Asus has announced the newest addition to its netbook range, the Eee PC 1002HA, featuring essentially the same system specifications as its 1000H sibling but with a slimmed down brushed metal external shell and front mounted speakers. The new Eee PC 1002HA's design is a cross between the sleeker yet more expensive Eee PC S101 and the older Eee PC 1000H, which might just be the happy middle ground.
It gets a 10-inch display, a 160GB hard drive - and another 10GB of online file space courtesy of Asus' Eee Storage - a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and Windows XP Home. It also appears to have a tiny 2-cell battery, but the company claims it should be enough to deliver over four hours of battery life using its Super Hybrid Engine technology. The new netbook from Asus should be available immediately through the company's global network resellers for $499.