Something strange is happening in the world of ASUS. In a back office, somewhere behind Eee-Towers, a product manager is battling to get the R50a out on the streets and the story that is coming through is about as clear as mud! Or should I say FUD?

Apart from the normal show appearances, we’ve seen the R50a hit the FCC (July 29th, USA) get an official press release (August 29th, Taiwan) appear in online stores in Portugal (Asus R50A-DV002C, 1019 Euro, 13th Sept, Portugal) and now, via JKKMobile, we hear that its been previewed in Germany by Toms Hardware. [translation link]

As JKK said, Vista on a 1.3Ghz Atom processor is not a great combination but if that SSD is fast, it might be acceptable. I’m still using Vista on the SC3 in certain situations and that has a relatively low-end HDD.  Remember that this had a hard-touch screen when we tested it at CeBIT and with the fingerprint reader, GPS, DVB-T (Germany) and 3G, the quoted price of 799 makes it an attractive pro-level mobile tablet. If the video codecs worked, I’d say that this would also make a nice video player but I see no evidence of any hardware decoding support out of the box (based on the Kohjinsha SC3 video playback problems) which takes away a big reason to have this device for many people. As it is, it remains targeted at pro-mobile users wanting natural input but even these users are going to have to wait for reall battery life figures before they make a purchase.

More links and details in the R50a info page.

Photo credit: Cnet Asia