We occasionally joke that Asus seems to release a new netbook every week, however, one glance at their Eee PC product comparison chart, and you’ll find that our little joke isn’t exactly that far from reality. The comparison chart lists a whopping 27 (yes, twenty-seven) Eee PCs. You can compare to your heart’s content by looking at 19 different categories and seeing how each different model stacks up to one another. Asus even makes it easy for you by offering the whole chart in the website version or even PDF flavor!

How long will Asus continue to tantalize us with the Asus Eee T91 [Portal page]? It seems like ages ago that we first saw the tablet-netbook that promises to bring the tablet PC experience to the masses. While it seems that the T91 is either already released, or in the process of being released in the UK, we’re still left wondering when it will hit US shores. Regardless of the release date, Asus has seen fit to continue to taunt us by putting up an official product page on their US site. Nothing too exciting here, just some ever tempting images of the (supposedly real) device and some marketing hubbub, and we’re still left wondering if the multi-touch version will ever be released, or if it was just a prototype.

After seeing the unit get ripped apart by the FCC and go hands on with plenty of people, Asus has just officially announced it via a press release on their site. While the usual marketing mumbo jumbo is present (they are really pushing it by claiming to have 82GB of total* storage space), we are still left without a price or release date. It seems that Asus is trying to push their touch oriented software hard; we’ll see if it is really useful or just shows off the touchscreen, eventually. At least they were kind enough to leave us a nice table of specs, but unfortunately I’m not seeing anything that we didn’t already know about the T91, maybe with the exception of a “well-designed stylus”… I hope they aren’t talking about the same one we saw in a hands on video a few weeks ago. Hopefully the 5 hour battery life statement is accurate (fingers crossed!).

Asus Eee T91:

Model
Eee PC™ T91

Operating System
Genuine Windows® XP Home

Display
8.9″ LED-backlit / Resistive Touch Panel

CPU
Intel® Atom Z520

Chipset
Intel® US15W

LAN
Onboard 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet controller

Wireless Data Networking
WLAN: 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth V2.1

Memory
1GB (DDR2)

Storage
Total 82GB (16GB Solid State Drive + 16GB SD Card + 30GB Portable Hard Disk Drive* + 20GB Eee Storage)

Interface
1 x VGA port (D-sub 15-pin for external monitor)
2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x LAN RJ-45
2 x audio jacks: Headphone / Mic-in

Camera
0.3 M Pixel

Reader
3-in-1 MMC, SD, SDHC flash card slot

Audio
Hi-definition audio CODEC
Built-in high quality stereo speakers
Digital Array Mic

Battery Life
Li-Polymer battery, 5hrs**

Dimensions
225mm (W) x 164mm (D) x 25.2 ~ 28.4mm (H)

Weight
0.96kg

Optional
GPS, TV Tuner, 3G plus (HSUPA)

Casing Colors / Infusion
White, Black

Miscellaneous
Comes with a well-designed stylus

The still upcoming Asus Eee T91 tablet netbook [Portal page] is looking better every day. I’m pretty excited for this device and what it could do to spice up the otherwise (dare I say) boring netbook space. Electricpig has a hands-on gallery of the T91 which looks to be a production model. This is the first I’ve seen of the included stylus as well which looks like a wimpy telescoping pointer. I wish they’d include a more substantial stylus, but I suppose there are many third-part options out there.

[GottaBeMobile]

We had a brief lapse in WNRs over the last few weeks but hopefully everything will get back on track. Let’s see what’s been going on in the netbook space.

• How To Install Windows 7 On Almost Any Netbook — Gizmodo’s John Herman has put together a nice guide for squeezing Windows 7 onto a netbook. As the article mentions, XP is rather old and Windows 7 will get you a nice jump in the user experience area. Because it is still in the RC phase, it is free to download and use for a while.
• More convertible touchscreen netbooks coming — Jkk has found another upcoming tablet netbook, the Fujiyama E-PC E-1001. Kind of sounds like a knock off of Fujitsu and Eee PC, but competition in the tablet netbook space is definitely a good thing for consumers.
• ASUS 1005HA Netbook Is a 1008HA With Removable Battery — Kevin C. Tofel points out that Asus’ soon to be released Eee PC 1005HA is essentially the 1008HA [Portal page] but with a removable battery. There are a few other differences as well; non-glossy screen, slightly slower CPU, no BT, but it uses a nearly identical looking chassis (albeit a bit thicker) and picks up an additional USB port for a total of three.
• Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2: Hands On Video — Xavier from GottaBeMobile has a nice hands-on video of the new Lenovo S10-2 [Portal page] netbook. The new netbook isn’t too much different from the previous S10, but it is a bit thinner and can be equipped with a 3G module for $50. Xavier mentions that he wished that the S10-2 had a matte screen like the first version of the netbook.

The much anticipated Eee T91 tablet netbook [Portal page] has just taken one step closer to seeing an official US release. The FCC has gotten their hands all over the computer and given us plenty of nice internal photos as well as the user manual. Looks like the FCC took down the page for the T91, possibly due to too much trafic, or on Asus’ request.

As jkk points out, internal photos show that the SSD is 50mm, which should allow the use of Dell Mini 9-sized SSDs. We can also see the internal GPS module which could be taken out to make room for a GPS+3G module giving you internal 3G without too much trouble. There is also space for a SIM card slot which could be soldered in or may be added to later models. The battery, as we can see, is also non-removable.

The manual on the FCC’s site seems to be the finished English manual. It doesn’t reveal anything particularly new, but does show us much of the Asus software that will be found on the T91. Unfortunately there was almost no mention of the touch interface that Asus was working on (video here) in the manual. No word yet if that means that it won’t be initially packaged with the T91.

[jkkmobile]

One of Asus’ upcoming Eee PCs, the 1008HA, which Chippy and jkk got to check out at this year’s CeBIT, has seen a handful of reviews from across the web recently. Engadget rounded up several of them and they seem to be pretty positive.

Eee 1008HA’s Portal page for full specs
Eee 1008HA Gallery

Let me refresh your 1008HA memory: We first heard about the 1008HA being referred to as the Eee ‘Shell’ PC. At CeBIT 2009 we got the first glimpses at the 1008HA and it was apparent that the ‘Shell’ denotation was referring to the unibody enclosure. Obligatory MacBook Air comparisons ensued, but the 1008HA is more of a style focused netbook than a MacBook Air competitor.

Its nice to see an Eee PC which isn’t just a slight change from the older, more money conscious designs; the Eee 1008HA is thin and light and looks pretty nice. The keyboard has what appears to be a very good layout, featuring fully sized shift keys. We’ll see if we can get our hands on a production 1008HA at some point but for the time being, check out Engadget’s post for a few reviews.

I haven’t been through this hands-on in detail yet but I wanted to highlight it ASAP to the readers here.

TechRadar have had time with a pre-production version of the ASUS T91 convertible netbook. This is the netbook that a lot of UMPC fans are looking at. It’s lightweight, very small and has an 8.9” convertible 1024×600 touchscreen.

The first thing I’m looking for on the report is battery life…. three hours and twenty minutes of video playback. I was expecting more considering that the Viliv S5 with it’s 24wh battery, can play video for 6hrs. Maybe the video was CPU-decoded? Maybe it’s just the big screen which will be adding a big drain on the battery.

Full specs and more links here.

I’ll update this post with my thoughts.

Update:
I wouldn’t really call this a review. No mention of screen brightness and battery life under normal use, keyboard quality, mousepad. I suspect this was just a 30 minute hands-on with the device but it gives positive vibes which is a good sign.

Woot seems to have a thing for Asus’ Eee PC. It seems like at least once a month they offer one up for sale. Today marks an interesting new point for Woot in terms of Eee PCs. Today is the first time that they are selling an Atom powered Eee.

Coming in the form of the Eee 900A; the refurbished unit with a 4GB SSD, 1GB of RAM, and a 1024×600 8.9″ screen, can be yours today for only $160. This one is running Linux but you can put another OS on it easily. Just jump on over to sellout.woot.com to pick one up, and remember if you are interested, don’t delay, I have the feeling that this one could sell out quickly!

Sorry for the lack of links, this is a mobile post from the iPhone.

Probably the internet’s most popular deal-a-day website Woot.com seems to be quite found of the Asus Eee 900 [Portal page]. They have offered it several times in past and today you can find it on not just one, but two of their sites.

On Woot.com today you’ll find the Asus Eee 900 featuring the 900 MHz Celeron CPU, 512MB of RAM, 8.9” 1024×600 resolution screen, 4GB of SSD storage and Asus’ custom Xandros Linux for Eee PCs.

On Sellout.Woot.com you’ll find a slightly better version of the Eee 900 which has identical specs except it runs Windows XP, includes a webcam, and has double the SSD storage (8GB). Uh-oh looks like this one is already sold out!

Both units are refurbished but can be had for the very reasonable price of $150 and $180 respectively. If you are interested, buy quick! Once they sell out or the day is over, they are gone! (note: Sorry international friends, Woot and Sellout.Woot only ship in the US)

Welcome to this week’s netbook roundup. In this space every Monday I’ll highlight netbook news items that might not need their own individual posts but may still be interesting.

• Samsung N110 available for pre-order — The upcoming Samsung N110 [Portal page] has began preorders at Buy.com. Though the N110 was just recently announced, it looks like they will be releasing it soon.
• ASUS announces Eee PC E1004DN with optical drive, 1008HA gets a release date –- Looks like Asus will be releasing its first ever netbook with included optical drive, the Eee 1004. The Asus Eee 1008 [Portal page] is also reported to be releasing in May.
• Meet Asus Eee PC 1002H — Jkk shows us the new Eee 1002H which has a slightly faster CPU than the 1002HA, (1.6GHz vs. 1.66) which probably won’t display any noticeable increase in performance. They also put a net chiclet style keyboard on the 1002H. Anything to release a new SKU, right?
• Touching Windows 7 — Another video pointed out by the media master, jkk. This one shows how multi-touch support is coming along in Windows 7. It is looking a lot more impressive than what we’ve seen from Vista. Hopefully some of the upcoming capacitive touchscreen netbooks will be able to power these kinds of smooth interactions.
• Samsung Netbook Offers Full-sized Keyboard — It looks like in addition to the N110 and N310, Samsung will also be coming out with the N120 which will provide a full sized laptop keyboard while retaining the standard 10.1” screen size. This seems counter-intuitive to the very well received keyboard on the Samsung NC10, and may be another blur to consumers who already might have trouble differentiating the difference between the N110 and N310.

It’s the polar opposite of what you usually see on the portal. A mobile PC built around a huge keyboard with a tiny screen tacked on to the side. Obviously this is not quite your mobile productivity box (unless you want a kneck injury) but it’s an interesting option for the home. The video below was shot a few weeks ago at CeBIT in Hannover. After reviewing it, i’m quite sure that the RF ports you see will be for wireless HDMI antennas.

The big question now is what to call this category of devices. Sofasurfer?

Just a few weeks ago, Woot featured the Asus Eee 701 netbook on their Yahoo branded site, shopping.woot.com. Today they are back with more netbooks. The Asus Eee 900 is available from shopping.woot.com today for just $179, available in black or white.

The refurbished unit has the following specs:

• 1024×600 8.9” screen
• 512MB of RAM
• 900MHz Celeron CPU
• 4GB of SSD storage
• Linux

More detailed info can be found at the Eee 900’s Portal page.

Head over to shopping.woot.com soon if you want to buy one, this deal will only be available through the end of the day or until they sell out!

I thought their description of the product was funny, here is an excerpt:

Seeeeee how weee treeembleee with eeexciteeemeeent? It’s beeecauseee weee’reee eeextreeemeeely eeexhilarateeed to preeeseeent theee Asus EeePC 900 Neeetbook. This sleeeeeek mobileee deeeviceee combineees conveeenieeent, portableee computing with an eeexpansiveee 8.9” LCD screeeeeen (feeeaturing a moreee-than-adeeequateee 1024×600 reeesolution), a reeeliableee Inteeel Mobileee CPU, and a deeeceeeent 4GB of fileee-storageee spaceee. Theee EeePC 900 opeeerateees on theee eeesteeeeeemeeed opeeen-sourceee Linux keeerneeel, with an eeespeeecially useeer-frieeendly inteeerfaceee and an eeexteeensiveee colleeection of softwareee for homeee and officeee useee.

We hit the ASUS booth today and WOW! About 30% of it was dedicated to the Eee PC brand. From keyboard PCs to Skype phones and every variation of netbook in between. Quite a sight to see.

Here’s a video of the ASUS T91Go the 3G/SSD version of the ASUS T91 [specifications]. The sky-lighting made it impossible to get a good shot of the user interface but you get to see the device from every angle. JKK does a good job of talking through it too.

Initial thoughts on this news about an a new ASUS EEE device was that it would be just a keyboard, screen and battery ’shell’ that you could slot an Eee PC module into. I can’t help thinking about a high-end Android MID/Smartphone that slots into the ’shell’ to turn it into a netbook but i’m sure my thoughts are 12 months away from reality.

In reality (at least in Digitimes’ world) it’s going to be a thin 10″ netbook. If it’s light light light, I might raise an eyebrow otherwise, this will probably be the last you hear of it from me

ASUS Eee PC ‘Shell’ ultra-thin netbook launching in April? - Engadget.

My favorite deal-per-day site, Woot.com is selling one of the original netbooks. Well, actually it is its sister site, sellout.woot.com, but the same concept applies.

Today only you’ll be able to buy a refurbished Eee 2G surf which features a 7″ 800×480 screen, 2GB of SSD space, 512MB of RAM, and an 800MHz Celeron processor. You can also choose the color you want, from black, blue, green, pink, or white.  Buy soon if you are interested, once it sells out it is gone for good.

Back in October of last year there was some interesting news about a site (WePC.com), made in conjunction with Intel and Asus, that would allow users to submit concepts of their ‘dream computer’ and have it voted on by a large community. The idea was that the best concepts would float to the top and Asus would take these and build a community designed netbook, while Intel would power it.

I took another look at the site today to see if we had made any progress, but from what I’ve found, it seems like we won’t actually see a community designed computer in its own right. I can’t say if this has changed since the initial launch of the website, but the About page seems to set a slightly different tone than the rest of the site.

Imagine your perfect PC. Now imagine top engineers and innovators working around the clock to make that Dream PC a reality. That’s the dream WePC.com is all about.

ASUS and Intel have created WePC.com, a place where users like you come together to share ideas, images and inspiration about your ideal PC. But what if it’s not just talk. Your designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside.

If the words ‘could influence’ weren’t already unlikely sounding enough, you have to consider that they are only talking about a ‘blueprint’ here. While it definitely sounded like WePC was actually going to produce a community designed netbook based on the best ideas, it seems now like the site is just a glorified feedback center for Asus, and a free source of concepts for them as well. There isn’t a lack of advertising either, with one part of the site saying “Buy a dream PC now!” that links to an already existing Eee PC. Wasn’t the point of the site to design our own dream PC? Is it crazy of me to still wish we would actually see a community designed computer that one could purchase come from this project?