The Asus Eee PC 1201N is a notebook with a 12.1 inch display, a dual core processor and NVIDIA ION graphics. On the base of the laptop there’s an access panel that you can open by removing a couple of screws to upgrade the RAM. But if you want to perform a more serious upgrade, like say, replacing the hard drive, you’re going to need to open the Eee PC 1201N up a little more.

YouTube member DevilDragon360 has posted a video showing just how to do that. You can check out the complete video after the break. But in a nutshells, you need to remove most of the screws on the bottom of the laptop, then take off the keyboard and remove the panel separating it from the mainboard in order to access the hard drive. It’s not the kind of upgrade that’s for the weak of heart, but if you’re looking to boost performance by upgrading from the stock 5400rpm hard drive to a 7200rpm model or an SSD, this is pretty much the way to do it.

via Netbook Reports

Read the rest of this entry »

The Asus Eee PC 1201N is the first notebook from Asus to feature NVIDIA ION graphics. It’s also one of the first notebooks from any manufacturer to feature a dual core Intel Atom 330 processor. Normally that CPU is reserved for desktop systems. While a dual core Atom chip is still designed to be a low power processor that favors energy savings over high performance, it should give the laptop a bit of a boost when it comes to multitasking and running programs that can take advantage of the extra CPU core.

Asus sent me an Eee PC 1201N to review, and I’ll be putting it through the paces over the coming days. But in the meantime, you can check out my unboxing video below. The laptop has a nice look and a great keyboard. In fact, it looks virtually identical to the Asus UL20A which I recently reviewed, except that the Eee PC 1201N has an HDMI port and a higher capacity battery.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Asus UL20A is a 12.1 inch notebook with an Intel CULV processor and integrated graphics. It ships with a 47Whr, 4400mAh battery.

The Asus Eee PC 1201N is a 12.1 inch notebook with an Intel Atom 330 dual core CPU and NVIDIA ION graphics. It ships with a 63Whr, 5600mAh battery.

Here’s what I discovered today: Those two batteries are interchangeable. That means if you can get your hands on an Eee PC 1201N battery, you can use it in the Asus UL20A, which is great news for UL20A users.

When I reviewed the UL20A, one of my only complaints with this little laptop is that you don’t get the same kind of 10-hour battery life with it that you get out of the larger, more expensive Asus UL30A. That’s largely because the UL20A comes with a lower capacity battery.Taking an Eee PC 1201N battery and throwing it in a UL20A might help you get closer.

The UL30A that I tested had an 84Whr, 5600mAh battery. So slapping a 63Whr battery in an Asus UL20A probably still won’t give you 10 hours of run time. But it should help you get more than the 6 or so hours that I got in my tests.

I’ve found a few stores that are selling the 63Whr version of the Eee PC 1201N/UL20A battery, including one US site and two UK sites. I haven’t dealt with any of these retailers before, so order at your own risk. It looks like both the 63Whr and 47Whr versions of the battery have the same model number: Asus A32-UL20. If you spot a better way to tell them apart, let us kno win the comments. Prices seem to be ranging from about $72 US to £78 in the UK right now.

I should probably point out that while the two batteries look identical from the bottom (they both have a matte black surface that matches the base of both notebooks), the Asus Eee PC 1201N battery has a glossy section meant to match the glossy back and lid of that laptop while the Asus UL20A battery has a matte finish all around. If you’re a stickler for consistency, this could be a problem. But if you just want to improve the battery life on your UL20A, this seems like a small price to pay.

Asus has reached an agreement with Boingo Wireless to bundle the WiFi hotspot operator’s software with new Asus Eee PC notebooks. Basically, if you pick up an Asus Eee PC 1005PE, 1008P, or 1201N, there’s good chance it will come preloaded with Boingo software for connecting to the 125,000 WiFi hotspots around the world.

Unfortunately, you’ll still have to pay if you actually want to use Boingo’s service. Access normally runs you $9.95/month for a US account or $59/month for global access. But if you sign up after purchasing a qualifying Asus Eee PC, you’ll get 50% off for the first three months.

After almost two years of writing about netbooks with 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processors, GMA 950 graphics, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drives, and Windows XP, the last few months have been pretty exciting. The low cost ultraportable space has expanded to include machines with CULV processors, NVIDIA ION graphics, and there are even a few models with AMD processors thrown in for good measure. ARM and VIA should be helping to keep things interesting over the next year as well.

But it could be NVIDIA ION which has garnered the most attention. The ION platform bundles a low power Atom processor with higher performance NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, resulting in low power notebooks that can play some modern 3D games and handle 1080p HD video.

There are a number of desktop computers based on the ION platform, but ION notebooks have just started to trickle out. Right now, there are four models that are either available today or coming very soon: The HP Mini 311, Lenovo IdeaPad S12, Asus Eee PC 1201N, and Samsung N510. And the folks at Laptop Magazine got their hands on one of each.

Spec-wise, most of these laptops are pretty darn similar. Three out of four have single core Atom processors and ION graphics, while the Eee PC 1201N has a somewhat zippier dual core Atom 330 CPU. But Laptop pitted the laptops against one another in battle, and found that each had its own strengths and weaknesses. For instance, the magazine’s design and ergonomics award goes to the HP Mini 311, even though they preferred the Lenovo IdeaPad S12’s keyboard.

The four computers weren’t that far apart on graphics benchmarks, but the Eee PC 1201N did take the lead in tasks that relied on the CPU, which isn’t surprising. The Lenovo and HP laptops got the best battery life, which isn’t really saying that much since none of these notebooks topped out higher than 5 hours. While 5 hours is pretty good for a standard notebook, I’ve come to expect more from a netbook.

Check out Laptop Magazine’s complete shoot-out for more details, including the name of the laptop they crowned the ION king.

The Asus Eee PC 1201N is the first 12.1 inch laptop to hit the streets with NVIDIA ION graphics and a dual core Atom 330 CPU, which is more typically found in desktop computers. The combination means two things:

1. This notebook has more oomph in the graphics and processing departments than your average netbook.
2. You won’t get the same kind of battery life you get from a typical netbook.

The dual core Atom processor is designed to provide a boost when it comes to multitasking or running applications that can take advantage of multiple cores. But for many activities, a dual core processor isn’t going to make a huge difference, and the truth is a dual core Atom CPU isn’t anywhere near as fast as a dual core Intel CULV processor. But the NVIDIA ION graphics are much more powerful than the GMA 4500MHD graphics found in most CULV systems, so you should have a better experience playing games, watching HD video, or running CUDA-enabled software.

It’s going to be at least a few more days until my review unit shows up, but Asus did send out its first batch of demo models recently, and I’ve spotted at least four reviews so far. Here’s a brief summary:

• Engadget – This netbook is good for gaming and HD video, but expect about 3.5 hour battery life for general use, and closer to 2.5 for video playback.
• Hot Hardware – The Eee PC 1201N outperforms the lower cost HP Mini 311 in graphics and overall performance thanks to the dual core Atom CPU.
• Notebook Review – Good screen color saturation, above average netbook CPU performance, good graphics, but the computer gets a little warm and battery life suffers.
• Laptop Magazine – The dual core CPU is twice as fast as a single core Atom for video transcoding, and almost 4 x faster when using a CUDA-enabled encoder.

Probably the most telling line comes from Notebook Review, which suggests that the Eee PC 1201N “was designed to fit a market segment that didn’t really need to be filled.” It has better graphics than most CULV-based notebooks, but not the processing power. It has a faster processor than most netbooks, but not the same kind of battery life. And of course, at about $499, it’s about the same price as a low end CULV notebook such as the Acer Aspire 1410.

I’m going to try to reserve final judgement until I’ve had a chance to test an Asus Eee PC 1201N for myself. But it sounds to me like this might be the best computer on the market if you’re looking for a low end, light weight, portable gaming rig and battery life isn’t your top priority. But if you plan to use your computer for almost anything other than gaming, you might be better off with a CULV-based machine.

The Asus Eee PC 1201N notebook with NVIDIA ION graphics and a dual core Intel Atom 330 CPU is now shipping in limited qualities from Newegg. You can pick one up for about $499.

The laptop has a 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. You also get 500GB of free online storage when you purchase this notebook (or a number of other new models from Asus). The 1.6GHz dual core Atom 330 processor is more commonly found in nettops, making this one of the few notebooks to use the dual core Atom CPU.

You may not notice a huge performance boost from the CPU in most tasks, but it should help a bit with multitasking and when running tasks that can take advantage of both processors. For instance, when I used MediCoder to transcode a video using machines with dual core and single core Atom processors, the dual core model completed the task in almost half the time.

And of course the NVIDIA ION graphics should give you a boost for watching HD video or playing some modern video games. At $499, the Asus Eee PC 1201N isn’t the cheapest NVIDIA ION-powered notebook on the market. That award goes to the HP Mini 311. But if you’re a sucker for a dual core CPU and a slightly larger display, the Asus Eee PC 1201N might be the way to go.

Newegg is only accepting one order per customer at the moment, which would seem to imply that there aren’t a heck of a lot of units to go around.

via Netbooked

Even at a time when there are a growing number of 11 and 12 inch laptops with Intel Atom processors and NVIDIA ION graphics coming to market, the Asus Eee PC 1201N is something unusual. That’s because it’s one of the only laptops ever to be launched with a dual core Intel Atom 330 processor. Normally that CPU only shows up in desktop systems. In other words, the Eee PC 1201N should not only have better graphics than most Atom powered netbooks, but it should also have somewhat better CPU performance in some tasks than competing ION-powered laptops from Lenovo, HP, and Samsung.

I’m still waiting for my Eee PC 1201N demo unit to review, as Asus North America is just starting to send them out. But a few European web sites including Blogeee in France and Noti in Hungary have already published detailed reviews of the laptop. Here are some of the highlights.

Blogeee Eee PC 1201N review

• HD video looked great on the 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display
• 1080p Flash video also plays well when using Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta with GPU acceleration
• It takes almost 2 minutes to boot the PC and connect to a WiFi network
• Handled several games smoothly including Torchlight, Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty 4, and Street Fighter IV demo
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom were also usable, and Pierre could edit photos up to 10MB in size
• The 6 cell, 63Whr battery lasted for about 4 hours, 43 minutes of web-surfing involving reading RSS feeds and watching YouTube videos
• You’ll likely get less than 4 hours when playing games that tax the CPU and GPU

Noti Eee PC 1201N review

• The shiny black plastic case is a fingerprint magnet (but that’s nothing new for Asus laptops)
• The keyboard is large, and features two full sized shift keys and full sized arrow keys
• The battery ran for 2:45 when playing HD video in a continuous loop
• The computer is relatively quiet and doesn’t get too hot during operation

Noti also ran a series of benchmarks comparing the Eee PC 1201N to an HP Mini 311, which has the same ION graphics, but a single core Atom processor. As you would expect, the Asus Eee PC 1201N came out a bit ahead in these tests.

via SlashGear

Pierre over at Blogeee [translate link] was lucky enough to spend some quality time with two of the hottest Asus models around right now – the UL30A and 1201N. Naturally, he figured the rest of the world might like to see how the two systems look side-by-side.

The UL30A, of course, is technically not a netbook – it’s larger (with a 13.3″ display), heavier, and runs a Core2Duo SU7300 processor. The 1201N, of course, is Asus’ droolworthy, new Atom-and-Ion powered 12″ netbook.

If you’re trying to decide between the two, this post might not help a heck of a lot. The Ion graphics are pretty tempting. Of course, so is the SU7300 processor. And they’re pretty similar for battery life. Hmm…This could be a difficult choice for a lot of people.

Check out Pierre’s post, and share your take in the comments!

Although it’s not set to go on sale in the UK until early next year, Electric Pig managed to get their hands on the higly-anticipated Asus Eee PC 1201N.

As Electric Pig notes, the 1201N is somewhat of a beefed-up 1005HA. It sports a larger 6 cell, 5200mAh battery, HDMI output, and a 12″ 1366×768 display. In their initial handling, the 1201N didn’t disappoint – not surprising with the dual-core Atom 330 and Nvidia ION internals.

Check out the full unboxing photos at Electric Pig!