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

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.
Dave Altavilla

Dave Altavilla

With nearly two decades of experience as a semiconductor sales engineer, Dave Altavilla founded HotHardware.com over 25 years ago with perspective as an industry insider and a passion for the wonders of system-level development and performance that culminate into the next generation, cutting-edge devices of tomorrow. Cultivated with the sweat-equity of time spent in the engineering backrooms and offices of Chief Architects of Wall Street bellwethers like Motorola, Cisco and EMC, Dave's insight into the design and manufacturing of leading-edge technologies, brings a laser-sharp understanding of what it takes to deliver a best-of-class product to market. Dave handles final editorial responsibilities of HotHardware's content, along with the site's creative vision and business development efforts. In addition to feature product launch articles at HotHardware for major OEM releases, Dave is also a published author in various technology-based print publications and has been a featured guest on various webcasts and Tech radio shows. In his spare time Dave likes to spend time on the ocean and coaching youth Baseball.  - Contact: davea(at)hothardware(dot)com and follow him on Twitter if you like. He also has an About.me page here.