An Asus 1201N thread. 12.1", ION (like a lion....blaa)

mrk

mrk

mrk

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This looks like it could be "the one that I keep" :p

Fud reports on an imminent announcement and its specs are as follows:

According to various reports around the net new Asus' ION based Eee PC 1201 will apparently be available in Europe as of next month but we are sure that Asus will announce it officially in a matter of days.

The new 12.1-incher has 296x208x27.3-33.3mm (WxDxH) dimensions, weighs around 1.46kg, and will feature Intel's dual-core Atom 330 CPU, up to 3GB of DDR2 memory and of course Nvidia's ION graphics. The 12.1-inch LED-backlit screen has a maximum resolution 1366 x 768, but we still aren't sure if it is glossy or mate.

The rest of the specs include either a 250GB or 320GB hard drive coupled with 500GB of Asus WebStorage trial, which means that you can use it for one year, 802.11bgn WiFi, optional Bluetooth, webcam, HD audio codec, integrated stereo speakers and microphone, VGA and HDMI outputs, three USB ports, card reader and one LAN port.

The Eee PC 1201N will ship with Windows 7 and a 6-cell Li-ion battery that is enough for 5 hours, as measured by Asus via MobileMark 2 in Windows 7. Despite reports that it should become available as of next month, we are quite sure that Asus will officially announce it soon.
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An early pre-release review of the Atom 330 put it a fair bit ahead of the single core Atom and also VIA's Nano CPU which was in turn better than an N270 equiv chip.

Anyone guess on pricing? I'm gonna get one having just sold the HP 311c in search for the next netbook that gives slightly bigger screenage and has actual dual core :p
 
Lol this will be never ending I'm afraid. I had the same moment of madness and just sold my NC10. Shame Intel's being such bar stewards with respect to what you can and cannot put in a netbook. I have a feeling the Asus will be overpriced, I'm thinking N510 with N280 or HP 311c, I'm not sure a atom 330 will make that much difference, and they will sell at a premium.

Still, for sheer endurance, size, weight, feature and versatility, I don't think you could beat a atom / ion platform. Notebooks aren't portable enough for my liking. Show me a notebook with a 5/6 hours endurance and with dedicated DX10 card for £500, and I'll be all over it (MacBook Pro aside).

I think next year will see much better machines, based on Ion / Ion2 platforms with multicore low TDP, decent FSB, good battery life, and better displays.

I'm also thinking, how possible would it be to upgrade a netbook with the latest integrated mobo+cpu+processor, instead of having to buy the whole damn thing again.
 
Is there any kind of roadmap sowing the ION2 updates and timelines etc?

It's the only reason I can give myself to hold off on the 1201N as I don't fancy getting one then wanting to sell it some months on :p

The Atom 330 should scale excellently though especially for multitasking under Windows 7 as has been seen on existing desktop CPus.
 
I'm also looking at getting this as the 'one to keep'.
I might wait though till after the CES show in January just to be sure ;)

With Intels Pinetrail Atom 'Pineview' platform coming in December things could get more tricky - lower power, integrated CPU & GPU etc
 
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I don't think battery life will suffer greatly. The Ion would be a bigger drain imo, especially going 3D. They still claim very good battery life (but you know, spin it any way you can...).

The Atom N330 has a fsb 553, the N280 has 667 (N510). Although I doubt a 20% FSB increase would really be more of an advantage than going dual core. I'm also concerned all these N270 Ions are basically just there until their N270 stocks can be replaced by N330. I wouldn't be surprised to see a HP311c with a N330 at some point.
 
mrk spend the money on drugs and hookers instead.

How much better will it honestly be than your HP, a few % faster which will barely be noticable in the real world ? :p




P.s. I'm still waiting for this netbook too
 
Single core vs Dual core? pretty big difference in the usage I give a netbook (photoshop, mediacentre and since it's Win7, a lot of multitasking too!

I'm leaning on the 13" "notebooks" as well at the moment as there are quite a few tasty ones to look at although almost all of them have the Intel 4500MHD gfx chipset which is only good for emulators and Aero but the CPUs on them seem to be better than the Atoms (Core2Solo etc) - how will those 13" notebooks fare in decoding 1080p does anyone know?

Basically 13" is the largest I would go, 11.6" bieng the smallest and 12" being the most ideal.

My usage is

- Win7 (would prefer to install x64 but can live with x86 on Atom)
- Lots of Multitasking, STEAM, Vent, Photoshop etc will all remain minimised to the taskbar and used daily.
- Media playback via Mediacentre + HDMI so 1080p content decoding required without frameskipping, perfect on ION but is it on 4500MHD?
- The above would also count for Flash HD videos but of course once Adobe update Flash for gpu decoding or will Core2Solo chipshandle 720p Flash fine?
 
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mrk said:
I'm leaning on the 13" "notebooks" as well at the moment as there are quite a few tasty ones to look at although almost all of them have the Intel 4500MHD gfx chipset which is only good for emulators and Aero but the CPUs on them seem to be better than the Atoms (Core2Solo etc) - how will those 13" notebooks fare in decoding 1080p does anyone know?
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It says on the intel site that the 4500MHD is blu-ray certified so 1080p would be no problem. You have to make sure it is the 4500MHD and not the 4500M.

"The Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset, featuring the Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500MHD, delivers:

* Microsoft Windows Vista* Premium support with the highest level of Microsoft Windows Aero* experience
* Blu-ray* logo capable HD video playback, with native support for Blu-ray drives
* Great 3D graphics performance, delivering over 3X scores on 3D Mark* 06◊
* Intel® Clear Video Technology for excellent video quality

mrk said:
- The above would also count for Flash HD videos but of course once Adobe update Flash for gpu decoding or will Core2Solo chipshandle 720p Flash fine?
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No it won't, in my opinion no recent processor under 2GHz is fast enough for the likes of Youtube HD. I had a Core 2 Solo 1.4GHz in my 13.3 notebook and while it is faster than an atom it is definitely not up to HD flash videos.

In my opinion they are going the wrong way with making netbooks with dual core atoms, give me a single core 2GHz over a dual core 1.6 GHz anyday.

Yes multitasking will be faster but every program that is limited by the 1.6GHz clock speed is still going to be limited to the same clock speed on the dual core model.
 
I see.

In light of this I think I will go for one of the Toshiba T130 models, they have a few models in various flavours - half of them running 4500MHD gfx chips.

I'm now undecided between white or black though :-O

Black you can see dust too easily, white could show marks much easier...oh man.

The spec seems to be pretty heavy too which is nice as well as a proper multitouch )pinch/swipe etc) track pad so ideal for Windows 7.
 
mrk, I was in the same boat as you. I had a Mini 9, NC10 and an old 14.1" HP laptop. I favoured the HP due to the screen size but the battery was knackered so had to be plugged in. Looking for something slightly smaller than the 14.1" TFT but bigger than the NC10 and with more oomph... led me to a Dell Studio XPS 1340. It cost a bit more than a netbook (not much more than these newer ones) but its a beast!

13.3" is a great screen size but its pushing the boundaries of Netbook/Notebook.
 
I've just been recommended the 13z by Raikiri, previously I thought the 4500MHD chipset would not handle HD but it turns out it does. I will probably be ordering as early as next week so looks like it may well be the Dell now!
 
mrk said:
I've just been recommended the 13z by Raikiri, previously I thought the 4500MHD chipset would not handle HD but it turns out it does. I will probably be ordering as early as next week so looks like it may well be the Dell now!
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Christ almighty mrk, you are worse than a woman in a shoe shop :D

Nice post answering mine, gives me some real world thoughts as I have never owned a laptop/netbook and would have similar usage to you. Being able to run HD videos would be a want from me, especially in this HD pushed day and age.

I'l just wait for you to buy what you buy, then stalk your opinions on them, then finally decide upon one for myself around xmas time :D
 
Well looking at Dell's site the £529 offer on the 13z with Core2Duo ends today so in a fit of panic I ordered it and am just waiting for the confirmation email.

Edit**

Sorted!

Will update when it arrives, fresh thread etc.
 
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mrk said:
Well looking at Dell's site the £529 offer on the 13z with Core2Duo ends today so in a fit of panic I ordered it and am just waiting for the confirmation email.

Edit**

Sorted!

Will update when it arrives, fresh thread etc.
Click to expand...

Hahahaha, you having me laughing hard mrk :D:D:D

Was looking as well but that is one hell of a jump from £300. Still, get a thread up with pics as before, you shall now be crowned the netbook & small laptop reviewer King!
 
I plan not to have another "notebook" for a long time now after the 13z though! At least until the next Windows version :p

This should cover me for:

- H264 movies to TV via HDMI
- Some light gaming (emulators etc)
- Photoshop on both small and big screen with no slowness
- Portability!
- DSLR Camera tethering for video recording, the C2D should handle this nicely I reckon, the NC10 did but the end video looked like a Charlie Chaplin movie it was skipping frames everywhere!
- Accurate colours
- Slim :p
- Battery life from the 4 cell Dell say is 5hrs 9mins, quite a precise number and if correct should be in line with the 6cell from the NC10 and 311c

It is quite a big jump in price yeah, almost £200 if you factor in the 311c's RAM upgrade.

At least this way I can cast my mind aside knowing that I won't be wanting to change laptop in a year's time but when I do there may well be laptops as thin as paper ¬_¬



Ok maybe that's pushing it a bit.
 
Will not be worth the premium IMO. Also it is way to big for a "netbook". But then again it depends what a netbook is for you ....
 
mrk having spent most of the day looking into which laptop i'm going to get i'm trying to choose between the Toshiba t130-130 and the dell 13z you bought. Any reason you went for the dell over the toshiba? Also is it worth paying the extra £70 for the £599 one with the extra memory and different graphics card? Your help would be much appreciated.
 
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