With new pretenders to the throne growing in both number and popularity, the mini-notebook that started it all must adapt to stay ahead of the pack. Thus, Asus is launching the Eee PC 901 – less of a whole new model, more an Eee PC 900 with added extras.

To recap, the 900 brought the original Eee up to the specification most people were clamouring for: an 8.9in, 1024 x 600 screen, a more sensible 1GB of RAM, and up to 20GB of solid-state storage. But with a 900MHz Intel Celeron processor under the hood, and disappointing battery life, the price tag of around $700 was steep.

The Eee PC 901 doesn’t do much to refute that last criticism, but in every other respect it’s a step forward, and the price has dropped a little. The chassis has been smoothed, glossed and rounded to make it more attractive, and Asus has taken its own name off in favour of the ever-expanding Eee brand. A new hinge also feels more solid than the previous mechanism.

The MacBook-inspired multi-touchpad on the 900 received much praise, and it’s still present on the 901. The mouse buttons, however, have been rejigged, with a full silver frame now surrounding the pad, bringing the buttons in line with Asus’ other laptops. They’re responsive and quite firm, but a bit too clicky for our liking – and the touchpad on our sample didn’t quite sit flush with them.

The real improvements, however, are internal. We’ve been hearing about Intel’s Atom for eons, and the Eee PC 901 finally gives us what we’ve been waiting for: the Atom N270. It runs at 1.6GHz, with 512KB of L2 cache and a 533MHz front side bus; has a thermal design power of just 2.5W, and idle power consumption as low as 30mW.

As we expected, you still can’t push the Eee hard and expect it to remain snappy, but it performed surprisingly well in our benchmarks. The 901 and its Atom finished around 10% slower than the 900’s Celeron in our audio encoding test, yet proved 10% quicker at 2D graphics rendering and an impressive 40% faster with video – a mixed bag, but an overall improvement.

As well as the Atom processor, Asus has also fitted a new 802.11n wireless module and a Bluetooth adapter, both of which extend the Eee’s appeal to those on the move. The physical ports haven’t changed, so you get VGA, three USB ports, ethernet and a memory card reader.

The biggest improvement, though, is the battery. The 901 has a 6600mAh capacity to the 900’s 4400mAh, and the two are, annoyingly, incompatible with each other – bang goes any chance of plugging in the 900’s battery and checking the efficiency of the Atom.

What we can tell you is that the Eee now lasts as long as we’d want an ultraportable to: with XP installed on the Linux Eee, with early desktop chipset drivers, it managed a minute short of six hours’ web browsing. But when we tested the full XP version – most compatible with our Windows-based benchmark suite – it lasted a stunning 8hrs 13mins.

We even got a healthy 4hrs 43mins with several intensive apps pushing the CPU to continuous full load. Compare this to the disappointing 3hrs 20mins light use battery life of the Eee PC 900.

So, the improvements really do add to the appeal of the Eee PC 901, and the choice of Linux or Windows XP will keep both purists and the masses happy. The XP version sacrifices the extra 4GB SSD drive to make room in the budget for the XP license, but other than that they’re identical.

The hurdle to the Eee’s continuing success comes from elsewhere, though. The Eee gained popularity by being unlike anything else on the market; but we’ve now seen several rivals that do all the Eee does – and in some cases do it better.

Acer’s Aspire one offers an extra inch of width and a slightly larger keyboard. This, coupled with a VAIO-style lid, makes it look more like a proper laptop than the Eee. And with prices starting from a staggering $533, it’s closer to the Eee’s original remit.

Thus, if you’re looking for a “netbook” system for the most basic tasks, the ultra-cheap Acer should fit the bill. But the Eee is in its third revision and the experience shows: improved battery life, sleek styling and the efficiency of the Atom processor make the 901 the best Eee PC yet.