First Look At Latest Ion-Infused Asus Eee PC 323
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."
More power is nice, but has everyone forgotten...? (Score:5, Insightful)
The point of a netbook is size and weight, not speed. More power is nice, but the creep up towards 12" screens is annoying.
still underpowered (Score:3, Insightful)
Great hardware specs (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:More power is nice, but has everyone forgotten. (Score:1, Insightful)
Is $500 too high for a Netbook? (Score:4, Insightful)
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?
Linux/SSD version wanted (Score:5, Insightful)
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).
Re:More power is nice, but has everyone forgotten. (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Great hardware specs (Score:3, Insightful)
I believe you that the other netbooks might be built to break fast (I have seen some that look pretty chintzy) but my asus feels like it was built to be a small, portable pc that could easily be thrown into a bag and tossed around without breaking apart.
Re:Great hardware specs (Score:4, Insightful)
the market price for aluminum is $1.1475/lb today. Why don't more manufacturers use it?
The raw cost of the material is not the main factor. You can quickly and cheaply create laptop parts by injection molding - aluminum needs to be machined, a much slower and more expensive process.
For an example, compare the price of the new HP Envy laptops (aluminum), which start at $1700 for a 13", to the rest of their laptop lineup, where you can get a nicely loaded up 17" with Blu-Ray for less than that.
Silicon is virtually free - and you only need a few grams worth for a processor - but the cheapest i7 is $280.
12" Are they serious? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:More power is nice, but has everyone forgotten. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
"netbook" (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Great hardware specs (Score:3, Insightful)
You say potato, i say... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:More power is nice, but has everyone forgotten. (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Linux/SSD version wanted (Score:5, Insightful)
Mod parent up. My eee 701 is still the choice for me, even given the higher specs of all the latter models. It's the smallest of them all (didn't netbook used to = subnotebook?), SSD = oops, I dropped my laptop, oh well.., and Ubuntu runs great on it. Asus has lost their netbook roots, now they're just making normal notebooks with a crap OS.
DISCLAIMER: I love Palm Pilots, too. You know, stuff that was made for its purpose.
Re:12" Are they serious? (Score:3, Insightful)
Get over it already. Every time there's a story about some netbook or other you get comments like yours complaining about the size. It was like that when the first 9" started appearing, then again with 10" and now 12". The fact is there's no standard of what a netbook is supposed to be. Everyone has their own definition it seems.
Re:Linux/SSD version wanted (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. The whole concept of "netbook" was supposed to be small, inexpensive, light, long battery life, lesser specs, solid state hard drive, and MS-Windows-Free. Asus essentially invented the category based on that. Simple, rugged, very portable, cheap.
Pretty much all of those criteria were perverted to the point that now they are really just turning into run-of-the-mill notebooks. Double the RAM, rip out the SDD, blow up the screen and case size, pack on the weight, lower the battery life, install MS-Windows, and jack up the price 50%. It just becomes a low-end notebook or sub-notebook.
Kinda like Firefox.... it was supposed to be fast, light, simple- that was it's born mission. But with each release, it was getting more complicated, bigger, harder to use, packing on more and more "features". Seems like it has been moving back to the right direction again, though (I hope).
Oh well. Maybe the true "netbook" concept will be rediscovered again soon, too.
Battery life and price screen size and weight (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:More power is nice, but has everyone forgotten. (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:More power is nice, but has everyone forgotten. (Score:5, Insightful)
They are all laptops. A netbook and a notebook are all laptops. Netbook is a marketing term.
Re:12" Are they serious? (Score:1, Insightful)
The fact is there's no standard of what a netbook is supposed to be. Everyone has their own definition it seems.
But if someone calls a hippopotamus "netbook", I'll still prefer to call it "hippopotamus".
Re:More power is nice, but has everyone forgotten. (Score:1, Insightful)
What's your point? Roadsters and SUVs are all automobiles. SUV is a marketing term. But that doesn't mean that it's not descriptive of a very specific type of automobile. If a vehicle is advertised as an SUV then I expect it to hold more than two people and I expect it to cope with off-road driving.
Likewise, if a notebook is advertised as a netbook then I expect it to be very light, very small, and to be designed for maximum battery life rather than maximum power. This was true of 9" models, and only slightly less true of 10" models. But 11" models were pushing it, and 12" is getting silly.