Atom based Eee PC tips up

[Note: we've updated this story to make it clearer this is an overseas rumour. There's no official announcement yet by Asus on the Eee 901, but the titbits we've heard so far we've reported below].

The company will apparently be selling the new 8.9 inch model for slightly less than US$650, which is fairly expensive considering its new, 10-inch rival, MSI's Wind, sells for US$250 cheaper.

Even worse news for Asus is that MSI Wind has purportedly said that it will be releasing its new Atom-based offering running Linux on the exact same day.

But Asus says that its new model will have features that make it stand out from its competitors, including the new Bluetooth module and sticking some metal bits to the keyboard and touchpad. Apart from that, everything else is pretty much the same, apparently.

The only other change is that the Linux version of the tiny laptop will be getting more software apps bunged into it. We can't say whether the changes merit the price difference, really, but the proof will be in the pud-eee-ng.

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