ASUS EEE 1201N now available for Pre-Order – $499

ASUS’s first ION-powered netbook is now available for pre-order for $499 at the following stores:

• excaliberpc.com – $499 – Black
• excaliberpc.com – $499 – Silver
• onsale.com – $489 – Silver
• macmall.com – $493.99 – Silver

This mighty netbook has a nice 12.1-inch display with 1366×768 resolution, Intel Dual Core Atom 330 processor, 2GB RAM, 250GB har disk, Nvidia ION chipset, Bluetooth and WiFi b/g/n.

It is being offered with Windows 7 Home Premium (not starter or basic edition) so that you can enjoy Aero on it in its full glory. After all, you have the strong ION GPU to back it on.

ASUS made the right decision by not bundling this amazing netbook with the atrocious GMA 500 chipset. At $499, it may sound expensive to some, but, then it has far better specs than the SONY VAIO X that we recently reviewed

credit: matt at netbookreviews (via email)