ASUS Eee PC 1201N: Dual-Core Atom + ION FTW?
by Jarred Walton on December 24, 2009 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
More Mediocre LCDs
This is another area where we weren't able to fully test the 1005PE for the initial article. We now have color gamut and color accuracy results - not that it's likely to matter much. I can't imagine doing any serious photo editing on any laptop with a slow CPU and low resolution.
ASUS 1201N
ASUS 1005PE
There's not much to see here. Color gamut and accuracy follow the familiar pattern: okay accuracy, generally mediocre gamut, and as mentioned a clearly inferior (relative to desktops and the 1005HA) contrast ratio. The maximum brightness on the 1201N is also quite low compared to most other current laptops and netbooks. EeeCTL might be able to help if it gets updated, but it didn't work at present.
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bsoft16384 - Saturday, December 26, 2009 - link
Maybe someone can answer this for me - does the Eee PC 1201N support x86-64? The desktop Atom CPUs (Atom 330) do, but the mobile Atom CPUs have it disabled. Since this laptop apparently has a desktop Atom CPU, presumably it supports 64-bit as well?JarredWalton - Saturday, December 26, 2009 - link
Yes, it supports 64-bit, but the default OS is 32-bit. Since it apparently only supports up to 3GB RAM, however, it's probably not important to install a 64-bit OS. There are a few apps where 64-bit code can boost performance by ~5%, but the higher memory requirements would likely decrease performance in other apps.vavutsikarios - Saturday, December 26, 2009 - link
I would like to see how the 1291N compares to Acer Ferrari one.They are same size (the acer has the same 1366x768 on a 11.6 screen), exact same price, have comparable CPUs and graphics capabilities, same HDD and memory size, same OS.
They are, obviously, direct competitors.
vavutsikarios - Wednesday, December 30, 2009 - link
Correction: the Acer comes with the Win 7 Home Premium 64bit version, so it's not the exact same OS.Despite that, I still can't think of any other machine that feels so much similar, hardware-wise, with the 1291N.
I mean, the absence of intel graphics is by itself enough to differentiate those machines from the majority of netbooks out there. And then you add Win7, and they become even more different, and even more similar -with each other.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 30, 2009 - link
I've already sent in a request; we'll see if Acer fulfills it.sprockkets - Thursday, December 24, 2009 - link
What is preventing someone from putting out a CULV + an nvidia 9300 chipset???MonkeyPaw - Friday, December 25, 2009 - link
I'm sure something like that may exist, but you couldn't really call it a netbook anymore, but an Ultra-portable. Once you go there, you typically end up paying 4-5 times more than you would for a netbook.JarredWalton - Friday, December 25, 2009 - link
The 9300 and 9400 are essentially the same, but regardless no one has created a CULV with NVIDIA IGP so far. There are discrete GPUs with some CULV laptops, but that's as close as we get. Anyway, 9300M is just 9400M with lower clocks.evident - Thursday, December 24, 2009 - link
This thing is almost pushing $500. If you look around you can find a nice intel pentium dual core 14" laptop for the same price. granted, the netbook is alot smaller and that itself is worth something, but i still feel that the compromise is still too great. IMO, the sweet spot for an ion netbook would be $200.Penti - Thursday, December 31, 2009 - link
Just buy a Intel CULV (Core2 based) if you like a small notebook. Atom is great, (think embedded space), but with ION, large screen etc I don't really get it. But at least netbooks (with Ion or Broadcom Crystal HD) will be more useful when Flash 10.1 hits none beta release. GMA 4500MHD is still a pretty good fit for accelerated flash (video) though, and the faster cpu helps with a lot of things. I think it would be more interesting to shrink the atom devices to the MID size. Finishing up Moblin would also be nice. Maemo has showed you can create a pretty good consumer Linux MID already. But they become pretty pointless as stand alone internet devices though.