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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 point of a netbook is size and weight, not speed. More power is nice, but the creep up towards 12" screens is annoying.
if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence / freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
Boy, I can't wait for the 17" netbooks with lots of ram, ssd and fast CPUs. A good video card would be nice, too. Why won't someone make this?
If I'm going for a portable as big as 12", it better have something better than the Atom, Ion notwithstanding. 12" is basically a laptop IMO.
This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
But meh manufacturing. I think that's what a lot of these lower end notebooks are missing these days. I feel like everytime I pick one up I have to worry about the hinges cracking. Is there any reason why hardware companies like Asus can't use an aluminum body? When I first heard Apple was switching to it, I was ecstatic - aluminum and glass over plastic? Finally a laptop hat has some heft to it. Seriously though, it can't be a cost issue here, the market price for aluminum is $1.1475/lb today. Why don't more manufacturers use it?
is the claimed 5-hour battery life. Not bad, on par with many full-size laptops and notebooks, though personally one thing that would make a smaller, less-powerful device like this appeal to me would be a longer battery life than standard laptops.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
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.
Price (MSRP): $499.99
I say yes. More than $300 means 'a lot of money' and that means I'd better be getting a full-blown computer for my purchase dollars. This needs to include some kind of optical drive. That's what I say, what say you?
Now if they would just go back to their true *netbook* roots and also offer a Linux + SSD version!! That was a killer combination.
I will stick with my Linux EEE 1000 for now. Better value than the MS-Win version (for me), uncrashable "hard drive", great battery life, nice form factor, decent keyboard, reasonably fast, respectable screen. About the only two annoying things are the right shift key in the wrong place (which really kills me when using vi) and the battery light starting to blink at something like 75% power left (obviously a boo boo).
This netbook has the same screen size, ram, and CPU perforcement as my four year old laptop.
Has my old laptop become a netbook?
I was impressed by the build quality of their new T91MT touch-screen tablet, and it was definitely an all-around improvement on the older version of that model (the T91, which came with Windows XP and didn't have multitouch). I just wish they offered a handheld touch-screen computer in a screen size slightly larger than 8.9 inches. If they could release this one with a touch screen that swiveled around to lay down flat on top of the keyboard, that'd be perfect! We need such devices to deploy our software product on, and Gibabyte makes a 10-inch one, but even with the nearly full-sized keyboard, it was nowhere near as compelling a user experience as the ASUS.
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 agree. It is turning back into a laptop at this point.
But I think they are headed in the right direction as far as my own needs go.
I simply want an HDMI/VGA capable, networkable device to throw the web onto my television without stuttering. So far, it doesn't exist.
This sounds like it is pretty close, if not there already.
God dammit, I want to sit on my fucking couch again.
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.
What is up with the names?! Ion infused?? Definition of Infused: An infusion is the outcome of steeping plants with a desired flavour in water or oil. Defenition of an Ion: An ion is an atom or molecule where the total number of electrons is not equal to the total number of protons. Right...
So, saying they get their ions from a sensible source, such as salt, and use a plant with salt on it, such as seaweed, then what we actually have is a laptop that has been dipped in seaweed oil? No wonder people don't trust major companies any more... all this sounds very fishy.
Penguins can be fascists too
"I think a regular old PC would do what you want. Any recent Nvidia card will get you vdpau."
I already have one. I just don't want another one in my living room. I also want to retain the portability so that I can simply hook up to someone else's TV as well (Grandma's...Her vision ain't so hot, so she has a bigass TV. I want to be able to surf with her without buying her a PC).
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.
12 inches is too big for a netbook. 10 inches is pushing it as it is. Why do they think they can slap the term "netbook" on anything small and under powered as far as the typical laptop goes? Does anyone remember the Toshiba Libretto? I still have mine and THAT is the ultimate _netbook_. I thought PHYSICAL SIZE was what made a netbook a netbook! 12 inches is NOT a netbook.
That is EXACTLY what I want.
Too bad it is made by Acer. Their past history of totally fucking over customers when their cheap Mobos die prevents me from doing business with them. Ever.
It's like bragging about having the largest sub-compact car.
I have a 12,1 computer, bought it two years ago, it's notthing new, it's not a netbook it's a LAPTOP.
I thought the whole point of the "netbook" fad was portability... I guess now everyone's so hooked on the new name they don't give a shit anymore. If it quacks like a duck it's a duck not a fucking goose.
I disagree. For my needs, 12" would be the sweet spot. It's big enough to actually use and feel viable without being full-size. I recall that the HP DV2 was a 12" laptop, and it felt awesome. It's just too bad it only had a single-core processor.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
So netbooks are essentially moving into the low end notebook space and pushing out the cheap notebooks while leaving the small netbook space empty...
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
I use one for work. If I want cpu power I ssh into a server no laptop comes close to a 4 quad Xeons.
And this server is going to help the average person play The Sims 3, how? Or make Photoshop render faster? Or help Windows Movie Maker make the movie faster?
The average person plays at least a few games or has a task that a netbook isn't going to do well. They just aren't made for those tasks.
99% of laptop purchasers should have bought a desktop and the cheapest netbook they could find
I thought the same thing, however I was proven "wrong". When my grandparents wanted a cheap computer (they basically live off of social security) I suggested the EEE 901 for $200, they already had a desktop and they really only used the computer for e-mail or internet. They said that the 9 inch screen wouldn't bother them. I loaded up Ubuntu and made the fonts -huge- for them. But for some odd reason they viewed it as "too slow" (don't know how, it was certainly faster than their low-end celeron running Windows 2K....) and the keyboard was "too small" (yet they still managed to text just fine on their phones...).
Also, laptops are cheap. my current laptop I got for $300, not on sale. Its not exactly outdated either, its got a Celeron 900 at 2.2 Ghz, a 15 inch screen, 2 gigs of RAM and a 160 gig HDD. Yeah, its got integrated graphics, yeah if I spent $150 extra I could have gotten a better machine, but as a student its a perfect laptop, Ubuntu runs flawlessly on it and everything works.
The cheapest netbook is $200, and the cheapest desktop is $200, which is $400, which doesn't save any money over my $300 laptop.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
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.
The most interesting benchmark in the article is the effect that the Ion GPU has. There's another netbook review that is linked in the article to an $800 machine with a beefier CPU, the ASUS CLUV. That machine is unable to play 1080p video clips without stuttering.
Yet this beast of a netbook can do it easily, using no more than 50% CPU in windows media player. That ION GPU must be doing a heck of a lot of the calculations in order to make this possible.
Only problem : not all video codecs are accelerated this well. Do any players/codecs out there let you watch the usual x264 video clips that pirates put up on the net with Ion GPU acceleration? Historically, Windows Media Player generally doesn't natively play anything but WMV and old codec files.
Those 1080p movie trailers that Apple likes to release will play just fine, however.
The biggest problem with the machine is that it still uses a mechanical hard drive. It would be a heck of a lot faster and more responsive if it had a clean bare-bones install of Win 7 and an SSD. (no, not Linux...Linux might boot and run faster but it takes more time to tinker with it and fight to get things to run than you save, unless you are a Linux expert)
Problem is, you gotta pay for the cost of that useless 5400 rpm drive when you buy this thing. Maybe you could pick up an external enclosure off newegg along with an SSD, and put the mechanical drive to use as a backup disk. Put in an OCZ vertex SSD, and make this machine scream.
The 2GB ram limitation is also a problem, though...For long term use, you really want at least 4-8 GB....
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.
At least where I'm concerned. I bought a netbook because it was a sub $400 dollar laptop that had several hours of battery life. I always felt that the main purpose of a netbook was to provide an inexpensive, highly portable/ultra long battery life to counter mobile wifi use...as that leads into the main purpose...being connected and doing stuff on the net. Tradeoff being, of course, lower end graphics processing and lower power processors to boost that battery charge life. 12 inches, 10 inches, 9 inches, 8 inches...that's just a personal preference that kinda sorta plays into the portability part. At some point you've got a small laptop, at another point you have a big handheld. I have a smartphone...I don't need a slightly bigger one to complement the one I use now. The netbook sits nicely between the 17" desktop replacement and the big handheld categories.
Too costly for a system that was designed to be inexpensive. If you look at the videos on hothardware about the ion platform you'll note that it is very inexpensive. 12" display is large but that's not the cost factor.
They need to reduce the cost by $300 before I'll consider buying it.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
They are all laptops. A netbook and a notebook are all laptops. Netbook is a marketing term.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
According to World Wide Words, "Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812. His classically educated scientific colleagues preferred aluminium right from the start, because it had more of a classical ring, and chimed harmoniously with many other elements whose names ended in –ium, like potassium, sodium, and magnesium, all of which had been named by Davy."