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Asus Eee PC S101

Published on 24th October 2008 by Joe Martin

Cost Effective?

So, the new Eee PC S101 is everything that Asus might have promised and more. At 180.5 x 264 x 25 mm (HxWxD) the S101 is smaller than the Eee PC 1000 by just a little bit, plus it weighs only a kilogram.

At the same time though, the keyboard is still as usable as the Eee PC 1000's and about equal to HP’s rival, the Mininote 2133.

The interface, which some people seem to have issues with for some reason, has had a few tweaks in terms of organisation (such as auto-scanning for updates), but is mostly the same and is still as simple and effective as ever. We really can’t understand why people seem to have problems with it. It’s baffling.

In terms of actual features, the Eee S101 is still just as attractive as ever too. It has a decent 1,024 x 600 resolution screen that measures 10.2” and all the usual mod-cons in terms of connectivity. Multiple USB ports, a four-in-one card reader discreetly hidden at the back, WiFi access, Bluetooth, Ethernet and the ability to make people who talk about it sound like used car salesmen.

Asus Eee PC S101 Asus Eee PC S101 - Conclusions

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Of course, a lot of these features (in fact, all of them) are also present on some of the older models of the Eee PC line. The Eee PC 901 for example had all of these features, though it lacked out on some of the software stuff such as performance profiles.

Why then is the Eee PC S101 so much more expensive? A quick price-check shows that the Eee PC 901 can be had for around £275 or $449 (depending on where you're based) – yet the S101 is going to cost closer to £450 / $699. Why the price hike? In some areas the S101 is actually worse than previous models, such as the battery life.

The answer is both simple and shallow – it’s the look that has driven the price up so much. It can’t be anything else. The features are the same. What’s costing you so much here is the new colour (the version you see in these pictures is what Asus calls a ‘graphite infusion’) and some shiny hinges. According to Asus the hinges are ‘crystal adorned’, but we’re not susceptible enough to asinine marketing-speak to think that means anything other than ‘shiny’.

It’s weird. At the start of writing this review, we admitted that yes, the Eee PC S101 does look nice. It looks very nice even and it feels great to use. Now though, faced with the interminable truth that this new colour and shiny hinge motif is costing users an extra £150 or so, we’ve had a change of heart. This shiny new coat of graphite paint isn’t good, it’s reprehensible and the only thing it really does is colour our final judgement of the Eee PC S101.

The S101 is still a good-looking machine and it is still a joy to use. It’ll look good in the metrosexual knapsack of any bonus-chasing city banker or on the meeting table of any board meeting. The Eee is still as good as it always was, but this SKU just looks a little bit prettier.

For most people though, the ones who are probably on the other side of the credit crunch and who are more concerned with value for money and battery life than the fact that their subnotebook has slightly shiny hinges, the S101 isn’t really a valid option. It may be pretty, but that comes at a huge and wildly disproportionate cost.

We get the feeling that price of the Eee PC S101 was decided based on what corporate types might pay, not what the system is truly worth - more proof that Asus has lost the plot on what it was that made the first Eee PCs great.