Reviews – Video

MSI Wind Roundup, Availability in the US

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MSI Wind PC Almost two weeks ago, the online MSI store was listing the 10-inch MSI Wind as being available today – June 27th – in the US but that’s not going to happen, unfortunately. Originally it was scheduled for June 16th, 2008. Now it’s looking like the week after next, July 7th or July 8th (coincidentally around the same time as the Eee PC 901 and 1000 launch).

An email was posted to the MSIWind.net forums (via liliputing) from MSI (a North American contact) stating that it would the week of July 7th, “due to the industry wide battery shortage“. The good news (if you want to call it that) is that shipping for the MSI Wind NB from the MSI Online Store will be upgraded to overnight shipping, free of charge. Contact numbers are listed at the link above.

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Asus Eee PC 900, 901, 1000 Roundup, Availability

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Asus Eee PC 901 First up, some news on the battery issue with the Eee PC 900 in the UK. Register hardware is reporting that Asus will be contacting owners on July 1st, about swapping their 4400mAh battery for a 5800mAh battery. That doesn’t mean they’ll be shipped immediately – there appears to be a delay while Asus UK waits to physically get the batteries (and not just on paper), but it looks like the situation will be soon resolved.

Next up, Liliputing mentions that Asus has told some customers that the 10-inch Eee PC 1000 / 1000H and the 8.9-inch Eee PC 901 would be available in the US on July 8, 2008. This would put the Eee PC 1000 / 1000(H) in direct competition literally with the 10-inch MSI Wind, which is powered by the same Intel Atom CPU (albeit slightly cheaper).

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ASUS Eee PC Review (LAPTOP Mag.)

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Last week, LAPTOP magazine published a review of the new 10-inch Intel Atom-powered ASUS Eee PC 1000H. The Eee PC 1000H offers the option of a mechanical hard drive (80GB in this case). The Eee PC 1000H reviewed had only 1GB of memory (you can … Read more

Asus Eee PC 901 Mini-Review, First Impressions

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Asus Eee PC 901 A couple of more mini-reviews / first impressions of Asus’ Eee PC 901 have started rolling out, this time from the LAPTOP Magazine blog and from NotebookReview.com.

Joanna Stern (she must be the official netbook person over at LAPTOP Magazine) got her hands on a retail Eee PC 901 from the computer market in Taiwan. Although the 8.9-inch Intel Atom-powered device she has is running a Chinese-language version of Windows XP, she was still able to put it through its paces. She posted a video of the 901, as well as her impressions of the netboook / sub-notebook and its design changes (improved hinges, improved trackpad, improved covering).

While she didn’t notice any changes performance wise between the Eee PC 900 and the 901 (although she didn’t run benchmarks), she did mention that, like the MSI Wind, the Eee PC 901 has an overclocking mode (that takes the 1.6GHz Atom up to 1.8GHz). Asus calls it their “Super Hybrid Engine” (while plugged in – when it’s unplugged the function slows the CPU down to 1.4GHz to save on the battery life). She has gotten upwards of 5 hours of battery life, beating the Eee PC 900.

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Acer Aspire One – Videos, Hands-On

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The announcement at Computex this week concerned the 8.9-inch Acer Aspire One has generated a lot of interest in Acer’s entry into the netbook market. Between the price (starting at under $400) and the specifications (Intel Atom CPU, LED-backlit display, large keyboard), it’s not hard … Read more