Come on. Touch me. Aren’t I sexy?
The S101, surrounded by satin, whispers seductively.
You know you want to. All your friends are doing it…
I’ll stop short of making cheesy hard-drive references, but you get the idea. Adding to their extensive lineup of netbooks and almost-netbook notebooks, Asus’ new Eee PC S101 — as evidenced by the glamour-shot in satin — is either directed at women or at horny men. I’m going with women, because although it doesn’t come in pink, it’s small, slim, and sleek, with a pearlized finish and Swarovsky
crystals embedded in the hinges.
Inside, the 92%-size keyboard is surrounded by color-matched brushed metal, multi-touch ElanTech touchpad and glossy silver buttons. The S101 is currently available in copper brown and graphite, and will soon be released in champagne. Pretttty. 
At just 10.3 x 7 x 0.7 inches and weighing 2.4 pounds, the S101 is thinner and lighter than other Eee PCs, prompting Gizmodo to refer to it as “the Macbook Air you can actually afford.” It would easily fit in my purse. Including the adapter, travel weight is still just under 3 pounds, thanks to a new slim 4-cell polymer battery that boasts 5 hours of life. It’s actually tested at 3.5 hours minimum, which won’t set any records, but is longer than the Eee PC 900 or the Dell Mini. The 10.2-inch screen is the same as the used in the Eee PC 1000 series, with WSVGA 1024 x 600 resolution and LED backlighting.
The S101 is pretty, but it’s not made of pansies and rainbows on the inside. The processor is the same one found in most netbooks, the 1.6-GHz Intel Atom. 1GB of DDR 2 RAM is standard, although it’s easily upgradeable to 2GB. Asus’ Super Hybrid Engine (SHE) is controlled by a dedicated button, making switching between power-saving and higher performance an easy task. The spec that makes me the happiest, though, is the 16GB SSD, which is all in one module and not split into two pieces like previous Eees. It’s an MLC module, but in benchmarking tests it has been rated at an average of 91 MB/s read and 60 MB/s write, faster than any of the other Eees to date and many of its other competitors. It also includes 30GB of free online Eee Storage.
Most of the other specs are typical of other netbooks — 1 ethernet port, 3 USB ports, 1 VGA port, 2 3.5mm audio ports, built-in speakers and mic, and MMC/SD card slot. Also like other netbooks, there is no optical drive. The graphics card is the unremarkable but practical Intel 945GSE Express. The S101 also uses the same 0.3 megapixel webcam as the Eee 1000 series, which won’t win any awards for resolution but will work just fine for Skype or chat. The S101 comes with a strong wireless 802.11b/g/n radio and Bluetooth 2.0.
In terms of OS, the Eee PC S101 has just one US option at the moment: Windows XP Home. A Xandros version is available in the UK, which may or may not make it to the US at some point. I’ve seen 32GB and 64GB Linux specs quoted, but can’t find these actually for sale anywhere yet. Asus also bundles the S101 with Sun StarOffice Suite.
The downside? Well, at $699 the S101 is pricier than other netbooks. I don’t see this as a big issue, because it is still a third of the price of the small Sonys and Lenovos, so it’s all a matter of what you compare it to. For me, light weight is a major consideration, but if it’s not a big deal to you, there are other options. For around the same price as the S101, you can get more powerful 10″ laptop (albeit larger and heavier, with traditional hard drive instead of SSD) — you might consider the Asus N10J, which is not being marketed as a netbook but has the same 10.2″ screen.
One of the benefits of Eee PCs is that they are easily upgradeable. Laptop Magazine says the S101 is “difficult to upgrade,” but the RAM chip is easy to access, and contrary to their statement, the full 2GB is recognized by WinXP after a reboot of boot-booster. It would not be as easy to upgrade the SSD, however, so if you wanted to do this you’d be better off with a different Eee PC.
The S101 is currently available in copper or graphite at Amazon and at Newegg, where it’s bundled with a 16GB SD card. I haven’t seen the champagne color available anywhere yet. There’s been no word on whether they will offer other colors in the future, but I have my fingers crossed for pearlized pink!
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 0 comments… add one now }
You must log in to post a comment.