$300 ASUS Eee PC spotted?

ASUS' promised $300 Eee PC may already have spotted in a leak to Eee PC News today. A system known as the 701SDX has tipped up that reveals a slightly modified version of the original 7-inch design and will trim prices mainly by reducing features as with earlier incarnations: the webcam will be absent, while just 4GB to 8GB of flash memory is anticipated for storage. Linux isn't known but is likely given ASUS' pricing system.

Which processor ASUS will choose for the SDX is unknown, though the 701 name points to Intel's Atom rather than the long-serving 900MHz Celeron M used in the first Eee PC 700 netbooks. The Taiwan-area company would also follow the pattern it first took with the Surf edition of the notebooks and ship the new model in extra colors such as pink as well as the black and white that have been the staples of the line.

A specific release window isn't available, though ASUS chief Jerry Shen has said the Eee PC would break the $300 price point sometime in early 2009.