14 DAY TRIAL // Recently, there have been quite a number of rumors about future products, be they PCs or PC components. One of the more noteworthy reports was the one that dealt with a certain laptop that Toshiba might have developed and that might prove to be the lightest and fastest recharging 13-inch model in the world. Now, coming to possibly set a standard in another area is ASUS, with its supposedly upcoming Eee PC 1215N netbook.
All About Eee PC is the site that claims to have uncovered some details on the small machine. Apparently, ASUS is going all out and packing as much performance as it can, both in terms of processing power as well as graphics. The model will be a sort of big brother to the Eee PC 1201N, which is already known for its ability to easily handle HD videos and even connect to flatscreen TVs via HDMI.
The 1215N will supposedly be much more powerful. With a 1.5GHz dual-core atom at its core, it should enable much smoother multitasking, and the NVIDIA ION 2 GPU should be more than capable of playing any HD video content, including HD flash. Of course, users may be skeptical at first, thinking that this much performance will impact on battery life. While pertinent, this fear is unnecessary, given that, unlike the 1201N, the 1215N will benefit from the NVIDIA Optimus technology.
End-users up to speed with events will recognize Optimus as NVIDIA's solution for efficient energy use on laptops with both integrated graphics and a discrete graphics card. When performing basic Internet and document-viewing/editing tasks, the GPU is completely turned off, to the point where forcefully removing it wouldn't stop the system from working. When applications demand it, however, the card, in this case the ION 2, will take over.
There is no telling when exactly the ASUS Eee PC 1215N will show up, but the report suggests that the first appearance should be made by May 13. There is no word on the price at this time.