Right or wrong, netbooks have trained us to look at an Intel Atom processor, a gig of RAM, a 32GB SSD hard drive and a tiny screen at 1024×600 as a less than $500 purchase, especially when its being released by Asus. But the Asus R50a is almost $2,000, which is enough to plunge the jaw through the sternum.
Oh, sure, it’s a 5.6 inch UMPC, which certainly counts. Sure, there’s a 3G option. And sure, it runs Vista… although on a 1.33 GHz Atom, why would you want to? But with the guts of a netbook and the design of a Hong Kong PSP clone, it’s really hard to justify the quadrupled price… especially when UMPCs are all but unusable anyway.
Asus R50a Now Shipping [Pocketables]
Get used to it if you’re ever expecting Apple to release one