better than any fancy expensive ICE system that has a pop up screen and dvd player.... with being a full PC!

[dangel]

So confirmed upgrades over the mark 1:

- double the memory
- 40-50% more storage
- touch screen
- GPS
- larger screen/res

Unconfirmed:

- better battery


Is it really shaping up to be THAT bad?

[TheAnimus]

bigger screen generally means worse battery, even if they improve the battery the bigger screen (and controller) will gobble power down.

now i'm not been a negative nancy per say, its just that the original Eee's price point was the biggest draw.

when you get to this money, its not much off a proper tablet PC or origami platform device.

[dangel]

bigger screen generally means worse battery, even if they improve the battery the bigger screen (and controller) will gobble power down.

it's not THAT much bigger - if they hit 3.5 hours of runtime it's equalled the old device.

now i'm not been a negative nancy per say, its just that the original Eee's price point was the biggest draw.

Coupled with it's size - yes - I agree!

when you get to this money, its not much off a proper tablet PC or origami platform device.

Really? What's the nearest costing such device with a comparable feature set?

[TheAnimus]

it's not THAT much bigger - if they hit 3.5 hours of runtime it's equalled the old device.

as i've been told before, even 0.5inch makes a difference when ya small.

Really? What's the nearest costing such device with a comparable feature set?

Samsung Q1 Ultra, Intel A100 600MHz, XP Tablet, 1Gb, 40Gb, 802.11 B/G, 10/100 LAN, Head Phone out, DC-in, 1 Year Fast Guard Collect & Return (NP-Q1U/Y01/SUK)

also finding plenty of full blown tablet pcs (much better imo) that are just floating around the £500 mark. Now from 300£ thats not *that* much of a jump really when you think about the benefits.

[slypie]

seriously i think they're in grave danger of loosing the point of the original Eee, cheap n small.

Good point that was what atracted me to the EeePC in the first place was that it was small and cheap. I think they should keep it the same as the mark 1 bar from the 9" screen and Intel Atom CPU

[MSIC]

That Samsung Q1 Ultra, good deal though it is, is still £450.
And as for the other full blown tablet PCs, how many have you seen that are the size of a paperback novel and weigh under 1kg?
Not ragging on you, but bigger laptops are a different market.

[dangel]

as i've been told before, even 0.5inch makes a difference when ya small.

Awww bless Really though, I very much doubt the battery life will decrease for the eee2.

also finding plenty of full blown tablet pcs (much better imo) that are just floating around the £500 mark. Now from 300£ thats not *that* much of a jump really when you think about the benefits.

150 quid is big jump. Different worlds - you can't say they need to keep the price down and then tell us adding that much cash isn't much of a jump.
Again, I do think the eee2's price is it's achilles heal here (in that we agree) - but given the feature set, form factor and (potential) feature list it might well sell all the same. I'm certainly interested enough to check one out.

[TheAnimus]

i thoguht the price point was going to be 250-300 for it?

200 isn't so bad, and most of my complaints fade. If its <200, i'll probably end up getting one (thou somehow i didn't the original eee)

[dangel]

I think it's likely to be 300 quid. Whether it's value for money is personal choice - no more, no less. A lot of people didn't get the eee1 at 200quid as they didn't see the point in it either. No shoe fits all but the original certainly was an runaway sucess and created a whole new market (see how many people are rushing their own versions out).

From my own perspective I would pay 100quid over the eee1 for extended battery life, touch screen, gps, more storage and more memory. In fact, when you put all those together it doesn't seem like that much of a premium to me. The key here is they've kept the form factor - it's barely larger than the first one. My biggest concern is the speakers because the eee1 is a brilliant media player because they face you..

[Andaho]

So confirmed upgrades over the mark 1:

- double the memory
- 40-50% more storage
- touch screen
- GPS
- larger screen/res

Unconfirmed:

- better battery

Is GPS Confirmed now?!?!?! - where can I read about that?

[dangel]

Asus Eee PC 900 flips one at MacBook Air with multi-touch input | Register Hardware

Apparently it may also have bluetooth and blinking multi-touch!

(Get touchy feely with the new Eee PC - The INQUIRER)