Asus launches more netbooks

PC HARDWARE MAKER Asus has updated its netbook portfolio with a couple of Eee PC models due to hit the shelves this week.

The Eee PC 1015PEM and 1018P netbooks will be some of the first with Intel's dual-core Atom N550 chips running at 1.5GHz with 1MB cache. Both models also have support for WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0 and USB 3.0 with a couple of ports each and one USB 2.0 port.

Asus has built both models on the same 10.1-inch chassis and claims you can hit 11.5 hours of battery life from the 6-cell battery on the 1018P. The 1015PEM has a 4-cell battery, which Asus reckons can last up to 9 hours. Take such claims with some salt, but the company said its Asus Super Hybrid Engine can boost battery life by 15 per cent.

The Eee PC 1015PEM and 1018P netbooks both have a 1024x600 LED blacklit display and multi-touch trackpad. We're still not buying multi-touch support on such small models where there's not enough real estate to use multi-touch gestures but it is all the rage these days.

The differences in size, weight and specifications are marginal between the two models with the 1015PEM being slightly heavier at 1.25kg and the 1018P at 1.1kg. Both models also come with Window 7 Starter and 1GB of memory with an extra DIMM slot to support a maximum of 2GB.

The biggest difference is the choice of colours. The 1015PEM comes in white, black, blue, or red and the 1018P comes in either black or white with a brushed aluminium finish.

The 1015PEM is priced at £279 including VAT and the 1018p a little more expensive at £349. Both are way more expensive than the first Linux flavoured Eee PC Asus brought out but they do include the Windows tax, and anyway those earlier models came out in the days when netbooks were going to change the world with cheap computing.

Both models will be out this week. µ