Aluminum-clad Asus netbooks pop up for preorder

The aluminum-body Asus netbooks that leaked back in March are finally circling the landing strip. All three are available for preorder via online retailer Excaliber PC with an estimated ship date of July 29. The Eee PC 1015PED is the least expensive at $349 and features a 10.1-inch 1024x600 display, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N455 processor, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, 250GB of storage, 802.11n and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity, a six-cell battery with up to 10 hours of life, and Windows 7 Starter.


The pricier systems don't deviate far from that course. The 1018P has a gig of DDR2 RAM instead of DDR3 and drops from a 48W/h battery to 44W/h. In it's favor, the system packs a trio of USB 3.0 ports and it's a third of a pound lighter in the same form factor (2.43lbs versus 2.76lbs). Meanwhile, the 1016P drops the USB 3.0 ports and picks up 2GB of DDR3 RAM, Windows 7 Professional, the heftier 48W/h battery, and weighs the most at 2.81lbs.