You can file the Asus Eee PC 1201PN in the worst-kept-secret category. The company has been showing off the 12 inch laptop with next-gen NVIDIA ION graphics since early March. But now it’s really official. The Eee PC 1201PN exists, and it’s available for order in Germany for 479 Euros. That’s about $608 US, although I suspect the laptop will be cheaper when it hits US shores.

As expected, the Eee PC 1201PN has 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel HD display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, and next-generation NVIDIA ION graphics which should be more than enough to pump out 1080p HD video and handle some 3D graphics. THe laptop also has 5.1 channel audio and an HDMI output. You also get 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

The laptop also ships with ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater, a media player which works with the NVIDIA ION graphics card to support hardware video acceleration. It also supports upscaling standard definition video so that it looks better on a high definition display.

via Fudzilla and Eee PC.it

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8 replies on “Asus officially launches the Eee PC 1201PN”

  1. This has already been benchmarked and it beats the original 1201N because of the next gen ION.

    Is it confirmed to have switchable graphics?

    1. ION 2 is by definition switchable.

      Where did you see the benchmarks?

      I really want to see the methodology they used, because I’m shocked that a x1 PCIe GPU combined with a single core processor from a processor class which is universally acknowledged as NOT being more powerful (just less power hungry) than the previous generation is somehow outperforming a dual core with GPU from the same graphics family. This is especially true since most of the reviewes I’ve seen show that ION 2, isn’t that much more powerful than ION1 because it’s bandwidth starved (PCIe is 250MB, and keep in mind it has to get data in AND write to the screen buffer out).

      https://anandtech.com/show/3702/zotacs-zbox-hdid11-review-next-gen-ion-better-worse-than-ion1

      I want to believe. I really do. The math just doesn’t add up for me though.

        1. Hmm, now I’m curious to see how they engineered the card then. Did they hardwire the screen outputs to the card? From everything I’ve read Optimus technology is pretty much a software stack that switches out what graphics chip writes to the screen buffer. That’s how they allow the discrete card to idle or shut off completely when not in use without having to force manufacturers to put in two sets of leads to the VGA and screen to allow switching. If they’ve hardwired it, they might as well just call it a nVidia 210M, that’s all the ION2 card really is without Optimus.

          The actual link to the benchmark is here: https://www.liliputing.com/2010/03/asus-eee-pc-1201pn-with-next-gen-ion-graphics-benchmarked.html You linked the same article twice.

          Well, I must say that I can’t wait for this to come out, if for no other reason than just to get answers. I’m very curious now to see what it is exactly they’ve done. If they’re pulling those kinds of numbers I’d be willing to bet they hooked up more than 1 PCIe lane for the GPU, which may have consequences elsewhere…

          I also desperately want to see some real world numbers out of this thing, not just synthetic benchmarks. A n510 based system with this card barely outperformed a n330 based system with last gen ION graphics in that article I posted before, getting a frame or two more per second, except in the game where the older system outperformed it, and that’s dual core vs. dual core, albiet on the desktop so neither system was worried about battery usage and presumably going full out. I have yet to read one review that said the 1201N was ever GPU bound as far as performance in a game or when using CUDA, it was always CPU bound… So it will be interesting to see if going back to a single core does hurt the system more than the artificial scores would lead you to believe.

          I’d love to hear any more information you have if you’ve seen something I haven’t.

  2. This will not make much sense the cpu is a poor match to the gpu I would think that the just announced AMD NEO’s would offer a better balance. The new ION really is a discrete graphics chip and these are not known for being power misers…..

    1. The new platform has to be matched with Intel chips. It’s designed for switching graphics between the x3150 in the Atom (of whatever other Intel graphic chip is present) and the card. It doesn’t have access to the VGA out port, or HDMI if present. It operates by writing to the Intel graphic’s screen buffer to output images.

      https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2360800,00.asp

  3. I like. But I’m kind of worried. What made the 1201N so unique and interesting was in fact it’s achilles heel, the dual core processor. I’m curious if creating a single core netbook with high end graphics is the way to go. We’ll see of course, but it kind of feels like this is the upgrade to the hp Mini 311 or 1201NL not the 1201N.

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