-:: Malaysia Mobile Tech News ::-

Two supposedly leaked product roadmap slides which are making their way around the internet these few days purportedly shows the eeePC roadmap from Asus for the remainder of this year.  There is nothing particularly earth shattering about the contents of the slides, and only it contains one “really new” product – the 1201N.  As you can guess from the numerical product number, this is a 12 inch netbook/notebook from Asus which unfortunately still uses the weak Intel Atom N270 processor, but this time, coupled with an nVidia ION chipset which boosts the “very weak” graphics performance (using the Intel integrated graphics) to somewhat “relatively weak” levels.  Yawn.  This is not very interesting at all.  Two other refreshed netbooks – the 1005HA-P and 1005HA-M – will also make an appearance, with higher capacity hard disks and higher capacity batteries which boost operating time up to a claimed 10.5 hours.  Both will come with Windows 7, either Home Premium or Starter editions, depending on where you are in the world.  As expected, many of these new/refreshed eeePC models will be released after Windows 7 is released.  And the biggest surprise is that none of these models come with a new processor, which half confirms that the new Pine Trail processor (the successor to the current Atom line) from Intel could be delayed, or released too late for holiday shopping season this year.

The existing 1101HA model will be terminated (thank goodness for that!) while the 1008HA will also get a refresh, but most unfortunately, will still be equipped with the Atom processor.  Asus must have a lot of these Atom chips to clear from their stockpile in the warehouse!  Meanwhile, the existing tablet PC model from Asus, the eeePC T91 with the 9″ screen, will be refreshed to include multi-touch capability, and there may be a T101 (a 10″ tablet) introduced, should Asus deem the T91’s performance to be satisfactory enough to increase the screen size in a new model – the jury’s still out on the success or otherwise of the T91.  I quite liked the T91 when I played with it though – the only drawback was the small-ish screen size, and the non-upgradeability of components.  The 2 cell battery was also somewhat a deal killer, which is a pity indeed for a well constructed device.

If this is confusing, don’t worry, you’re not the only one.  I’m quite sure some people within Asus are also a little perplexed at the variety of eeePCs out there.  If you want more details, go to this site which explains things rather clearly.

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