Asus is going all-out on the Eee PC 1201 line at CES. The company has already released the Eee PC 1201N with a dual core Atom 330 processor and NVIDIA ION graphics and the Eee PC 1201HA with an Intel Atom Z520 low power processor and integrated GMA 500 graphics. And I’d already heard about the Asus Eee PC 1201T, which drops the Atom CPU altogether for AMD Neo MV-40 CPU.

But here’s one I hadn’t seen before: The Asus Eee PC 1201NL. What sets this model apart is the fact that it comes with the Asus ExpressGate quick boot environment and driver support for Windows XP or Linux. But it doesn’t ship with a full desktop operating system at all.

Update: I’ve just been contacted by Asus PR, and it looks like the Eee PC 1201NL will not be shipping sans OS. Instead, it will come with Windows 7 Starter Edition if it’s released in North America. The only difference between this model and the Eee PC 1201N is that the 1201NL will have a single core Atom N270 CPU rather than the dual core Atom 330. The reason for the confusion seems to have been a sign next to the notebook (see the gallery below) that said the OS would be Windows XP or Linux. When I asked an Asus rep about that this afternoon, he said drivers would be available for both but that it would ship without any OS. Apparently that was a mistake.

The Eee PC 1201NL also has a single core Intel Atom N270 CPU and NVIDIA ION graphics. According to an Asus rep, it will sell for about $20 to $30 less than the Eee PC 1201N, which has a dual core Atom CPU and ships with Windows 7. No word on the launch date.

All four versions of the Eee PC 1201N look pretty much the same on the outside. They all have 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel screens, chiclet-style keyboards, and shiny black cases. You can find some more photos after the break.

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12 replies on “Meet the Asus Eee PC 1201NL: NVIDIA ION graphics, Atom N270 CPU”

  1. I like it. I’d imagine you will get more battery life out of it than the 1201N, but me being me, I wouldn’t contemplate buying something and saving $20 bucks and a bit of battery life to go with a lower performance chip. Plenty of people will, though, and this is great.

    Any word when the 1201T’s will be available? There are a lot of announced congo-based 11.6’s, but very few that are actually shipping. I’ve been waiting for some solid reviews and availability on them, and there hasn’t been much in the way of either.

  2. Sure I want to pay M$ for a half ass OS so I can wipe it off and on a free full featured Linux version. Ms won’t play nice so I just wish they would stay out of netoooks. Except for the fact netflix won’t run with Linux I have no use for windows. My asus 1005 ha has a test score of 960 oc’ed xp with geekbench, 1104 with Ubuntu. The speed diiference is very apparent to me on any windows 7 computer and Ubuntu especially with very large files.

  3. Saving only $30 at most by dropping down from a 330 to a 270 and ditching the OS == no dice. Barring benchmarks that say otherwise, this thing isn’t all that much more capable than the HP Mini 311. What justifies the extra cost?

    I’m personally more interested in the 1201T, but if this thing is only going to shave $30 off the price of the 1201N, I doubt that will go for any cheaper.

  4. I want to buy the 1201N with the 64bit dual core Atom 330, ether with no OS or the full 64bit Win7 Ultimate. Why else buy a laptop that has a 64bit CPU and is supposed to support up to 8GB of ram if the included OS is 32bit?

  5. This is schweet! Put Jolicloud, Eeebuntu or other OS on there, forget Winblow$ and save money.

    But … a 12″ display? Asus, go the ‘NL’ route on your smaller display netbooks too!

  6. I heart this. I absolutely refuse to buy a computer with Windows installed, when I’m just going to dump it. I’ve been annoyed as hell at the lack of OS options in the crop of netbooks showing up the last 3 months, and was thinking I’d have to wait for an ARM-based line like the Skylight, but this makes me more confident I’ll be able to find something in the next few months.

Comments are closed.