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Asus Eee PC 1008P design reflects 'sensual minimalism'

The new 1008P has a brand new look, created by industrial designer Karim Rashid (who designed, among other things, the Dirt Devil Kone vacuum).

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
Dan Ackerman
2 min read

Asus

At times, it seems like hardly a month goes by without a new version of Asus' popular Eee PC Netbook. While the Eee PC 1005PE, which was the first laptop to feature Intel's new Atom N450 processor, is less than a month old, we now can add the 1008P to the lineup.

Internally, both systems are very similar, with 10-inch displays and N450 CPUs. The new 1008P, however, has a brand new look, created by industrial designer Karim Rashid (who designed, among other things, the Dirt Devil Kone vacuum).

The new look of the Eee PC 1008P is described by Asus as "a fluid-driven form design along with the use of tactile friendly materials [that] results in a product that is both fashionable and unlike any other product in the Netbook market." The company calls Rashid's design philosophy one of "sensual minimalism."

In real-world terms, that means the back of the lid has a unique wavy texture over a cross-hatched pattern, available in pink and brown (or "hot pink" and "coffee brown," if you speak "marketing"). The keyboard and screen area looks like Asus' other current Eee PCs, with some color details from the lid slipping through, and a signature logo from the designer on the wrist rest.

The Asus Eee PC 1008P has a 10.1-inch 1,024x600 LED backlit display, Windows 7 Home Premium, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, Bluetooth, and a three-cell li-polymer removable battery. At a modest 2.5 pounds, it's also fairly lightweight.

We're still waiting to hear an availability date for the 1008P, but we hear it'll run $499, making it a premium-priced Netbook.

New Asus Eee PC 1008P (photos)

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