Introduction and Specifications

The Asus Eee PC 701 is a super small and light notebook that uses a solid-state hard drive and a custom Linux operating system to bring it down to a $300 price point. It has a 7 inch screen and weighs just about 2 lbs making it one of the most mobile systems you will find.


Introduction

The Asus Eee PC has had a quick development path and has gone from a questionable product development to having a near fanatical fan base that is following its every move on the way to the US.  When it was released in Taiwan, Asus tells me that one was sold every two seconds  until stock was drained.  Some people have told me that Asus in Taiwan is like Apple here is in the US; a company with a large following that is always innovating in the market. 

For those that haven’t been following the Eee PC tabloids, or even our previous coverage of the units from Computex this past summer, the Asus Eee PC is basically the most compact and innovative standard notebook computer we have seen in many years.

Just take a look at the specifications below and then we’ll dive into the unit itself on the next page. 

Model PC 4G Specifications
 
Model Name Eee PC 8G Eee PC 4G
Display 7″ 7″
Intel CPU & Chipset V V
Operating System Linux
Windows XP compatible
Linux
Windows XP compatible
Ethernet Communication V V
WLAN V V
Memory 1G (DDR2) 512 MB (DDR2)
S.S.D. Storage (Solid-State Disk) 8G 4G
Camera V V
Audio Hi-Definition audio
Stereo speaker
Microphone
Hi-Definition audio
Stereo speaker
Microphone
Battery 4 Cells: 5200 mAh, 3.5hrs* 4 Cells: 5200 mAh, 3.5hrs*
Weight 0.92 kg 0.92 kg
Launch Date End of November 10/16 Global Launch

There are two models that Asus is planning on bringing to the US; I had a chance to play with the model on the right, the Eee PC 4G.  In the US market it will probably be known as the Asus Eee PC 4G but we’ll see as the release of the notebook nears. 

Key specs from the list above that should stand out to any hardware savvy users include a 7″ screen, a solid-state storage disk at only 4GB in size and an incredibly light 2.02 lbs system weight.  The processor is a very low power Intel Mobile Celeron-M that runs at 900 MHz unit that Asus isn’t really keen on discussing — they are much more likely to talk about the integrated Linux OS that boots in 10 seconds or the applications included on it. 

Don’t worry; we’ve got LOTS of info on the software as well.

Update: It would appear that Newegg has the model we reviewed here for sale NOW for $399!

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