The Asus Eee PC 1201 Netbook Review

If you are excited about netbooks as much as I am, you will love the most recent find, the Asus 1201N or 1201HA. Typically, I lean towards the smaller 10 or 11 inch screen size netbook, like the Acer 11.6 inch netbook, the Sony P-Series netbook, or the most recent eMachine netbook. However, this new model by Asus with the 12 inch screen is powerfully persuasive.

The Asus Eee PC 1201N has the impressive Intel Atom N330 Dual Core Processor, which runs at a 1.6 GHz and actually has a Nvidia GeForce chipset. The Asus 1201HA has the Intel Atom Z520, which also runs at a 1.6GHz but has the Intel Graphics Media 500, with 254 Mb dedicated to video graphics. I found the Midnight Blue model very attractive. Typically most netbooks come with a much smaller screen, average is about 10 inches. Some come with 11 inches, but not that common. The battery life is an astonishing 8.5 hours! The screen has an incredible 1366x768 resolution. The fact that the 1201N comes with a NVidia Chipset is a great plus for a netbook. They both come with the usual hardware such as VGA, USB 2.0 host ports, SDIO interfaces, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth module, and webcam. However, again the difference between the 1201N and the 1201HA is that the 1201N comes with HDMI, more RAM (3 GB DDR2), and a 320gb hard disk drive. The 1201HA comes with only 2 GB RAM, and 160 GB hard drive. The measurements are: height 1.3", width 11.7", weight 3 lbs., and depth 8.2". They also come in Black, Blue, and Red colors.

There is also another version of this same model, if you don't like the Intel processor; there is the Asus Eee PC 1201T, which is the first Eee series Athlon Neo CPU which also runs at 1.6GHz. It is similar to the 1201N, but has only 2 GB of RAM, but does have the 320 GB hard disk drive. This also comes with the ATI Radeon HD3200 Graphics card. That is pretty huge for a netbook. All come pre-loaded with Windows 7 starter, and do not have a DVD drive.

All in all, the Asus Eee PC 1201 netbook is a pretty good machine, large enough to be a normal laptop, but the benefits of being a netbook.