ASUS Eee PC 1201N debuts early at Newegg
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted December 17th 2009 3:43PM
posted December 17th 2009 3:43PM
OK, kids, here you have it: the Asus Eee PC 1201N has arrived a little earlier than expected. At least we think that's what Newegg is trying to tell us. If you hop on over to the site RIGHT THIS MINUTE you can see that the thing is available for ordering, in black, with a limit of one per customer. It's better than waiting until sometime next month, eh? There's no telling if this is a snafu on the e-tailer's part -- everyone else in the western world has it available for pre-order, with a ship date of January 15 -- but if you feel like taking a gamble there is only one thing left to do: hit the source link.
[Thanks, Yoav E]
[Thanks, Yoav E]
Meet the new boss...
@(Unverified)
the same as the old boss...
@(Unverified)
HotHardware reviewed this today. If I neeeeeded a netbook today, it's what I'd get. Darn technology will be obsolete tomorrow though.
I'd love one. Who's buying?
@Flaystus
The owner, most of the time. Least of the time, you rich relative who loves you. That is, if you're luckier than me and got one.
@pavlindrom *your
I hate it when I proofread, and then find mistakes that have escaped that process.
@Flaystus
I won't be buying this since I'm a non gamer. I'm planning on buying the Acer Aspire 1810t.
@Flaystus
Not me. I've had 2 netbooks, and I've used a dual-core atom nettop. Atoms are computational flops, as far as I'm concerned. You couldn't do any gaming on them even if you had gt280 sli attached to them.
You can pretend you can do light gaming on them, but you won't. Browsing the internet and MSOffice is ALL THEY'RE GOOD FOR..
Can the Ion run CoD4 at decent frame-rates?
I'm in the market for a netbook/12-13' laptop for my project & research work. I'm a bit of a CoD4 addict, need my fix on the go ! Can anyone gimme some suggestions on the netbook/laptop that would satisfy my needs.
@Ameen Yes it could.
All I want it to do is run The Sims 3 and I am good, that game is addicting. : )
I wonder if I order it today, I can get it by the 26th for my vacation?
@Ameen
The word on the street is, yes it can:
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/12/roundup-of-asus-eee-pc-1201n-reviews-benchmarks-impressions.html
@Ameen
I had a Lenovo s12 with single core atom 1.66ghz and Ion. It wouldn't run source games worth shit. The processor was running at 100% most of the time, and Ion couldn't help that atom processor. The atom processor will be the biggest bottleneck. These atom netbooks that are almost laptops, are extremely mismatched bag of parts. I personally do NOT recommend it. If you're into light gaming, get a UL30VT (or UL80VT)... if all you want is a browsing machine, any much cheaper netbook will do. And for 500 bucks I'd recommend any su3200 laptop (that you can find for 400 bucks) with 11.6"-13" screens.
Maybe I'm wrong about dual core atoms. But so far, the only thing that atom processor is good for is sitting there and doing nothing, while consuming little power. Any SU processor will run circles around any atom processor, and that's the first thing you'll notice when using one of these, and still have decent battery life.
@pretol
Thanks a lot for your insightful response, after reading a few reviews about this dream-killer, it seems it has a pathetic battery life(>3 hours) Will snoop around for a UL30VT or a UL80VT.
Thanks a ton @others :)
I'm trying to decide on 1201N or UL30A-X5.. or maybe if they announce a 1201N variant with the processor that the UL30 has, I'll be happy.
UL30A has amazing battery life but integrated graphics makes me cry. 1201N has weaker processor, but nvidia ion and can actually run games.. but gets hotter (from prerelease reviews) and halfish battery life
@MasterEvilAce Unfortunately, that is laptops and notebooks for you, there is always a compromise and never a "perfect" notebook.
@MasterEvilAce
The UL30vt-X1 is basically the UL30A with switchable graphics (I think G120M), but its like $800
@elefant Yeah, I see. The $800+ price tag starts drawing me away from it, though. That's too much of a premium. Don't see why it's difficult to offer the UL30A processor with an Ion. I'm sure the Ion has got to be cheaper than what they put in the UL30A-VT
@MasterEvilAce
ul30vt has WAY BETTER than this netbook.
su7300 (a real 64bit dual core processor)
g210m (much faster than ion)
4gb of ram vs 2gb
They're not comparable. I've used a laptop with Ion graphics... I wasn't impressed. Source games are barely playable... (read: NOT PLAYABLE), and those are 4 years old... so it's not like you can actually do anything with that processing. It may be barely passable for simple 3d modeling. I wouldn't advise anyone to get an atom processor. 32-bit is just yesterday's technology. All OS's are 64bit, and the next windows most likely won't even come out in a 32bit flavour. And most importantly... ATOM PROCESSORS ARE SLOW BEYOND ALL SLOW... I've had a netbook and a dual-core nettop, and they're both slow, and max out at 100% processing all the time. They really are meant for light browsing. Don't you for a second think that you can do light gaming on this, because that atom is going to be maxed out most of the time, making sure your framerate is nice and low (even if Ion can handle it).
So, I haven't really been paying attention to the netbook scene recently
But... $500? 12" screen? Win 7 Home Premium? 250 gig HDD? Over 3 pounds?
At what point do we stop calling them "netbooks" and just recognize them for what they are... laptops with weak processors?
Maybe I'm in the minority but if I want a netbook, size is going to be a huge issue... remember when the screens were 9"? And when they didn't cost $500?
@qft They are laptops the way laptops were in the beginning, only lighter and much more powerful, but with better battery life.
@(Unverified)
For $500 I would want a stronger processor. This netbook is trying to be an ultraportable. The price tag says it might be, the CPU says it's not. The point of a netbook is to be more ultraportable than an ultraportable... this one isn't. It might as well skimp on some of the extras (VGA and HDMI port? Ginormous hard drive?), lose a few inches of screen real estate, thereby shrinking the price tag, retaining its "power", making it smaller and giving more battery life
My point is... they're moving away from what netbooks are supposed to be, and moving towards the ultraportable/laptop market.
@qft
I agree with you on several counts but the price tags certainly does NOT say ultraportable. I certainly says "weakish laptop whose main feature is portability." Ultraportables are netbooks with laptop specs and ~$1000 price tag.
But I completely agree, the line is being blurred, but I sorta like that. It's filling in a nice middle ground between "too small, too weak" and "too large, too short a battery life." Goldilocks would be happy, that is, of course, until the bears come back from their stroll...
@qft Agreed I just did a whole ton of netbook shopping for my mom for christmas and my eeepc 900 is still one of my favorites.If i am buying a netbook size and a ssd are my only 2 important factors. ctrl+alt+lft makes for a great reader.
Why does everything have to be glossy these days? Screen, the netbook body, EVERYTHING! >:(
@greenythebeast I hate it too, you have to pretty much to go business notebooks to avoid it.
Do most customers actually like glossy surfaces on laptops or are these guys out of touch?
@RKN When my 1005HA is freshly wiped clean, I love the way the gloss looks, but kinda feel like a douche when I wipe it down in public. Yeah I know, it runs the same smudged up or not, but I can almost 'feel' the fingerprints on the case.... ;P
BTW, check out the Toshiba N205 netbook in black.. it's matte for the most part. I was gonna get that one, but for some reason the black model doesn't come with bluetooth.
@RKN I think they're out of touch. People see glossy instore and they're like ohhh shiny! Asus had some sort of customer survey you could fill out. At the bare minimum glossy cases are a huge hassle with keeping looking good. I don't think they'll ever get rid of glossy screens, though.
Here's to hoping those customers said no to gloss.
@greenythebeast
Yeah the glossy screens puzzle me. I've hardly met anyone who prefers them for real world use. Possibly people doing photo or video work on the go, but if you're using a laptop for that you're already used to compromise.
Stylistic gripe here: Using the word 'Snafu' for mistake. As I understand, Snafu is a acronym for 'Situation Normal, All F**#$d Up'. This along with 'Fubar' have become so common I guess people don't think about what they're really saying. Or have we become so inelegant we can't think of any other way to say 'mistake'? Yes, I'm bored at work.
Will this be faster than the Acer Ferrari One netbook?
@M3TZ
I pretty sure that the Ferrari can take the Asus when hurled down a race track ;-)
I ordered it the minute I saw it (around 12pm today) and my order status says it was already shipped. Judging by Newegg's past record with shipping to my address (New York, NY 10034) I should have it by tomorrow evening or Saturday morning.
THANK YOU SANTA
500 gigs of online storage?? that's a huge increase over the 10 gigs my 1005HA came with... or is it a typo for an increase to 50 gigs?
They only have a stock photo of the unit, opened. I'd say this is a snafu. Newegg tends to have at least 3 photos.
Call me demanding, but...
I have zero interests in netbooks/Atom-based computers costing anywhere near US 500.00.
The 12 inch display of this thing effectively places it the same arena as many of the latest ULV/CLUV powered ultra-portables, so I'd much rather invest in one of those given that they're probably much more capable, cost marginally more, and have superior battery autonomy (in most cases).
Despite the better graphics on this Asus, I'd still much rather have the Dell Vostro V13...
Wow, reading the "reviews" on Newegg for this netbook/ultraportable/notebook/laptop is funny. I miss the time when reviews are made by people who have actually used the device.
@comments Lol, I was about to post up the exact same thing. I just saw this come up in Google Reader so I ran over to new egg to find 4 reviews from the over zealous who just ordered but gave it 5 eggs regardless. I kinda how they show up DOA just to spite them but what ever.
What's the point of that ZERO POINT THREE MP web camera? LOL
SOLD OUT
ASUS should have stuck an ion2 in for better graphics capability to offset cpu sluggishness even though dual core.
Thanks Engadget. Now they're all sold out. :(
The best I can do now is preorder from Amazon or B&H.
Just managed to get my order in before it was SOLD OUT. My order status was just updated to "Shipped"! That's some fast service. Didn't even pay $2.99 extra to expedite. Nice! Gonna give my used 1000H to my wife for Christmas. Hahhaha...
Sold out! Doh!
Too late
N330? Does it really have a dual-core desktop Atom?