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Asus S101 Gallery:
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As you can easily see the S101 excels in the look and feel departments and while the border around the frame is clearly evidennt it is not as bad as is found in other EeePC's. What you can see here is just how thin the S101 really is. Our "hands-on" tests with several users found that the S101 was the lightest laptop/netbook they had ever held while most felt the screen was clearer and more readable than the MSI Wind. Those with keen eyes will note the keyboard is in english as well as chinese. As we mentioned earlier the 64GB SSD equipped model we are testing is not available in the USA, hence the keyboard also has chinese letters.
Asus official explanation about the availability of the 64GB model is that the release is in line with their marketing strategy. Apparantly Asus doesn't believe that the US population is willing to dole out the ~$899 USD for the 64GB equipped S101, which is also why they equipped the cheaper ~$699 16GB SSD equipped model with Windows XP Home. Asus may well be right in adopting this strategy as the S101 would be competing against other netbooks like the Acer Aspire One with a street price tag of approximately $299 for essentially the same internal hardware. With a $600 difference for just the chassis most Americans just wouldn't find it worth the extra cash.
Without a doubt the S101 does come in as the most attractive netbook of 2008. With Asus reputation of setting the stage for other manufacturers to follow one must ask the question "Has Asus' S101 ushered in the era of fashion computing?" You may well see other manufacturers like Sony and MSI soon delivering "fashion" netbooks to market. Stay tuned to our CES coverage where such products would be announced were they to make it to the light of day.
REALTIME PRICING ON THE ASUS S101