The Zone

Yesterday at the World GameMaster Tournament Malaysia Finals, we managed to cradle Asus' baby of their notebook family, the Asus Eee PC. Unfortunately the battery was flat so we weren't able to check out its OS and applications. We still managed to get a nice, hands on look of its build, interfaces, and features.

Click the jump for more pictures!

As you can see, the Asus Eee PC is extremely small: it's the size of an average hardcover novel. There's a webcam on the top of the display while the 7" display is boxed by the stereo speakers. If you're worried about the green cover lid in the previous image, I was informed by Asus that the Eee PC will come in different colors.

The keys are quite small, which is to be expected for an UMPC. They're more suited for children hands or slender fingers. But I've seen smaller keys on ultra-portables and other UMPCs like the Toshiba U1010, so it's okay.

The touchpad is so tiny that it's only as large as our 50 sen coin. Yikes!

The right side of the Eee PC has 2 USB ports, a card reader, a Kensington lock hole, and finally a 15-pin VGA port for video output - great for presentations at meetings due to its lightweight portability at around 800 grams

Finally on the left side, there's a USB port, headphones and microphones jack, modem and LAN jacks for wired networking capabilities. The Eee PC also comes with wireless connectivity, which makes it a great mini notebook to surf news at cafes.

The 4GB model is expected to be launched in Malaysia sometime in mid-November for the price of RM1299. I wouldn't mind picking up one for my dad since he's been bugging me about wanting his own notebook so he can go online and keep in touch with the rest of the family around the world. The simple interface and functionality of the Asus Eee PC would be a perfect fit for him.