Asus has decided it is time to replace the R2H, which the company launched last year with a price tag under $1,000 USD. The R2H features a 900MHz Celeron M ULV processor, 768MB of DDR2 memory, 7" (800x480) LCD, 60GB hard drive, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, WiFi and GPS capabilities. The second generation UMPC from Asus will be the T83, featuring the same 7" LCD with a resolution of 800x480, a smaller 30GB HDD and only 512MB of memory. On the plus side, the 900MHz Celeron M ULV processor was replaced by a 1GHz Via C7-M processor. Asus also added a swivelling LCD housing and a traditional small QWERTY keyboard complete with trackpoint and two mouse buttons. Battery life has also been increased from a paltry 2 hours on the R2H to 6 hours with the T83.
Despite the feature cuts, the T83 has managed to jump in weight from 1.83 pounds to 2.1 pounds. The Asus T83 is expected to retail between $900 USD and $1,000 USD. Competition, also known as the Samsung Q1 Ultra, is expected to come in at around $1,200 USD but will weigh only 1.5 pounds and will feature a split-QWERTY keyboard, 7" (1024x600) display, 800MHz Core 2 processor, 1GB of memory, 60GB hard drive and dual cameras, HSDPA and WiBRO.