Asus launches yet another Eee PC

It seems that Asus believes there's still room for more variations of its popular Eee PC lightweight laptop.

The company has added the $900 (450) Eee S101 model to its Eee PC line-up. As with Apple's MacBook Air, the Eee S101 will feature a 64GB solid state drive (SSD), and the same 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor found in the Eee PC 901 and Eee PC 1000, so will likely be close to the MacBook Air in terms of performance, though won't match it.

The laptop comes fitted with a low-power, LED-backlit 10.2in TFT screen, driven by a 945GME chipset. Asus currently lacks a high-end ultra portable, and the S101 is expected to fill this niche.

In the US the 64GB version will sell for $899 (450), with a cheaper 32GB version costing just $699 (350). However, the model is a long way from the Eee brand's humble beginnings as an affordable 7in netbook for as little as 169 in the UK. The Eee branding may be removed from the S101 before its launch in recognition of this fact.

Yet more new Eee PCs will be released in September, with SSD drives up to 120GB in capacity and with dual-core Atom processors.