• Tweet

Asus may have a number of Windows 8 portable computers set to launch in the coming weeks. But the company isn’t putting all its eggs in one basket. The Asus X201e is an inexpensive portable laptop which runs Ubuntu Linux rather than Windows.

Several US retailers are taking pre-orders for the Asus X201e, with prices ranging from about $314 to $316.

Asus F201E

The notebook has an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, a 1.1 GHz Intel Celeron B847 processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. It features 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and has HDMI output and a VGA webcam.

By equipping the X201e with the open source Ubuntu operating system, Asus can keep the price low. That’s because there’s no need to pay Microsoft a licensing fee for the Windows operating system — although I’m sure you could install Windows or other operating systems yourself if you’re not a fan of Ubuntu.

While I haven’t seen any photos of the X201e yet, the specs make this laptop sound an awful lot like the Asus F201E which is up for pre-order in Germany for 299 € and up.

via Notebook Italia