Asus Eee PC 1201K afflicted with 2-hour battery life thanks

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Back when netbooks first hit the scene back in 2008, AMD was fairly adamant that they wouldn’t be taking part in the netbook market, since they thought netbook CPUs cannibalized the sales of more powerful and more expensive laptop and desktop chips. They appear to have changed their tune, but if the latest Asus Eee PC netbook shipping with an AMD chip is any indication, maybe they should have abstained: this is one lame looking netbook.
On the surface if things, the Asus Eee PC 1201K doesn’t look too different from its Atom-possessing brethren. It ships with 1GB of DDR1 RAM, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a built-in 0.3MP webcam, three USB ports, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, VGA out and hard drive capacities between 160GB and 320GB. The display isn’t bad either: a 12.1-inch panel with a resolution of 1366×768. Even the battery’s pretty good: it’s a 6-cell Li-Ion, better than many netbooks’ slimmer 3-cell affairs.
Here’s the problem: the AMD Geode NX1750 CPU inside. Unlike Atom netbooks, which often boast 8-10 hours of juice on a 6-cell battery, the Eee PC 1201K only gets two hours per charge. That’s according to Asus themselves: if you keep in mind that manufacturers usually exaggerate battery expectancy, it’s probably more like 1.5!
What can we say? Avoid at all costs, unless you’re the most loyal of AMD shareholders.
 
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