Asus introduces ultra-slim Eee PC

Asus is looking to cater to the “smaller is better” crowd with the introduction of a new Eee PC Model, the S101. The incredibly slim netbook boasts a closed height of only 1.8cm and a weight of only 1kg, making it one of the lightest and thinnest notebooks available. On top of the small profile, it also supports some newer features that earlier model Eee PCs do not – such as 802.11n wireless support, an SSD up to 64GB in size, Bluetooth support and more.

They've also tweaked the power consumption of the unit, which they claim has given this machine up to five hours of continuous use. Whether that means simply idly or actually using a demanding application they don't say, but five hours of battery in such a small machine is impressive.

What's not impressive is the price. The lowest-priced version, which has a tiny 16GB SSD with Windows XP, is $699. That's the same price a 32GB version with Linux costs. For the full 64GB SSD flavor, you're now running into the $799 range. That's beyond “low-end” laptop and right up into the “midrange” laptop. Asus has definitely made the Eee PC exit the market it originally broke into.