The Asus Eee PC 1201PN ran for 3 hours and 57 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, using the included six-cell battery. For the record, that's under 40 minutes more than what the dual-core Atom Eee PC 1201N achieved back in January. It's slightly more than what the 12-inch Ion-packing Lenovo IdeaPad S12 had for battery life, too. Still, we'd rather have a 6-hour-plus battery like what's available on the smaller-screened Asus Eee PC 1005PR. We're not sure whether the Ion is at fault or Asus' implementation, but the bottom line means less battery life for you as a result.
Asus includes an industry-standard, one-year, parts-and-labor warranty with the system. Though the company has cleaned up its varied and confusing Web sites a bit of late, there are still separate pull-down menu items for both "service" and "support," which lead to completely different things. Digging around, you can find FAQs, driver downloads, and even a list of authorized service centers in your state. There's a lot of useful information here; it just may take a little patience to find it (here's a starting point: the 24-7 phone support line is 1-888-678-3688).
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
System configurations:
Asus Eee PC 1201PN
Windows 7 Home Premium; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz;
512MB Nvidia ION; 250GB Western Digital 5,400rpm
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Lenovo Ideapad S12
Windows 7 Home Premium; 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270; 3072MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz;
256MB Nvidia ION; 320GB Western Digital 5,400rpm
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MSI Wind U160
Windows 7 Starter; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz;
250MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 3150; 250GB Toshiba 5,400rpm
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Sony Vaio Eco VPC-W212AX
Windows 7 Starter; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz;
250MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 3150; 250GB Seagate 5,400rpm
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Samsung NB30
Windows 7 Starter; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz;
250MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 3150; 160GB Samsung 5,400rpm
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HP Mini 210
Windows 7 Starter; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz;
250MB (Shared) Intel GMA 3150; 160GB Toshiba 5,400rpm
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Fujitsu LifeBook MH380
Windows 7 Starter; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz;
250MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 3150; 250GB Hitachi 5,400rpm
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