I'm not too worried about the fact that it may not be a “true” or “pure” netbook as we have defined it. 1) If I don't want the extra features, I can probably trust myself not to buy it. 2) I guess feature creep is a legitimate worry, since we've seen it take over the desktop and notebook market to the extent that there may not be nearly enough emphasis on building and marketing good minimal PCs.

But I think the netbook segment is so firmly established that the demand itself will insure that a huge variety of “pure” netbooks will remain on the market for the forseeable future. And 3) Nomenclature and market dilution (pollution?) worries aside, this is a petty desirable little gadget, and maybe it'll help Asus stay afloat during these hard times and keep pumping out “true” netbooks.

Not only that, but look at the size of it. That screen bezel makes it look like a 12-in ultraportable with a 10″ screen. The keyboard clearly shows how much bigger it is than the average netbook.

Yeah, you're right. I didn't even notice the 10.9″ width. That makes it almost a half-inch wider than some 12″ notebooks.

I just noticed the slow 1.8″ PATA hard drive, to make room for the DVD drive no doubt. Surely somebody will find a way to upgrade it.

So now basically an expensive way of getting an underpowered notebook. I wasn't expecting this to happen quite so soon, though it was inevitable given the insane way things have been going over the last few months.

NEXT!