One of the first Asus netbooks to ship with an Intel Atom N2600 Cedar Trail processor is now available for purchase in the US. The Eee PC X101CH comes with a 10.1 inch display, 1GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive.  With a price tag of $280 or less, it’s also firmly in the budget end of the Asus lineup.

You can see the netook at Newegg in the US for $279.99.

The 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N2600 dual-core Cedar Trail chip should offer slightly better performance than the Pine Trail chips used in earlier Asus netbooks.  It will be one of the first netbooks from the company to be able to handle 1080p HD video playback thanks to Intel’s improvements to the integrated graphics for its Atom chips.  The netbook has an HDMI port and a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display. It runs Windows 7 Starter Edition and has a VGA webcam above the display.

One of the reasons this netbook is low cost is because it comes with a small 3 cell, 23Whr battery instead of the 6 cell batteries that are more common among netbooks these days. Asus estimates you should get up to 4.5 hours of run time out of the standard battery.

The latest Asus Zenbook UX31 has the  ability to resume from sleep nearly instantly and now Asus is bringing the same feature to its Intel Atom-powered netbooks.  The feature is available on the latest Eee PC 1025C and 1025CE  and also adds a new sleep mode that allows an Eee PC netbook to resume from sleep in just 3 seconds.  Asus says you should also get about 21 days of sleep time while using Instant On, so the sleep mode isn’t exactly a battery killer.

The company is also adding a few other new apps to its latest netbooks including one called Smart Camera and another called Media Sharing, but the quick resume technology is the most impressive, since it’s the type of feature you normally find in significantly more expensive computers.

The Eee PC 1025C  is expected to launch this month for about $299, while the 1025CE with a slightly faster processor is expected to run $319 and up.

ViaJames!

Asus has a new ultra portable coming out soon that should fit in nicely between their current Eee PC netbook and Zenbook offerings.  Called the Asus U24E, it features a 1366 x 768 pixel display, An Intel Core i5-2430M processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 750GB hard drive. It will weigh 3.3 pounds and will likely be priced much less than the Asus Zenbook UX21.

The UX21 is what Asus calls an ultrabook, which is a fancy of way of saying it weighs less than 3 pounds and measures less than 0.8 inches thick. Oh yeah, and it has a solid state disk instead of a hard drive.  It also has a starting price of $999. The Asus U24E, on the other hand, is expected to launch in Japan for 59,800 Yen. That’s about $766 US, which will likely translate to $699 or less when it hits the States.

The U24E looks like the successor to the Asus UL20 line of notebooks and should compare to your desktop computer performance wise thanks to its Core I5 processor.

via The Verge

Asus has released its financial results for the third quarter of 2011, and not only did they beat forecast for net profits, they also revealed some interesting figures about product shipments.  Asus shipped 1.3 million Eee PC netbooks in Q3, bringing the total for the year so far to 3.6 million. During the same period, Asus shipped 800,000 Eee Pad tablets.  So, despite the fact that tablets grab more headlines than netbooks these days, that doesn’t mean netbooks aren’t still shipping in high numbers.

via Eee PC.it

ASUS chairman Jonney Shih was just interviewed by Walt Mossberg at AsiaD.  On the topic of netbooks, Shih notes that rather than being buried, netbooks are simply “evolving.”  Even more importantly,  however, whe confirmed  that a new ASUS netbook is en route: “You’ll see on our new netbook, it’ll be very thin.” In fact, he even suggested that the design may follow that of the Zenbook, but just… smaller.

So, that sounds quite promising from the manufacturer that was at the very forefront of the netbook trend.  We, here at NetbookReview couldn’t agree more.  Sure, some people have and will continue to replace their netbooks eith tablets, but for many others, a netbook is the device they prefer.

The Asus Lamborghini is one of Asus’s Lamborghini-inspired designs.  The 12.1 inch Lamborghini VX6 has originally shipped with a 1.8 GHz Intel Atom D525 dual core processor,but will soon get an upgrade to the latest and greatest 2.13 GHz Intel Atom D2700 Cedar Trail chip.  The new Asus Lamborghini VX6 has an AMD Radeon 6470M graphics card and 4GB of DDR3 memory.

Netbook Live has an unboxing video and some photos and benchmark results.

There’s no word on the price or release date for the new model yet.

Asus is introducing a new line of thin and light laptops due to go on sale in the US starting October 12th for $999 and up. The name that Asus is giving the line is ‘Zenbook’ but the individual models will be called the Asus UX21 and Asus UX31.  In total, there will be 5 different models, two with 11.6 inch displays, while there will be three models with 13.3 inch screens.These will be among the first notebooks to launch as part of the Intel ultrabook platform.

All of the models are fitted as standard with solid state disks, 4GB of RAM, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and 0.3MP webcams. There is 1 USB 2.0 port and a USB 3.0 port, an audio jack, microHDMI port, and xmini VGA port and run Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. All three models will have Intel GMA 3000 HD graphics.

Impressively, Asus says the Zenbooks resume from sleep in 2 seconds, and  automatically backup your data to the solid state disk when battery power reaches 5 percent capacity.  They also features Asus Super Hybrid Engine technology which adjusts the CPU speed and other settings to prioritize battery life or performance depending on what you need. Asus CEO Jerry Shen says the idea is to deliver a smartphone-like, instant-on, ultraportable experience in a notebook-like form factor.

Check out a  run-down of the different models after the break.

Asus UX21E-DH52

• 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display
• Intel Core i5-2467M CPU
• 128GB SSD
• 35Whr battery (5 hours continuous use, 7 days standby)
• 11.7″ x 7.7″ x 0.67″
• 2.43 pounds
• $999

Asus UX21E-DH71

• 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display
• Intel Core i7-2677M
• 128GB SSD
• 35 Whr battery
• 11.7″ x 7.7″ x 0.67″
• 2.43 pounds
• $1199

Asus UX31E-DH52

• 13.3 inch, 1600 x 900 pixel display
• Intel Core i5-2557M CPU
• 128GB SSD
• 50Whr battery
• 12.8″ x 8.8″ x 0.71″
• 2.86 pounds
• $1099

Asus UX31E-DH53

• 13.3 inch, 1600 x 900 pixel display
• Intel Core i5-2557M
• 256GB SSD
• 50Whr battery
• 12.8″ x 8.8″ x 0.71″
• 2.86 pounds
• $1349

Asus UX31E-DH72

• 13.3 inch, 1600 x 900 pixel display
• Intel Core i7-2677M
• 256GB SSD
• 50Whr battery
• 12.8″ x 8.8″ x 0.71″
• 2.86 pounds
• $1449

The Eee PC X101 is the only 10 inch netbook with an Intel Atom processor to launch for just $200 (in the US) and if tis was still 2007, it’s be an instant winner.  However, now that tablets have hit the scene, it’s not uncommon for netbooks to dip as low as $180 on sale in the States.  And while those deals are on netbooks at least six months old, and some a year or two old. But these cheap netbooks often have Windows 7 Starter Edition and 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processors that in my experience at least feel a little faster than the 1.33 GHz Atom N435 chip in the Eee PC X101.

With that kind of competion it’s hard to recommend the Eee PC X101 although there are some benefits to this new netbook from Asus:

• At less than 1kg, it’s one of the lightest netbooks available.
• It’s one of the thinnest, at just 0.7 inches thick.
• The solid state disk isn’t necessarily any faster than a hard drive, but it does offer sturdier storage. If you drop the netbook you’re not as likely to lose data.
• The access panel on the base of the laptop also makes RAM and SSD upgrades easy.

You can check out the full review here, at Liliputing.

We saw the Asus Eee PC 1025C netbook at the FCC just a few days ago, and now it’s followed by the Eee PC 1025CE.

As the same implies, the two netbooks are virtually identical. They have the same case design, the same keyboard and 10 inch screen. But there are a few subtle differences which suggest that the Eee PC 1025CE will be the more expensive model.

The Eee PC 1025CE has 2 USB 2.0 ports and a USB 3.0 port, while the cheaper model just has 3 USB 2.0 ports. The Eee PC 1025CE also has Bluetooth and a there may even be a 4G WiMAX option, while the Eee PC 1025C is WiFi-only. The Eee PC 1025CE also has a matte screen while its sibling appears to have a glossy display.

Asus hasn’t released UK pricing or release date details yet.

The Eee PC 1025C from Asus is expected to be the first netbooks with the new Intel Atom Cedar Trail processor. It’s due to launch any day now, so it’s not surprising that the tablet popped up at the FCC this week.

Not only did the fine folks at the FCC provide us with a series of photographs, but also a user manual.   There aren’t any big surprises in the manual though.  Like most netbooks, the Eee PC 1025C will have a 10″ screen, touchpad and keyboardThe photos include a few shots of the Eee PC 1025C without its cover, so you can take a look at the wireless card, motherboard, and other components.O

One nice suprise is that Asus seems to have  done away with the bulky power brick and separate adapter cable for this model. Instead you have a single-piece power adapter, which should save weight and space in your bag.