Ultrathin netbooks on the way from Asus and Acer

By Nick Mansell on Fri 27 February 2009

The Chinese-language Commercial Times has just dropped word on not one but two manufacturers lining up ultra-thin netbooks. What with Chinese not quite being our first language, we've turned to the ever trusty Digitimes, which has translated the news into Queen's English.

First up is Asus, which is said to be prepping up the 10.1in Eee PC Shell. As well as its super slimness, Digitimes reports that the Shell will have, "a higher specification than the Eee PC S101, will be easier to carry, and offer longer battery-life".

The S101, you'll remember, is Asus's current high-end 10-incher, which packs a 16GB SSD, 1GB and 1.6GHz Atom N270 along with a 4-cell battery so any upgrade will be more than welcome.

Just how thin it'll be, we're not told but the price tag is said to be around NT$17,000-20,000 (that's New Taiwan Dollars, incase you're wondering). That works out at roughly £340 to £400. By comparison the S101 went on sale here for £449, though can be had for nearer £370 now.

The other wafery-thin contender is Acer, which is also coming out with a 10.1 UTN (our newly coined initials for this "ultra-thin netbook" genre). There are fewer details on this one, but we are told that, like the Shell, it should be appearing sometime in April.

[Digitimes]