ASUS unveiled a lot of innovative concept products at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, including a netbook that comes as a cross between a notebook and a touch-screen tablet, not to mention a swiveling joint.
In case you have been living under the rock for the past five years, a netbook is a light-weight, energy-efficient, low-cost, and highly portable laptop. It is smaller in size compared to a notebook and much smaller than a laptop. It offers fewer features, less processing power, and reduced ability to perform resource-intensive operating systems such as Windows Vista. The netbook targets the younger, less professional market who more often access web-based applications.
ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih unveiled its latest line of the revolutionary Eee PCs (short for "East to Learn, Easy to Work, and Easy to Play"). One of which is the Eee PC T91, which is conceptually similar to the Intel Classmate PC, only that it has a rotating display that can spin around at 180 degrees and then folded down thus creating your very own tablet PC.
The system may only come at a standard 9-inch display, but the Eee PC T91 includes a GPS antenna, a TV tuner, and even an FM transmitter. At a measly two pounds and an inch thick, this amazingly light netbook also contains a standard configuration of Intel Z520 Atom CPU and Windows XP Home. Speculations that the Eee PC T91 may also be available with Windows 7 also circulate, but that is still yet to be confirmed.
The Eee PC T91 may appear similar to previous Eee models, but its keyboard has a different feel to it, more like that of an ASUS N10. The trackpad, meanwhile, is fairly wide at such a small unit.
What is lacking, however, is an absence of an accelerometer that would automatically rotate the screen when placed in tablet mode. You would have to manually rotate and fold the screen, which may cause some wear and tear at the swivel joint after much use. There is also no external button to rotate the screen orientation.
Price and availability details are still sketchy, but ASUS says that the Eee PC T91 will also be available in a variety of colors.
Image source: asus.com
