The Asus Eee PC 1201N is starting to show up for pre-order from US retail web sites. This laptop will be the first NVIDIA ION-powered laptop from Asus. It has an 11.6 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, NVIDIA ION graphics, and if Excalibur PC and a few other retail sites I’ve seen are correct, it’s also one of the few Atom powered netbooks to feature a dual core 1.6GHz Intel Atom N330 CPU.
The mini-laptop appears to have a suggested retail price of about $499, although some sites are taking orders for as low as $489.99.
In tangentially related news, it looks like the Asus UL20A started shipping today. The 12.1 inch laptop with a dual core 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 CULV processor has been available for pre-order for a few weeks, but Amazon says it’s now in stock and shipping.
The Asus UL20A has integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics, so it won’t get the same kind of performance as the Eee PC 1201N when it comes to video games and HD graphics. But it is capable of playing 1080p video and HD Flash video. And the processor is significantly faster which should come in handy for running CPU-heavy tasks such as audio or video transcoding, or surfing the web with dozens of browser tabs open.
This model is available from Amazon for $581
via Netbook Reviews