Saturday, July 5, 2008

New Asus Eee PC 904 – an Acer Aspire One killer instead?

Just a day or so after Acer’s Aspire One goes on sale in Australia
comes news that the Asus Eee PC 904 will shortly go on sale in the UK,
muddying the waters over which is the best value ‘netbook’ to buy.

Wow, yet another new Asus Eee PC?



We know all about the Acer Aspire
– an 8.9-inch model with 1024x600 screen, Intel Atom 1.6Ghz chip, 512MB
memory and 8GB storage for Linux and 1.5GB memory and 120GB storage XP
of memory, a keyboard that is 85% the size of a regular keyboard, USB
ports, Wi-Fi, a webcam and more.



We also know it is going on sale at AUD $599 with a $99 cash back for
the Linux model, thus being $500, or $699 with a $99 cash back for the
XP model, thus being only $600, putting pressure on the already released
Intel Atom-powered Asus Eee PC 901 which sells at AUD $649 and has the
same size keyboard as the Eee PC 701, which Acer says its Aspire One
keyboard is larger than.



But we also knew that the Asus Eee PC 1000 was going on sale in the UK very shortly,
with a keyboard 92% the size of a regular keyboard and a 10-inch
screen, while coming with an Intel Atom 1.6Ghz chip too, with both SSD
and hard disk options.



The Eee PC 1000’s keyboard size claims to be the same as the HP
MiniNote 2133, also 92% the size of a regular keyboard, and as we’re
testing one of these HP models we can definitely say that the keyboard
is much nicer to type on than the smaller keyboards on the Asus Eee PC
701/900/901 series machines.



So, to add to all these new models comes the curious Asus Eee PC 904. According to What Laptop
Magazine in the UK, it sits in the same chassis as the Asus Eee PC 1000
series, meaning that same beautiful 92% size keyboard, but has a few
key differences.



Naturally, however, the larger keyboard is an important distinction and
should prove a very welcome and tempting difference indeed.



But what else? Please read on to page 2.