ASUS Eee PC Flare 1025C / CE, 1225B and X101CH netbooks at CES 2012 (update: hands-on photo)
As expected, ASUS is bringing a bit of netbook Flare to CES 2012. The company just got official with the Eee PC Flare 1025C, 1025CE and X101CH netbooks, and we're not going to waste any time getting down to the details. The 1025C ships with a 1.6GHz Atom N2600 dual-core GPU, integrated Intel UMA graphics (720p output), a 10.1-inch LED display (1,024 x 600), 1GB of DDR3-1333 memory, a 5,400RPM hard drive, built-in Altec Lansing stereo speakers, 0.3 megapixel webcam, a trio of USB 2.0 ports, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, an Ethernet port, 2-in-1 media card reader and VGA / HDMI outputs. The whole thing tips the scales at 2.7 pounds, while offering a six-cell (56WHr) battery that's supposedly good for some ten hours of usage. It'll ship with Windows 7 Starter, with $299 getting you one in gray, blue, red, pink or black next month. The Flare 1025CE ups the ante with a 1.86GHz Atom N2800 dual-core CPU, with the asking price edged up to $319.
Moving right along, the 1225B is a 12.1-incher with a 1.6GHz AMD E-450 dual-core chip, integrated graphics, a 1,366 x 768 native resolution, 2GB of DDR3-1333 memory, a 5,400RPM HDD, two USB 3.0 sockets (and a lone USB 2.0 socket), WiFi, a 0.3 megapixel webcam, Bluetooth 3.0 and a 2-in-1 media reader. It'll weigh in at 3.1 pounds and tout a six-cell battery, with Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit) running the show. As for colors? Ah, colors. It'll ship next month in black, red and white. Finally, the Eee PC X101CH hits the entry-level buyers, with $269 netting you a 10.1-inch panel (1,024 x 600), inbuilt graphics, 1GB of RAM and the usual complement of ports. All told, we're looking at fairly expected updates since the last major wave of netbooks, but we'll withhold judgment until we see just how well those new Intel chips due in the benchmarking / battery test departments.
Update: And here are our hands-on photos. Enjoy!
