ASUS Eee Book concept: is this the future of notebooks?

by Faye Le Duc on 5 March 2009, 17:00

Tags: ASUS Netbooks, ASUSTeK (TPE:2357)

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ASUS has itself plenty of interesting kit at CeBIT '09 - including the Lamborghini VX5 notebook and sumptious Eee Keyboard - but there's arguably nothing as revolutionary as the Eee Book concept.

Pictured below, this technology showcase is essentially a slim netbook-like form factor that incorporates two large touch-screen displays. The working sample at ASUS' booth features Windows 7 as its operating system, but ASUS personnel weren't keen on the idea of letting us try out the virtual keyboard.

Nonetheless, we're pretty certain that we couldn't do away with our tactile keyboard completely. The idea here, of course, is that the Eee Book can be rotated - aided by a built-in accelerometer, we presume - and be used as a book-like device.

Certainly an interesting concept, and it brings a whole new angle to the increasingly-popular electronic reader market. Sadly, ASUS has no time frame for when - or indeed if - such a device will reach mass production.


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HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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The “Don't Touch !!” sign, would only encourage me to do the opposite :D
Wow very interesting idea. Not sure it would work in reality, but nice to see ASUS trying new things in the netbook arena. I'd imagine it would cost more than any other netbook too.
It is an interesting concept, perhaps making the screens “clickable” like the BB Storm would help with the touch based keyboard.
Looks nice to me - the book-style opening mode would make it great as a high-end e-reader, especially if the touch screens could detect flicks on the appropriate edge to turn the pages! I'd be a nice way to browse documents on your way to a meeting too (much better than balancing a 15" widescreen laptop on the back of a train seat because you could sit down *ahem*). My only concern that way is the thickness of the bezel - it'd be difficult to get to the touchscreen with your thumb if you were holding it one-handed. Definitely like the concept though.


I wonder if they didn't want anyone messing with the touch-kb because it doesn't have multi-touch support yet? Windows 7 RC1 will support multitouch for the on-screen kb and it would make this concept much more intuitive to use…
Very nice, especially considering we're in a recession that companies like Asus are still coming up with new concepts and ideas rather than just sticking to what's “safe”. Good on them. The showcase model looks quite interesting - I'd be happy to have one! It's a bit like a Nintendo DS, only much bigger and without the hardware keys. And I have no complaints about using the DS touchscreen when playing games, it's clever how it can change to be any control configuration you need.