ASUS have kicked out a new 12-inch netbook, the Eee PC 1201N, packing NVIDIA Ion graphics chipset and 2GB of RAM. The Eee PC 1201N is yet to make an official appearance on ASUS own site,Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor and a 250GB 5,400rpm SATA hard-drive.
The 12-inch display runs at 1,366 x 768 resolution and is 16:9 aspect with LED backlighting.Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth and 10/100 ethernet, together with an unspecified number of USB 2.0 ports, VGA and a multiformat card reader. There is also a 1.3-megapixel webcam.
The Eee PC 1201N uses a 6-cell battery, which ASUS claim up to 11hrs runtime from, while the OS is Windows 7. Because of that last element, we were not expecting to see the 1201N officially hit shelves (or ASUS own press pages) until late October, when Microsoft launch the new OS.
The 1201N sports the same glossy black plastic chassis and thin curves as other Eee PCs with ASUS Seashell design, including the 1101HA and 1008HA. At 11.6 x 8.2 x 1.3 inches and 3.2 pounds, the 1201N is smaller and lighter than the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 with Ion (11.5 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches, 3.4 pounds), and about on par with the HP Mini 311 (11.5 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches, 3.4 pounds). The overall look is attractive, but beware of fingerprint.
It has 2 GB DDR2 RAM, a 250 GB hard drive, discrete graphics (GeForce 9400m) and a 12.1-inch glossy screen (1366 x 768). There is no optical drive, but that is not yet a downside on netbooks. Finally, the machine we tested came pre-loaded with Windows 7 Starter, there are variants with Windows 7 Home Premium too. Other features are rather common, such as HDMI, VGA, 3 USB, audio jacks, webcam and a memory card reader. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi N, gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth.
Port configuration of the 1201n is pretty typical for a netbook: three USB ports, an HDMI digital video port, VGA analog graphics connector and a built-in ethernet jack with some analog in/out and multi format flash memory card reader. This Eee PC ships with SRS radio plus the full Realtek HD audio suite, which allows you to set specific equalization settings. Headphone with this netbook, though, will give you the better audio experience no matter what settings or stereo tunings you use.
The Asus ships the unit with Windows 7 Home Premium, rather than Windows 7 Starter Edition or Windows XP, which is another plus not normally found in netbooks. Home Premium does consume more memory than the Starter, but offers more customization choices, which makes sense once you start thinking about pricing figures.