Thursday, October 23, 2008

ASUS notebooks and handheld coming our way

They have all been announced, but ASUS finally revealed the availability and pricing details of its P552w PDA-phone, the S101 Eee PC and its Bamboo series notebook in Asia Pacific.

The P552w will come in black or white and costs S$669 (US$454.18). We had a go at its Glide custom interface and found it pretty easy to use. It wasn't revolutionary considering there has been much work done by HTC and Samsung in this area, but it's still a good alternative to Windows Mobile's default interface. This handheld goes on sale in November.

The Eee PC S101 is a premium version of the regular Eee PC Netbooks, which is an oxymoron of sorts considering this range was meant to be budget second notebooks for most people. We do have to admit that it feels much nicer than a regular Eee PC with very clean lines and an appealing design. The 16GB version with Windows XP will be available from tomorrow, while the 64GB Linux version will start shipping later next month. Either configuration will cost the same, S$1,098 (US$745.42).

Lastly, the ASUS notebook with a bamboo finish will finally ship in November and cost S$2,598 (US$1,763.75). This is actually a modification of the U-series notebook and comes with pretty impressive specifications including a 12.1-inch display, 4GB RAM and dedicated Nvidia 9300M graphics.

Source : http://asia.cnet.com/