Asus certainly is trying to infuse new life into its eeePC series. A couple of weeks ago, it launched the Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid (1008P) with designer looks thrown over the usual netbook specs, and now it has come out with yet another eeePC, the Eee PC 1201T. And if the Karim Rashid edition had us drooling over its looks, this one has stunned us with its combination of specs and price. For, this is no run-of-the-mill netbook with a 10-inch screen and an Atom processor under its hood. Nah, this one has real processing muscle, great graphics, and still does not cost the earth.
The 1201 T has an AMD MV-40 CPU and RS780MN chipset for graphics and processing power that is well ahead of what most netbooks today serve up. It supports 1080p HD video and even has a larger than usual 12.1 inch widescreen display with HD (1366×768) resolution. More screen real estate means more keyboard space and the 1201T does have a larger than usual keyboard, even though it sticks to the chiclet design that is becoming a staple netbook feature. There are three USB ports, a card reader, a VGA connector….and in spite of all this, still serves up upto six hours of battery life.
And all at a staggering price of Rs 21,490! Of course, there is a catch - the specs we saw in the press release showed a DOS operating system, so if one goes for Windows, one will end up with an additional expenditure of Rs 4,000-7,000, depending on the OS and version one uses. But even after that, one still ends up with a very decent netbook for less than Rs 30,000, with a great screen and very good specs. Mind you, we do wish it looked as good as the Seashell series and weighed a tad lesser (1.46 kg is high for a netbook).
Watch this space for a review…
