A Glimpse Of The New ASUS Eee PC 1002HA
ASUS is back at it with a brand new netbook release on the way: the aesthetically pleasing ASUS Eee 1002HA.
Remember when, in our November 22nd article, we wondered if ASUS would be releasing anything to compete with MSI’s new Wind U120? The answer has been delivered in full force, the way ASUS likes to do it.
Don’t freak out yet – this is just a pre-production model. However, ASUS has recently been giving tech blogs and magazines a taste of the new machine, just to whet our appetites. The 1002HA is a solid 10-inches, featuring what looks like the trackpad of the Eee PC S101 as well as the keyboard of the 100H.
Seen by many as a kind of hybrid of the two laptops, it looks to put the best of both worlds onto one new machine sure to please consumers once it’s released.
It should run the 1.6 GHz Intel Atom with 1GB of RAM and a 160 GB hard drive. Interestingly, however, the battery is a mere two cell – though ASUS assures skeptics that it should offer a full five hours of life. This claim sounds a little suspicious, but we’ll believe it for now; ASUS has impressed the tech world before when it, along with rival MSI, started the netbook boom earlier this year with the original Eee PC.
Unfortunately, the ASUS 1002HA won’t be out in time for Black Friday, but it will hit stores on December 1st for $499. Get pumped – we sure are.
Toshiba NB100 Netbook
The new Toshiba NB100 netbook has hit the market, boasting a few enticing features to differentiate it from the competition.
The Toshiba features the same Atom processor used by the Eee PC, MSI Wind, and Mini-9. At a standard 1.6 GHz with Wi-Fi, bluetooth, Ethernet, USB ports and a memory card slot, the NB100 seems somewhat basic in most areas. There is one aspect to the netbook, however, that I think is something to be excited about.
The most fascinating thing is that the USB connectors on Toshiba’s first netbook are designated ’sleep-and-charge’. What this means is your USB-connected devices (cell phones, MP3 players, etc.) can be charged through the netbook without you needing to even turn on the machine. This step seems to be part of a new wave of efforts (that we noted in yesterday’s article) towards improving the efficiency of these devices. With business travelers and college kids not needing to carry around as many power adapters, this feature will definitely make the NB100 all the more attractive to the netbook market.
The flip side here is that the keyboard of the Toshiba NB100 is sadly somewhat imperfect. While it may not be an issue for the more enduring among us, typing for long periods may become uncomfortable and difficult. Instead of being appropriate for the 8.9-inch size of the thing, the keyboard seems as though it were built for a 7-inch netbook. While netbooks like the Dell Mini-12 (which we covered a few days ago) have shown a trend towards improved keyboard usability on smaller devices, the Toshiba NB100 is somewhat substandard in this respect.
Personally, the sleep-and-charge feature sounds interesting and intelligent, but not worth the small keyboard. However, with its first netbook certainly up to par in other areas, Toshiba looks to be willing to experiment with the netbook market. We should expect some promising things in the future.
