It looks like we should start seeing netbooks with NVIDIA’s Optimus technology soon. The Optimus platform allows netbooks with both integrated Intel graphics and dedicated NVIDIA ION graphics chips so shift seamlessly from one graphics card to the other depending on what you’re doing. Surfing the web? The lower power Intel graphics will kick in to extend your battery life. Watching an HD video or playing a 3D game? The ION graphics kicks in.
The folks at NetbookNews.de spotted an Asus Eee PC 1015N netbook at the NVIDIA tent at Computex. There aren’t a ton of details about this model yet, but it does have a sticker pointing out that it supports Optimus graphics switching.
The netbook also has a matte display and lid, a 6 cell battery, and a single access panel on the base for swapping out RAM. The Eee PC PC 1015N has a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor. It runs Windows 7 Starter Edition and comes with 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. Netbook News.de reports that it should sell for around 400 Euros, or roughly $490 US.
We’d already heard that Asus may be launching a 12 inch notebook with NVIDIA Optimus technology called the Eee PC 1215N. It’s good to see that the company may have a 10 inch option as well.
Update: Netbook News has posted a hands-on video with the Eee PC 1015N and a brief look at some of the other crazy stuff going on at the NVIDIA tent. You can check it out after the break.
Update 2: The folks at Notebook Italia noticed something else intriguing about this netbook: It’s one of the first to use Intel’s new 1.5GHz Atom N550 dual core processor.
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