12-inch Asus Eee Netbook Running on Nvidia Ion

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

A recent leak has shown us a little of what Asus is planning on doing with its Eee PC line and we gotta say, we like what we're seeing.

Asus hasn't officially announced an Ion-infused Eee PC that we know of, which is why it was quite surprising to see (via Liliputing) one Chinese website display a product page for an Eee PC 1201N with a 12-inch display, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU and Nvidia Ion graphics.

Now, we'll leave out the bit about how we're completely against anything with a display over 10-inches (maybe we can stretch to 11-inches) that claims to be a netbook and instead express our enthusiasm for an Eee PC with Ion graphics. Pretty neat, huh?

Specs-wise you're looking at a 12-inch widescreen HD display (1366 x 768), 2 GB of RAM, 250 GB hard drive, Nvidia's GeForce 9400M and of course, Intel's Atom N270 (which clocks in at 1.6 GHz). Liliputing tentatively reports 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Ethernet, a VGA port, USB, audio I/O, and a 6 cell, 5200mAh battery that’s capable of up to 11 hours of run time too.

What say ye?

Jane McEntegart
34 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Ehsan w
    good enough for my parents :P
    how about the pricing?
    Reply
  • coconutboy
    I've helped a couple friends pick out their netbooks, but haven't bought one myself. This might finally be the one that I buy... if the price is right. An SSD larger than 8GB would be preferable, but I'm guessing since it's Ion Asus figures people will want more room to rip their movies etc
    Reply
  • burnley14
    Excellent! Any idea on the price?
    Reply
  • dark_lord69
    This would work for my wife or my mom but not for me.
    It needs more juice!
    I want 8 cores
    16 GB o RAM
    and a video card that gets awesome frame rates in ALL games! :)
    Reply
  • cah027
    would be nice if it came with a burner!
    Reply
  • Bullheaded67
    It is a netbook - not a notebook.
    Reply
  • Looks like a great design!
    The bump in resolution, large battery life, and the increase in 3D performance all look very delicious!

    The Cons would be:
    Too large bezel around the screen
    Glossy finish
    Too large screen size! I'd prefer a 1280*720 resolution @ 9 or 10" over a 1366x768 resolution on a 12" device!
    Also a pity they didn't go with an Atom N280 instead, though that may bump up the price, and lower battery life.

    Of the 11hours promoted of battery life, I guess 7 hours will be the best we'll get browsing.
    Also the GPU is stronger than intel's integrated graphics chip, which means gaming on a device like this might result in lower battery life than the intel variant.

    Because it's a 12" device, we'll probably not see this launched under $399.
    That's why I'd prefer this laptop (with smaller bezel, and an Atom N280) with a 10" screen, which can be gotten for under $300 in the right stores!

    It's launchtime is probably also pretty bad, seeing that in 3 months, intel will come up with a new chip, and probably most people are waiting for these laptops!
    Although I'd say this 12" version might outperform intel's upcoming netbooks in 3D gaming experience!
    Reply
  • michael ninja
    My going theory is that Netbooks are so popular because they are finally the machine we have been waiting for.
    That is - they are the personal assistant that actually works.
    We have been through the original palm, smart phones, and various tiny computers.
    Now the Netbooks actually do the things we always wanted those to do.
    This latest version breaks that mold - it's just too big.
    It's not ultra portable anymore. Why bother?

    This may fill a role as the "mom-in-law" machine - but that is a smaller audience.
    Everyone can use a cool Netbook - not everyone needs one you can't carry with you.
    Reply
  • kansur0
    I am confused. They said that this thing has nVidia "ION" but when they list the specs they have the nVidia 9400M. Isn't that 9400M just a laptop mobile chip? Or is this particular 9400M a smaller die size which they put under the ION moniker?

    Am I right to be confused? or am I just reading stuff completely wrong?
    Reply
  • WheelsOfConfusion
    Bullheaded67It is a netbook - not a notebook.Seems to me the only things keeping it a netbook instead of a cheap notebook are the Atom instead of Celeron processor and the apparent lack of an optical drive.
    Reply