It's hard to get excited about new netbook models anymore - after all their feature sets are a dime a dozen. But if slides leaked to the Eeeuser.com forum are to be believed, Asus may be adding some much needed variety to the segment in the next couple of months with a king-sized netbook featuring Nvidia graphics. The move would follow on from the lead of Lenovo and Samsung, which are set to launch their Ion-based models around that timeframe.
Dubbed Eee PC 1201N, Asus' forthcoming system will reportedly have a 12-inch display, 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, Ion integrated graphics, 2GB of RAM, 250GB HDD, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a six-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium. It is scheduled for release in mid-October at around $499, putting it at the high end of the netbook ladder, but still making it a better buy than the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 and Samsung N510 if all rumored specs and price points are right on target.
According to the roadmap, there will also be revised SKUs for the Eee PC 1005HA and 1008HA netbooks as the launch of Windows 7 approaches, as well as a T91 convertible tablet with a 32GB SSD for $549. As usual, though, you should take all this with a grain of salt until Asus makes an announcement or more evidence is available. You can read more about the products and take a look at the alleged roadmap slide here.