Asus Ion 2-Powered Eee PC 1201PN - HH Review

Asus Ion 2-Powered Eee PC 1201PN - HH Review

Thursday, July 29, 2010 - by Dave Altavilla
Around seven months ago, we were able to review one of the more advanced netbooks out at the time, the Eee PC 1201N. It was one of the first netbooks to integrate a graphics chip known as the NVIDIA Ion.  The Eee PC 1201PN retains many of the same features and nearly the exact same form factor as the original, but it utilizes the next-generation of Ion (we'll call it Ion 2 throughout), which is based on a discrete NVIDIA GeForce 210M GPU.

But have the minor hardware upgrades and the Ion 2 chip made this machine powerful enough to warrant an upgrade if you purchased an older netbook with Atom and the first generation Ion under its hood? Or is this yet another marginal upgrade that is probably worth skipping over? Join us in the pages to come as we take an in-depth look and answer those very questions.
Via: HotHardware | News Archive | Tags: Nvidia, Intel, Asus, Netbook, Notebook, Eee PC, laptop, Eee, Ion 2, 1201pn, ION, eee pc 1201pn
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By Waisybabu on Jul 29, 2010

I'm personally waiting for the dual-core Atom, Ion2 based 1215PN...

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By Super Dave on Jul 29, 2010

My son has the original 1201N with the dual-core Atom 330. He then installed 4GB of RAM (with tighter timings than OEM), and Win7 Pro (eliminating the pre-installed bloatware). With those upgrades he has a pretty nice netbook! I was a bit disappointed when he mentioned he was getting silver, instead of black, but when I laid eyes on it for the first time I realized he'd made an excellent color choice. That silver color is very attractive, and it isn't a fingerprint magnet like the black one. Maybe someday, when prices drop, he'll even install an SSD. If I was in the market today to purchase a netbook I would choose the 1201N...without the 'P'.

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By Super Dave on Jul 29, 2010

The Windows 7 Experience Index score for my Son's 1201N is showing:


Calculations per second                                                     3.2

Memory operations per second                                         4.6

Desktop performance for Windows

Aero                                                                                         4.3

3D business and gaming graphics

performance                                                                          5.3

Disk data transfer rate                                                         5.9

 

 

and here is the WEI shot of the 1201PN in the article:


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By acarzt on Jul 29, 2010

It seems like it is pretty much on par with the old version.

With a better CPU it might be able to pull ahead.

HT is no replacement for 2 real cores :-P

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By animatortom on Jul 30, 2010

I still dont know bout an Atom? My GF is looking for a netbook for work. Yet this one is to pricey for such a mediocre battery life!


I am still gonna try and keep her away from Apple! Ill just have to tell her I dont know how to work on them Geeked

Cuz I know how much she loves the Pompasity of the Apple reps....

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By acarzt on Jul 30, 2010

lol... yes avoid apple like the plague! lol

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By fat78 on Jul 30, 2010

My sister  bought a apple( dont know why) and got screwed for around 200 bucks.

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By realneil on Jul 30, 2010

This thing has nice specs, but the price is too high to compete with the other plethora of NetBooks out there.

My son's MSI Wind was $325.00 and we doubled the RAM in it (1 to 2GB) right away with old Apple notebook RAM that was laying around here. It's very strong running and does everything he needs it to without any problems. It has decent battery life too.

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