Asus should sort themselves out. The Eee looks like a wonderful thing, but the company keeps shooting itself in the foot. Notwithstanding the great difficulty involved in getting one for a reasonable price, there were rumours of a full-screen version for months, which put people off buying the original Eee model, and now we have rumours of a better full-screen model. No doubt, a few months before the Atom-powered version comes out, Asus will announce some wonderful new upgrade that will put people off buying one of the things for just a little longer again.

It's always the case that there's something better just around the corner, and you should buy the thing that suits you now rather than waiting, but it seems as if Asus has made a point of reminding people of this. The company should sort out its manufacturing process, and make more of the things, and ship them all over the world, before announcing upgrades.

Was going to get my girlfriend to bring me one of these back from hong kong (works out about £260), but having second thoughts if the Atom could give it a fair bit more battery life. But then I'd have to pay UK prices. Worth the extra £70 for the atom?

The "current" £329 price for the 900 is the upper ceiling for me for this form factor and although I have a 701, I would upgrade to an Atom-based 900 if the price is kept around or below £300. Add in a 3G modem and then it might be worth £329 8-)

"The new model has to be the most likely candidate for these enhancements."

Well lets have a kit kat and a ponder shall we. These features aren't in any current model, they have been promised, so yes, I'd have to agree the next model out is certainly the most likely candidate for them, compared to the ones that are already out and err, don't.

Thanks for that, I'd never have got there myself.

when you keep putting off buying it until the next incarnation.

I've been thinking of getting a beach-ready laptop for a while now but I keep putting it off and waiting for the next one.

Paris, cuz she is beach-ready already

If the Atom-based product looks different, will that mean El Reg won't be able to re-use our favourite stock photo?

I demand answers.

Where's my desktop EEE PC? I'm still waiting!

Asus are on the slippery slope here, but only maybe. Firstly the original EEE sold on price not spec, so if they are pushiong the spec/price up then they are moving into the same market as a "normal" laptop.

Secondly for a product sold on simplicity, having so many models so quickly and too much around the corner will confuse people and it will become another product requiring a "knowledgable friend" to buy it for you.

They should focus on a fixed price and work to then and only release anew one every six-8 months (and make sure they can build enough!)

Asus can't make enough eee pcs to keep up with demand anyway, so tempting them to wait for a better product maybe stops them getting frustrated and buying a Macbook Air or something.

it should be: Asus Eee PC and friend: should she wait for an explosive Atom?

Mines the one with: 'Atomic' on the back.

With regards the price, David Edwards is right here: I'm tempted to get one at around £200-230, but above that a bargain basement standard laptop starts to look a better idea.

And to Geoff Mackenzie: want a desktop EEE PC? Buy one and put it on a desk! Duh! :D

Lets re invent the home computer (ala spectrum/BBC)

Imagine an EEE pc with no monitor but a TV/Scart etc OUT, and anice Wireless keyboard. Same OS and disk, sits under your telly boots in secons so ideal for checking your mail and surfing when you get home, and if you want to store video/mp3 on it then get a terrabyte USB drive? Now that Would sell like hotcakes at say £199 and must be feasable base on EEE prices (can I patent that). Although TV boxes have dies a death previously (Bush Internet TV) the day will come.

Not a chance.

The initial attraction to those things were the sub-£200 price. Much like a Wii, its an impulse buy of a neat gadget.

Anymore and you get into a whole other area of self-haggling and comparisons.

I agree that would sell like crazy, but as a non-TV owner I wouldn't want one. The idea of the 1Tb USB drive attached sounds familiar (that's my plan for the desktop EEEs I'm going to buy).

The only reason set-top-box type machines died out is that they were way too limited the first time around. The EEE is a much more comfortable compromise.

I'm sure someone will photoshop in the new machine, if any of you are actually looking at the computer..

Curries electronics, Argyll St, Glasgow EEE 700 2Gb and 4Gb instore and on display £200 for the 2Gb but £250 for the 4Gb (black no less) was really tempted but I will wait and see what the real price (and Avialability) of the new models. As David Edwards says the whole deal with the EEE is the Price not the spec if it goes to high I might as well buy a full blown laptop. Somebody forgot the number one rule K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid).

I have to agree, Asus can only hurt sales with these constant announcements. Right now, the Eee is in such short supply that they *can* sell all they make, but that will change as they ramp up production and competitors appear.

The Apple approach of 'no comment' until new models appear is better for the bottom line. They can sell old model machines right until the new ones roll off the production lines *AND* surprise customers *AND* reap the free publicity.

Ok, so slightly off-topic, but since I went and bought not one but two of the lovely little EEEs I can't complain about EEE-woman anymore.

Two? Well my darling fiance wanted a pink one for work (web designer and all-round g33k) and I didn't think it was fair she should have all the fun, so I got a white one for me to play with.

Cute little things, they are terrific fun; Linux or XP, some brave bods jam Vista into them, someone even got OSX running on it - I predict the EEEpc (especially the cheap/cheerful Mk1s) will become the C64 of the next couple of years.

Hmmm, think I'll try Vice for Linux on mine tonight...

So nice to see she is back.

Perhaps we tend to forget each particular Eee PC , will fill it's own niche and the clones from Dell/HP all tend to have a larger screen much the same size as in the light weight very portable Toshiba Portege 3XXX P2/P3 powered series sold at the end of last century .

Although the last units did have an excellent idea of an additional clip on flat second larger battery pack which almost tripled it's portable on time away from the nearest power point (perhaps if ASUS incorporated that flat second battery pack idea in the Atom model option list it would blow away the opposition and leave them in the dust too ).

Interestingly , what intrigues me that is some older last century designs from Toshiba , have now been reborn again in the last half of the first decade in the new century !

Now , if the either the seven or nine inch Eee PC had a factory fitted touch screen and a long life clip on second flat battery pack integrated , who indeed would not want one and leave the larger heavier power hungry short life units at work or home ?

Love the fire breathing El Reg bird , any one for toast ?

how easy is it to get a standard issue mobile phone company 3G USB adapter working with the Eee? if this is simple I'm not sure I'd bother waiting till the end of june for (possibly) integrated 3G (when the end of august model will be announced anyway...)