ASUS' Eee PC 1201N blows the netbook competition away

As far as netbooks go, and MacPCWiz guarantees this, you will be hard pressed to find a performer better than the ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201N.

There, we just had to get that out of the way, so you know what to expect out of this article. The the end of the age of netbooks may have been foretold already, but there is no denying the fact that it will probably go “with a bang and not with a whimper.” As manufacturers try to outdo each other with features and better parts — which will actually end the “netbook” distinction — you can expect a lot of nice things from this gadget category this year.

Start it off with ASUS’ Eee PC 1201N — the review first seen at CNET.com, who summed it up thus:

The good: Dual-core Atom processor, solid gaming graphics for a Netbook, large screen, affordable for its features.

The bad: Awkward touch pad, mediocre battery life.

The bottom line: As one of the few Netbooks with a dual-core Atom processor and Nvidia Ion graphics, the 12.1-inch EeePC 1201N has superior performance compared with most Atom-based machines…

Read the rest of the review here at CNET.com.

ASUS Eee PC 1201N - dual-core Atom processor, nVidia ION graphics

The source of the 1201N’s apparent superiority over other Intel Atom netbooks is in the specs — obviously. It doesn’t have those newfangled “Pine Trail” Atom N450 processors. Instead it uses a rarely applied Atom dual-core processor, the N330. Although a bit dated, this dual-core proc gives a multitasking edge to the 1201N that most netbooks just don’t have. And we talked about the nVidia ION graphics before. alright, we talked about it  A LOT. The ION graphics gives a more robust display performance to the unit and even gives it HD capabilities.

Add to this 2GB RAM — which is standard, and 250GB of hard drive space (although if that’s too small for you, you can always get a portable hard drive) makes this one of the most solid netbook performers around.This is ASUS saying to its netbook competitors, “Top that.” Yeah, believe me, they most likely will.