..well, they won't. Didn't Asus managers do some proper market research? There are 15" Core Celeron Notebooks in the $400-499 price range nowadays which are way faster and have an internal big enough HDU.

So, if they want the Eee to sell a lot they better lower prices quite a bit soon. They better sell it at a loss and they could sell many units, otherwise if they keep these prices they won't sell much and it will be considered a failure.

The top of the line model should cost $299-$349 with the cheaper one in the $179-$209 price range. With those prices they would sell a lot, I'd buy a couple if there were those prices on the market already.

The whole point of the EEE was to be a $200 laptop. $400???

Idiotic...

as of 1300 Central time USA, newegg is sold out of their stock. time to get on the notify list. Either it's popular... or they didn't have many at all.

Links to suppliers?

From 12th November you'll be able to get a "Get one Give one" OLPC from http://www.laptopgiving.org/ for $399. Has everything you'll need on the beach and much more robust...

Can't see anything else coming close any time soon!

So it's the same price as a 15" (although where are you getting your laptops, that's really cheap), it's also the same price as a pretty good desktop rig, but I don't want one of those either.

I don't want powerful, I want small, and small costs money. Electronics is like women's underwear, the smaller it is the more expensive it gets.

This looks like a ruddy excellent piece of kit, and significantly cheaper than the UMPCs that are being churned out. At £220, and weighing less than a kilo, I can chuck this in my bag rather than lug my laptop around with me when I'm on call.

This is enough of a laptop to allow me to work anywhere I can get cell reception, but not so much of a laptop that I'm going to get backache carrying it around just in case I get a call from work. It is also cheap and rugged (no moving parts) enough that I won't be paranoid about dropping it or getting it nicked.

Just because your priority might be computing power, it doesn't mean everyone's is, mine is portability, ruggedness, and convenience.

Will everyone stop complaining about the increase in price? The majority of laptops in the US market were bought and paid for by the middlemen about 6 months ago. Since then the dollar has all but died, so your $200 isn't worth as much as it was. The east Asian economies aren't going to export at a loss just to keep US prices stable.

www.asuslaptops.co.uk are taking pre-orders, apparently they have 150 coming to them on the 10th of November. I'm still trying to track down a supplier who will ship to Dublin :(

Shane

Oh goody, finally I can buy a laptop that I can use on the beach on a sunny day.

Expansys.ie will have some in stock on the 12 Nov

http://www.expansys.ie/p.aspx?i=158485

They will ship to Dublin. Bit pricey though not sure i want to pay €335 for one just yet..might wait until after xmas and get an ebay bargin!

Al

Given that these are retail prices, they've rather overtaken the academic OLPC project (was USD100, now USD120, but that's the cost of manufacturing. A realistic retail price for the OLPC (as evidenced above) is over $400).

I leave for an hour or two and all of sudden the one device which would give me most happiness is sold out have you seen this cute little thing people this is something don't let your wooden intellect get in the way this is a magic box.

No the whole point of the Eee wasn't that it was supposed to be cheap but that it's significantly smaller in size than an average laptop, sure you can get a laptop for the same price which has double the processor speed, 15" widescreen and an 80gb drive but it's not as portable because it's bigger, heavier, and more fragile.

As for the OLPC, while I admire the initiative, I wouldn't be seen dead owning a laptop that looks like it was bought from Mothercare and has a VTech or Fisher-Price badge.

The whole point is that its mobile. Of course its EASY to make a 15" cheap laptop. theres more than enough room to put all the compoents in, but if you look at laptops around the same SIZE there all well over 3x the price.

iThis one is aimed at being portable i believe.. and with a 3.5 hr battery and weighing in at just under 1kg it delivers alot for <500

Try taking your 15" brick with you when you go out =)

Say , forget the machine didn't Toshiba have a nice line of Portege P3 like the 3480CT machine in the late nineties in a tough alloy case ?

But then the chick in the photo looks kinda hot , I wonder what her phone number and email address is ?

£400 ? more ?

The 15" laptop will probably come with Windows and therefore will require an investment in AV and similar software. Plus hassle of maintenance. The Eee runs Xandros IIRC and comes pre loaded with FF, Open Office etc. It's a quick boot and go device with lower maintenance costs. Over the life of the product I would expect that it's much cheaper.

Sure, you could load Ubuntu on your 15" laptop, but how many people actually do ? Very few in the general population. I certainly wouldn't feel that confident in doing so. But the Eee is preloaded, pre-formatted and <grits teeth> it should 'just work'. This could be where Linux really first penetrates the desktop.

http://www.clove.co.uk/viewProduct.aspx?product=9136E4FD-2F3C-4289-84A9-4B96ED813B9D

Clove are taking pre-orders for sales in the UK.

Is that the Paris Hilton angle then?

In other news they have now announced that there will be a special version released for the Northern parts of England.

To be known as the "Eee By Gum" it will come with a pint of Nukie brown, a brown flat cap and if you buy 3 of them you will also get enough vouchers to pickup your very own whippet at your local RSPCA centre.

As for the size of the thing, don't you all know that BIGGER IS BETTER?

Why would I want to take a PC to the beach? If I'm at the beach I'm swimming/snorkeling/sunbathing/playing beach games/trying to impress the ladies. The last thing I want on the beach is a F**KING PC. Jeez, get a life people.

Oh, Anonymous Coward, get yer hands out of yer pants. It's a computer, not Paris Hilton dressed in satin and begging for it. ;-)

I bought one in Taiwan 2 weeks ago, I have it in the office today, no one I have shown it to has failed to be impressed.

Everything I need, about 10 seconds to boot, about the same size as the table on a cattle class flight 3.5 hours battery. Weighs in at about 1 KG.

Already set up for Skype etc. Mine cost approx £175 in Taiwan, but it does have wirelees, webcam and twice the RAM and solid state drive of the basic one that sells for $199 bulk to educational users.

And I love it. Every who sees it is jealous - especially when I tell them I got it for £185 in Taiwan and it'll cost them £230 in the UK.

Anyone know what the external screen resolution can be set to - I want to connect a 1024x768 projector.