Eee PC 1015P, 1015PE promise epic 13-hour battery life

Stop the presses -- the forthcoming Eee PC 1015P and Eee PC 1015PE netbooks are set to deliver a mammoth 13.5 hours of battery life.

What's the secret behind the extraordinary battery life? Huge battery capacities, mainly. Asus claims 13.5 hours is achievable with a six-cell 63Wh battery pack, which pushes the total system weight to 1.35kg. A slightly smaller 56Wh battery, capable of 12 hours, will also be available. It'll reduce system weight to a dainty 1.1kg.

As impressive as these sound, we're not holding our breath. Asus will also be shipping the netbooks with a variety of other, less impressive batteries. These include a 48Wh pack capable of 10.5 hours, and a 23Wh pack that's good for just 5 hours. So be careful which you opt for, as not all 1015PEs and 1015Ps are created equal.

Battery life aside, the netbooks aren't mind-bogglingly different to any other Eee PCs we've seen before. They're not even particularly different to each other. According to German tech site eeepcnews.de, the 1015P is available in white, black and blue, while the 1015PE is also available in red and pink and has a matte finish.

Inside, both machines get a 10.1-inch, 1,024x600-pixel display, Atom N450 CPUs, 1GB of DDR2 memory, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and up to 320GB of hard-disk storage. Prices are unconfirmed as yet, but expect them to vary depending on which battery you opt for.

Take a gander at the pictures in our photo gallery and check back for more information as we get it.