ASUS Eee PC 901

Last year ASUS had christened the Eee PC as a cost-effective but well built sub-notebook (or now known as a "netbook") that ended up being extremely popular with more people than just computer enthusiasts. The original Eee PC 700 series had shipped with Intel Celeron hardware, a solid-state drive, and a Xandros-based Linux distribution. These units have been selling extremely well but back in June ASUS had unveiled the Eee 901 as well as the Eee 1000 series. These newer models now use Intel Diamondville-based Atom CPUs, which we have been quite fond of for their technological advances. In this article we are providing our first look at the Eee PC 901 along with a few bits of information and sharing some of our plans for the Eee Linux testing in the near future.

In addition to its 1.6GHz Atom processor, the ASUS Eee PC 901 has an 8.9" WSVGA screen (1024 x 600), 20GB of solid-state drive storage, Intel UMA graphics, up to 1GB of DDR2 system memory, 802.11g WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 1.3 mega-pixel web camera. There is also an ASUS Eee PC 901 XP model, which ships with Microsoft Windows XP preloaded rather than Xandros Linux and uses a smaller 12GB SSD. The Eee PC 1000 model still deploys an Intel Atom processor with up to 1GB of DDR2 memory, but instead it has 40GB of solid-state storage and a 10" WSVGA display. The 1000H model also has a 10" display, but instead of using a 40GB SSD it has turned to an 80GB rotating hard drive. For all of the ASUS 901/1000 models, ASUS also provides a remote Eee Storage solution that provides 20GB of Internet-based storage and 5GB of daily bandwidth.

The ASUS Eee PC 901 is primarily available in Galaxy Black and Pearl White models with the one we are sampling is the white version. The box that our ASUS Eee PC 901 arrived in was stylish and portrays this netbook as being easy, excellent, and exciting. Included with the Eee PC were an AC power adapter, 6-cell battery, and a petite carrying case.