ASUS CEO Jerry Shen has revealed some more details of the company’s plans for the Eee Top all-in-one PC, which officially launched yesterday. Shen has previously suggested that the touchscreen desktop would be a ‘flagship product’ for 2009; now, he’s confirmed that 20- and 22-inch versions will launch in the first half of next year.
As promised, ASUS have held a glittering launch for the new Eee Top touchscreen all-in-one desktop PC. Despite having to suffer the indignities of being poked at by models with surprisingly long nails, the Eee Top held up well; Engadget China report that it feels as sturdy as most other EeePC machines, and that the touchscreen is responsive and doesn’t require more than the most casual of grazes.
January is a long way off, says ASUS (probably; we haven’t actually asked them). Their Eee Top all-in-one PC is set to launch in the US tomorrow, according to CIO, with two versions of the touchscreen nettop up for grabs. Both have the 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, run Windows XP and have ASUS’ own finger-friendly interface; the ET1603 adds ATI HD3450 graphics and, although this runs contrary to what we’ve heard previously, a battery for mobile use.
More speedy ASUS hardware now, with the Eee PC 901 getting a performance boost thanks to a new SSD and improved battery. Currently on sale in France, the Eee PC 901 XP 16GB (model code BK051X) has a new embedded SSD controller and uses a faster, single volume 16GB drive. It also has a new Panasonic battery which, despite only having 3-cells, still manages to pack 8700mAh compared to the normal 3-cell 6600mAh Eee PC battery.
A week ago ASUS made the Eee Top touchscreen desktop PC official; now the first units are reaching desks. Electricpig interrupted their unboxing just long enough to shoot some photos of the 15-inch Atom-based PC, together with sharing some brief first-impressions.
A good idea doesn’t have to cost a fortune, and nor does it have to be huge. In keeping with the Eee PC’s diminutive size, Expansys are offering a range of clip-on battery chargers for the ASUS netbooks that can keep a spare power-pack juiced up without needing it to be fitted to the netbook itself.
DIY touchscreens for netbooks aren’t new – we’ve seen them on the ASUS Eee PC and Acer Aspire One, and even a plug-&-play kit back in June – but they just seem to be hitting eBay now. Options seem to be primarily for the ASUS and Acer machines, with the Aspire One and 900/901 being the lucky recipients.
When ASUS president Jerry Shen said on Friday that the company would take 30-percent of the netbook market in 2009, most people nodded sagely, looked at the sales figures for the Eee PC and agreed that it was entirely possible. Now, Acer are upping the stakes with their own predictions, and they’re even more ambitious: company president Gianfranco Lanci has said that Acer will take 40 to 50-percent of the netbook market next year, and they’re envisaging it being even bigger.
ASUS are holding out strong hopes for their Eee Top desktop PC, envisaging the 15.6-inch touchscreen device to be a flagship product for 2009. Although its been up for preorder for some time now, ASUS have only just got around to releasing product details. The Eee Top ET1602 and Eee Top ET1603 are both pretty much the same basic machine, powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor with 1GB of RAM, a 160GB 5,400rpm hard-drive and WiFi ‘n’; the only difference is in graphics, with the ET1603 getting an ATI Mobility Radeon HD3450 over the ET1602’s integrated Intel video chipset.
Cellphones have dominated our week here at SlashGear, with a number of much-anticipated handsets finally showing up for some play. We’ve reviewed HTC’s Touch Pro and unboxed the RIM BlackBerry Bold, but perhaps the most exciting arrival was the HTC Touch HD. Check out the unboxing and hands-on video; hopefully they’ll tide you over until the full SlashGear review this coming week.
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