Acer Bets on 10-inch Netbooks, Guarantees 7-Hour Battery Life
Up to now, Acer has only had a smaller, 8.9-inch display netbook available. With that single form factor, they’ve actually become the number one netbook brand on the planet in 2008. ASUS, HP, Dell and others won’t want to hear today’s news then: Acer UK just announced the new Aspire One with a larger 10.1-inch display. Acer is making a bold battery life claim in their press release as well. Instead of using fluffy language like “you can expect around X hours”, they’re putting their neck on the line:
“With incredibly low idle power consumption, the 10” Aspire One guarantees up to 7 hours battery life for maximum fun.” (emphasis mine)
Not only are they guaranteeing seven hours of run time with an optional 6-cell battery, they’re promising maximum fun too. How can you pass that up? ;) The Windows XP device runs on the now-standard Intel Atom platform and can handle up to 2GB of memory. Acer includes a 160GB hard drive for your OS, apps and data, plus 802.11b/g and Bluetooth for connectivity. 3G or embedded WiMAX are optional as well. Pricing and availability aren’t offered yet, but some folks expect to see this model next month.
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the 10” Aspire One guarantees “UP TO” 7 hours battery life.(Emphasis mine)
Seems to me the “up to” renders the “guaranty” meaningless.
read it carefully, what matters is the sentence before it. they are only guaranteeing it when at idle. the EEE 1000, Wind, NC10 can all achieve 7-hours at idle.
How many hours did they “guarantee” on the first one?
Just a reminder.. Dell will have a Mini 10 coming soon: http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2009/01/09/mini-10-and-adamo-notebook-ces-2009.aspx.
When we launch it, I’ll have full details on http://www.direct2dell.com
Thanks,
Lionel
Yup, ‘up to…’ is the qualifier here. With that, if the battery packs it in immediately after you’ve booted up, they are still covered.
Not that would happen…. ;-)
‘Up to…’ is the preferred qualifier of most ISPs (“Download speeds up to 5 mbps!”) and we know how that has gone for many. Here’s hoping Acer does better.
That said, its a nice looking unit and it – or something very much near it – may this year replace my Eee 701 and HP Pavilion notebook. Subject to price remaining in the ‘netbook’ range – $450, tops.
I can’t wait to see what this one can do!! I am in the market for a new laptop that I can store bunches and bunches of pictures on!! I take tons of pictures and then transfer them onto my super cool digital photo frame ! I even like that it will have a larger screen!!
Nice unit, but the screen res is low. I’m holding out on a hi res 2140 from HP, even if it costs a few hundred extra.
dont forget Dells upcoming Mini 10 will also be offering a high resolution WXGA display. thats why it & the HP are my main focus.
Kevin, how come you dropped the key word “up” in that sentence right after the quote?
Promising anything “up to” is meaningless and certainly not newsworthy.
7 hour battery life? I cannot wait for that.
Kevin, do some research! … “7 hours” is a fake; this is only for reviewers – all the others will most likely be stuck with not-so-good battery (but which is, to be honest, also fine).
The biggest problem is the design: cheap plastic!!!
Laptopmag: “The version of the Acer Aspire One that we tested came with a six-cell, 5,800-milliamp (mAh) battery that provided 7 hours and 57 minutes of runtime. While some initial systems will ship with this battery, the majority will feature a six-cell, 4,400-mAh battery that Acer claims should provide up to six hours of power. We will update this review once we receive the 4,400-mAh battery.”