Whilst for some time the ASUS Eee PC 701 has been the lone affordable ultraportable laptop on the market, it won’t enjoy that priveledge for much longer. With the emergence of the Everex CloudBook the Eee has finally got some competition. Here are the specifications for this little machine:

• gOS Rocket operating system (Linux variant)
• 1.2GHz, VIA C7-M Processor (ULV)
• 512MB DDR2 533MHz, SDRAM
• 30GB Hard Disk Drive (3600rpm parallel ATA)
• 7″ WVGA TFT Display (800 x 480)
• VIA UniChrome Pro IGP Graphics
• VIA High-Definition Audio
• 802.11b/g WiFi
• 10/100 Ethernet Port
• DVI Port
• Two USB 2.0 Ports
• 4-in-1 Media Card Reader
• 0.3MP Webcam
• Headphone/Line-Out Port
• Microphone/Line-In Port
• 4-cell Lithium-Ion Battery

Now these are quite impressive when you find the Cloudbook will retail at $399 — the same price as the 4GB eee PC. For the same price a user will get a processor running at twice the speed (the eee uses a 900mhz chip, but it is factory underclocked to 630mhz) and just under 8 times the storage space. Sadly, well maybe not for eee users, there is a twist in the tale. The hard drive only spings at 3600 rpm, your typical desktop drive will run at twice this. This means, according to NotebookReview.com:

Both the average data transfer speed (read/write speed) and the average data access time (how long it takes the drive to locate data) for the 30GB hard drive where slower than either the internal 4GB SSD inside the Asus Eee PC or a 16GB SDHC card used as a second storage drive inside the Eee PC.

Now that is quite staggering information. Thus, one could overclock (techincally this would not actually be overclocking, as you will be simply making the processor run at its correct speed,) their eee then insert a 16GB, or soon a 32GB, SDHC card and have a, plausibly, superior system to the Everex; although, this would be more expensive.

Secondly, the operating system gOS Linux is just as poor as Xandros Linux on the eee. Neither machine comes with an operating system that the majority of users would be satisfied with. If either machine used something like Xubunu, or even a tweaked version of Ubuntu, the systems would feel much more complete. For reference I removed Xandros for Xubuntu on my eee in less than a week.

Now Asus will be releasing a more expensive version of the Eee, the Eee PC 900 that features numerous improvements:

• 9″ screen running at 1024×600
• Multitouch trackpad
• Integrated bluetooth
• 8 or 12GB solid state drive

Now all this on top of what the Eee PC already offers for only $100 more ($400) seems like a great bargin; although, the price starts to tred on the heels of larger machines with much higher specifications. This will probably cause the price of the 4GB 701 to drop, and the 8GB model move to the $300 price point. Otherwise, I can see the 701s struggle; I own a 701 and would be tempted with the 900 if the price stays at $400.

I know many people who are turned off the idea of the Eee or the Cloudbook, simply because of the 7 inch screen. Now with a 9 inch screen these people will have to think again about these laptops. If everything goes well, demand for the Asus Eee Pc 900 could even outstrip the current demand for the 701.