Asus' Eee Keyboard is small home entertainment PC packed into a standard size QWERTY keyboard. 



The design of the Eee Keyboard is quite innovative. It can be used as standalone PC with an integrated 5” touchscreen, but it also allows wired or wireless connection to any HD TV or computer monitor. After many delays launch date is finally set somewhere between end of April and beginning of May.



In order to transfer A/V signal wirelessly between the Eee Keyboard and a receiver, Asus opted for a ultra-wideband technology. Wire connection to the display is possible using integrated VGA or HDMI interfaces, but that way we are limited with cable length. 



For wireless connection it is necessary to use a special receiver that serves as middleware between Eee Keyboard and monitor, which is connected to the display using HDMI cable. On the picture below, the receiver is the small black box standing right from TV. You can install as many receivers as you want (one comes with Eee Keyboard) and connect them to different displays in your home. Later you can find the right spot and play A/V content to desired display.



The main problem with first revision of Eee Keyboard that was shown last year, was lack of dual-screen capability. Now, on one side it is possible to watch a movie using the big HD TV screen, while on the other side you can replay an email messages or write something using 5” touchscreen integrated in the device.



The operating system of choice is Win XP, but it has a specially designed user interface for the touchscreen monitor. The model shown on Cebit sports the old Intel Atom N270 CPU, but the possibility of new CPUs cannot be excluded.

The rest of the specifications is shown on the picture below. As you can see it comes with 16/32 GB SSD disk, and that dictates the price. The 16GB version should cost about €449, while doubling the storage will cause the price to jump up to a rather saucy €599. 

 

Eee Keyboard caught good attention here at Cebit from a press and from end users.