The ToyBox

Ricardo Bilton & Gloria Sin

Asus finally gives EeeKeyboard PC official launch

By | May 3, 2010, 1:19am PDT

Summary: After being debuted at CES and missing its original launch date in February, Asus has finally gotten official with the EeeKeyboard PC. It’s a bit late, no?

After being debuted at CES and missing its original launch date in February, Asus has finally gotten official with the EeeKeyboard PC. It’s a bit late, no?

The EeeKeyboard became available for pre-order on Amazon a few weeks ago, with the hefty price tag of $599. While not mentioned in the release, it looks like that is going to stick for now. There’s also still no word on when that extra fancy keyboard will actually ship.

Many of you were a bit skeptical as to how this keyboard could be useful. Nearly $600 is a pretty price to pay for a keyboard, but with Windows XP and an Intel Atom N270 CPU, it does have the ability to turn any display, projector or HDTV into a functioning computer.

There are some pretty significant connectivity options as well, including three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI out, VGA, plus headphone and microphone jacks. Thus, you could even hook up some external hard drives and DVD players. It would be a lot of wires all over the place, but the 2.2-lb. keyboard is highly portable. Any more interest now?

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Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

Talkback Most Recent of 9 Talkback(s)

  • Not really
    For 499 you can get a 15" laptop with Win 7 that'll do everything that does.

    But then again a Dell Zino for 299 will do the same thing, and that comes with Win7, and could easilly fit in a laptop case. so you'd save 300 dollars.

    Maybe get a nice monitor with the savings... happy
    ZDNet Gravatar
    John Zern
    3rd May 2010
  • C64 Form Factor Lives!
    Pricing pretty off though imo.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    SlithyTove
    3rd May 2010
  • re: Any more interest now?
    um.... no. I just don't get the need this thing fills... maybe it's just me. But drop a $600.00 price tag on it? I'd hate to be the guy who sold this idea to the boss.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Badgered
    3rd May 2010
  • I agree
    It's almost like spending $500 on a tablet that doesn't come with any USB ports, is made of glass, only allows a single thread, and uses extremely proprietory software...oh...wait happy
    ZDNet Gravatar
    ccrashh
    4th May 2010
  • This will die quickly
    I cant imagine a situation in which I would rather have
    this than a Laptop or Netbook. I just don't get it. I
    would love to see the business case that was signed off
    on to begin the development process for this product. It
    will be on a list in 10 years of 25 products that we
    wonder shy they were built.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    tgschmidt
    3rd May 2010
  • Where this will succeed
    is in business where users only need a thin client. However, version one
    will flop like a fat man on a diving board.

    If Asus dropped the touch screen, added the rest of the keyboard, and
    designed a matching monitor with power supply, speakers, and webcam
    built in for this unit (kind of like the Apple LED Cinema display, but not
    nearly as expensive or high-end) and managed to get both pieces under
    $350, I could see a number of these going to call centers and offices
    around the world, simply because 5 of these machines would draw the
    same power as one standard desktop today.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    nix_hed
    4th May 2010
  • an overpriced gadget
    Evidently Asus has some Wozniak-wannabe on their staff . . . except he's NOT.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    pikeman666
    3rd May 2010
  • Woz wouldn't have built something like this...
    ...this is more of a Jack Tramiel meets Steve Jobs type - poor
    but functional design with a sky high price.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    nix_hed
    4th May 2010
  • RE: Asus finally gives EeeKeyboard PC official launch
    Looks like an iTouch with a keyboard thrown in. Nice gadget but too steep a price, especially for one with an Atom CPU. This falls into the netbook category but bulkier, I rather buy an Ipad...there I said it!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    janly@...
    5th May 2010

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