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First Look At Latest Ion-Infused Asus Eee PC
MojoKid writes "Atom-based netbooks have come a long way since they were first introduced. 7 and 8-inch netbooks are no longer the norm, and availability of 12-inch netbooks is on the rise. The newest member of the Asus Eee PC lineup is the Eee PC 1201N, and it really stands out in the crowd of netbook in terms of specifications. The machine features a 12.1" HD display, new dual-core Atom 330 CPU, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium, an HDMI output and NVIDIA's Ion chipset with integrated GPU. HotHardware was able to demo the system's ability to handle more advanced benchmarks, thanks in part to the Ion GPU. It's also the first netbook they tested that could actually play older 3D titles respectably. You won't get Crysis running but lighter duty titles can be played back nicely if you tone the details down and lower the resolution. The 1201N also played back 720p and 1080p content without stuttering, and the dual-core CPU allowed enough headroom to multitask while videos were playing."
The biggest benefit I see of the Ion is for small form factor desktops to support VDPAU (an API for hardware offloading of video decoding). Majority of the recent small form factor systems (e.g. Dell Studio Hybrid) I've looked into use the Intel 4500 which does support XvMC, but at least in Linux VDPAU is much more usable (larger list of supported codecs, etc.). I moderate the Boxee Linux forum, and I'm seeing a lot of posters using Ion based HTPC's.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
This netbook has the same screen size, ram, and CPU perforcement as my four year old laptop.
Has my old laptop become a netbook?
It runs ubuntu 9.10 now. I have it loaded with cross compilers for the openmoko and atmel. As well as java (on an SD card) and gcc, etc. I get a ton of work done commuting by tram. (yay for distrubuted version control). The laptop takes one half a small laptop case. It is light enough to carry around on the weekend.
I have taken it on two holidays. Tasmania and New Zealand. When away I back up our two digital cameras to a Sony video camera with a 30G hard disk. The eeepc is ideal for moving files around between different USB devices. It is also great for watching movies stashed on the video camera.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I'm kind of a beast, so having the larger display and keyboard for my club-like fingers is handy. For me, the distinction between a 12" netbook and a 13" laptop has more to do with battery life. I have the 12" Asus that was the precursor the one in this article, and I get roughly the same battery life out of it that I do my smartphone, which means I can use it consistently all day long without needing to plug it in. Charge up overnight, and keep on going the next day. And since it's roughly the width and length of a piece of paper, weighing less than three pounds, it's perfect for when I'm on the road traveling or working.
Dell does. They now call the mini 9/inspiron 910 the vostro a90.
Sounds like you want an Aspire Revo. ( see http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Acer+-+AspireRevo+Nettop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Atom%26%23153%3B+Processor/9535434.p?id=1218120545008&skuId=9535434 ) costs $200, ION graphics, 1 gig of RAM, HDMI support, and a 160 gig HDD. I also think its got an E-SATA port on the front of it which is a nice addition. According to reviews its easy to crack open and upgrade the RAM. While the Atom CPU might be on a bit of the sluggish side, I think this might be what you are looking for if you don't want a laptop.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
yep. my main is 12", so >=10" does not a netbook make.
They tested it in the article, and it ran for about 3 hours and 20 minutes. Not the best life, especially for a netbook.
Ion is the name of the nvidia chipset that they use.
'netbook' has evolved to mean 'Atom powered'.
What it means for the ultra-portable market, I'm not sure. I noticed my 15 month old 12.1" Core 2 Duo as been superseded by a 13.3" model. Perhaps 'business users' want big screens but I like the 11.6"-12.1" for factor - If I need to plug into at a desk, I just need decent internal graphics and an external 1080p/i display.
So unless these 11.6" netbooks dump the atom and go with a quad-core ARM cortex, I'll stick with my current model for a few more years...
Dell and HP netbooks suck. They put the right/left mouse buttons beside the touchpad instead of below it. Makes it a lot more uncomfortable.
I have a dell mini 9 in front of me right now, the two mouse buttons are below the touchpad.
I do not know about the hp ones.
All of Apple's notebooks at least are in fact machined from a single slab of aluminum. I'd bet other manufacturers have adopted similar "unibody" approaches with their high-end systems. And while the $1100 I paid for my MBP13" is decidedly a premium price, it was damn well worth it for my needs.
Manufacturers are in no way required to lower their prices according to their costs. So long as people are paying the current prices, their costs could drop to zero and they'd still be idiotic to lower MSRP by a cent. If people are paying $1700, then it's worth at least $1700 to them - it's not like basic necessities where you have to pay whatever the price is in order to survive.
Of course I'd like lower prices, along with the rest of the world. But if the market is willing to bear your price, the last thing you should do is lower it.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
I'm currently using that same machine you have as an (interim) HTPC machine. Swapped Win 7 64 bit to 32 bit (due to the low memory), upgraded to the latest drivers and Flash 10.1 Handles 1080p MKV's just fine, as well as 720P YouTube (1080 drops some frames on fast movement). The only problem is that Hulu apparently isn't taking advantage of the new Flash beta, and still seems to run 100% on the CPU rather than offloading to the GPU like YouTube now does. So for Hulu it can only handle the standard def video. 480P Hulu is fine windowed, but scaled to 720p or 1080p, it drops frames really bad.
They ran it with an application designed to suck battery life out of it (apparently including the 3D - not something you would use on the road). They actually mentioned in the article that it would very probably run 5 hours. Moderators, first read the article before moderating.