Seems like the perfect solution for delivering presentations, checking email and web browsing whilst out of the office. Now if only they'd make a decent projector to similar scales and prices.

"The 2GB model's expected to retail for around $200"

What 2GB model?

"Asus said the sub-notebook will contain ... 4, 8 or 16GB of Flash..."

And what it might have become. If it comes with a replaceable battery pack that doesn't cost the same as the complete unit, it's a winner.

...I'll take one, if it delivers on the promises. Looks like a keyboard-equipped competitor to the Nokia Internet Tablet, and at half the price.

If, and only if, this product makes it to market at the quoted price, it might be the breakthrough product many of us have been looking for.

Up until now this sort of thing has been more like a laptop in all aspects except for performance - high price, low battery life and extreme fragility at the price of a budget laptop, but with the performance of a PDA.

Let's see whether they can make this happen....

"Asus' Eee PC 701: send pics from the beach... if you can find a hotspot"

To me, the spot looks pretty hot. Turning the cam by some 130° counter-clockwise would surely improve the experience further.

(Sorry guys and gals, couldn't resist. Ought to take a nap.)

Nice bit of kit... but surely rip-off Britain will get her talons in there and that o-so-attractive £100 theoretical price point will baloon to somewhere closer to the £200 mark...

Still, its a nice wee machine - perfect for reliable on the road powerpointing and slipping in the glovebox, though I'm surprised they cant tease a bit more out of the battery on such a technilogically streamlined device.

20 quid says the AC power block weighs as much as the laptop...

0.3 Megapixel, can't wait to play with that thingy, but one has to wonder if it's suitable for the usual "home recording" at least no one will find out who's been in the flick.

dunno, though i screwed with the comment functions, anyway is that thingy suitable for the usual "home recorded" flicks? 0.3 Megapixel, reminds me of my first digital slr.

The hottness of this product, as far as I see it, pretty much depends on what OS it runs and how modifiable the software it is. Honestly I have very little use for a small computer that isn't running Linux. I could see this thing going places if you can install whichever distro you'd like on it and have things work... but of course that isn't very likely now, is it?

Then again, thats more or less true of anything that runs on electricity... If it runs Slackware then I'd probably buy it.

- Nex

...got owned!

Admittedly this doesn't have bluetooth so it's going to be a pain syncing with PDAs, but I don't see how the Palm Foleo does anything else differently? Except it costs a lot more. It has a larger screen but tbh 7" is definitely big enough to be readable which is what they were aiming for.

The Foleo has Bluetooth so that you can use a cellphone as a modem for the device, which is supposed to be its common use case (hence why the Foleo is billed as a "smartphone companion"). I'd definitely get one of these Asus devices if it had Bluetooth instead of a camera though.

I want to like the Foleo, but US$500 is just too much for such a single-purpose device, especially since it has no real PIM capability of its own. My main complaint in phones is the lack of decent PIM, especially when it comes to keeping my work and home PCs in sync. Currently I've merely settled for a Treo 650 because it gets sync right, but so much about it is terrible, while Sony Ericsson's low-end phones actually get everything perfect EXCEPT sync.

Why is it that today's "smart" devices still can't do what the original PalmPilot got right 10 years ago?

This is a very interesting device. With a VGA connector and the ability (?) to connect an external keyboard and mouse it's an excellent PC replacement for users in Citrix environments, and for a sub PDA price.

Even allowing for the usual UK price hike, if it'll take XP, I can see a great many places picking this up.

If they sell it for €150 I'll probably buy this. I think the foleo concept is interesting but way overpriced. If they sold the foleo for €250 instead of the €450 it'll probably cost then the foleo would have a chance thanks to bluethoot and the screen...

I've been after something like this so that I can check email, a little light browsing etc. whilst out and about without carting my laptop around, but without Bluetooth or a 3G cellular radio it's no good for me. I've got 'unlimited' data on T-Mobile, so I'm not going to pay for WiFi.

There's always USB Bluetooth dongles, but it would be nice to have it built-in.

Neal, small world, maybe there are only a few dozen people on this internet thing!

Remember me from the Libretto list? We met in NYC and in London.

I was drawn to this listing too. Dragged out one of my old Libs the other day and admired it, too bad it's no use any longer!

Hope all is well.

Mike Hodish

(...to quote an old cartoon series.)

A Sony Picturebook to be precise. Same size, but missing the camera. :-)

now I'll save my pennies for this. Portable, Linux, Wireless networking, USB and all for $200...who needs a PDA. I've been waiting for something like this for while. I don't need a smartphone with everything but the kitchen sink or a $500 "mobile companion" I just need something cheap that I can write documents, browse the web, check emails, and of course play games, while I am away from my PC.

A 900MHz CPU and a 4GB flash based Hard Drive, while not Vista worthy, should be quite peppy with Linux. And once the hardware has been out for a while, I'm sure you'll be able to put any brand of Linux that you want on it.

I think the price is going to make it or break it. I hope the $200 price tag is for real. I thought those Windows CE handhelds were a real good idea too (especially HP Jornada 720). But they were way overpriced and never took off.

I'll be waiting anxiously...