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Thursday 1st November 2007

Asus to launch £199 Eee PC laptop in UK

Posted at: 10:30am 1st November 2007 by Ben Hardwidge

Tiny PC comes with solid state disk, 256MB of RAM and costs under £200

Asus Eee PC

Asus has announced that its ridiculously low-cost laptop, and challenger to Nicholas Negroponte’s OLPC, the Eee PC, will launch in the UK on 12 November.

The bad news is that it’s not going to cost under £100 in the UK, as we speculated at Computex. The cost of the laptop in the UK will be £219 inc VAT for the 4G model, and £199 inc VAT for the 2G Surf model in the UK.

That said, that’s still an incredible price for a new laptop, especially one that doesn’t look like it came out of the Fisher Price factory in the 1980s. Built for basic Web browsing and simple day-to-day use, the 4G model of the Eee PC weighs just 0.92kg, and comes with 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 4GB solid state disk, wireless LAN and a 7in screen.

Both models also come with an Intel CPU and chipset, as a part of Intel’s World Ahead scheme. Asus wouldn’t reveal the spec of the CPU inside, as apparently a part of the deal with Intel is that the CPU spec is kept under wraps. However, many sites on the Web claim that it’s a 900MHz chip based on an ultra low voltage (ULV) Celeron-M, with a model number of 353.

Intel’s executive vice present and general manager of sales and marketing, Sean Malony, was enthusiastic about the Eee PC, saying that ‘this delightful little computer is incredibly easy to use but at the same time is packed full of technology.’ Malony also added that ‘we believe that the Eee PC will be significant in bringing computing and Internet access to more and more children and people around the world.’

A major part of the cost saving comes from the operating system, as the Eee PCs come installed with Linux, although Asus claims that they’re compatible with Windows XP as well.


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Comments
i have one

well my employer is the education reseller and I have one on my desk to play with. had it home at the weekend and a very nice little machine, quick to boot, connects to web without an issue. great addition to anyones kit, but especially those that are on the go.

Comment by wjdunk at 1:59pm 5th November 2007



Yeah, ok

Dell=meh This is way cooler than that dell.

Comment by DudQuitter at 4:50pm 4th November 2007



GBP to AUD

the exchange rates seem like if i spend just $300AUD (136GBP) more, i would get an athlon x2, 1280x768 res, 1gb ram, 80gb hdd, radeon x1300 hypermemory from Dell. but it is an immensely great move though.. now heres a lappy that should be able to do a complete 8 hours on the cheap.

Comment by thegreat0mi at 12:55pm 4th November 2007



Obligatory link whoring

There's a full review online at www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk (please excuse the crappy pics).

Comment by JProkaza at 9:48am 4th November 2007



Obligatory link whoring

There's a full review online at www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk (please excuse the crappy pics).

Comment by JProkaza at 9:48am 4th November 2007



well no..

the current exchange rate is about 2USD to the £. so... it works out right.

Comment by rickykemp at 9:49pm 3rd November 2007



i just checked and the only one of these i found in the u.s. atm is the 4g model going for $400USD!!!! if thats right you guys are getting a better price than us!

Comment by yougotkicked at 9:28pm 2nd November 2007



that pcs perfect i am getting one . half life will work on it with all them skin mods and so will quake 2 i cant wait :D

Comment by megapig at 1:57pm 2nd November 2007



Now what about adding a small microwave to it, and a mobile phone as well and a drink holder,...... that way we have the ultimate mans toy ! We have the internet for football and 'wahey' .. a beer holder, mobile to text 'the lads'.. and microwave cos we cant be bothered ever to cook! xD

Comment by Lightning_Pete at 11:46am 2nd November 2007



Remote Desktop

Anyone know if you can access a WinXP machine over Remote Desktop from Linux? Been looking for a low cost PC I could use at home that I can use over the wireless to work on my main rig upstairs in the office and one of these might fit the bill given every 'thin-client' laptop I've seens costs about £600! Don;t mind loading a client on the XP machine to get things working.

Comment by countstex at 9:38am 2nd November 2007



A full review @ Trusted Review & Notebook review

Don't think Custom PC would need to review this so no harm in giving this away (Maybe Mobile Computer) :- http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2007/10/30/Asus-Eee-PC-4G-701/p1 & http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4055

Comment by DodgeThisCPC at 9:50pm 1st November 2007



Looks like a pretty nifty little laptop, I suppose I could also do a bit of 3D modeling on it too (although rendering would take ages)

Comment by mrjimmyos at 5:00pm 1st November 2007



in regards to..

a smaller footprint XP, there are a few versions of it floating around on torrent sites that has been rigourously streamlined. and i mean takes up a maximum of about 400Mb on a hard disk after installation. its missing all of the extraneous components, but it is 100% doable.

Comment by rickykemp at 3:08pm 1st November 2007



About time

Despite the $-£ mark up, I love it. Now if only we had more free wireless hotspots in the UK. I reckon that Microsoft could build a version of XP/Vista to fit, but it would most likely have no back compatibility, besides, with the money I'd save, I just get a portable HDD and boot from that!

Comment by DudQuitter at 2:23pm 1st November 2007



At last, this is the way foward for UMPC

Ultra portable PC/Laptop with the laptop aspect still in it! Agreed on TheWhiteDragon's comment, they will have to knock a lot of the rubbish out of vista and XP for that limited space, though I can see the HD size going up as the solid state price declines :-) Samung have a 120GB solid state @ the end of next year, I think Samsung will also have similiar product as well!

Comment by DodgeThisCPC at 1:39pm 1st November 2007



these supposedly are out in the U.S. already but i have ye to find one online. i am glad to see that it uses some rather capable hardware for it's price, i need something lessvaluable than my laptop for road trips.

Comment by yougotkicked at 12:59pm 1st November 2007



very nice

im glad to see intel making a contribution to this project, just a shame bill gates didnt take the initiative to create a cut down XP/Vista client to run on it, but as they only come with 2-4gb drives i doubt they could cut enough crap out of XP/Vista to be able to run either one. /pats asus on the back, well done chaps - have a cookie !

Comment by TheWhiteDragon at 11:25am 1st November 2007



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