Acer Ups Their Netbook Game With 10.1 & 11.6-Inch Screens
It’s getting harder all the time to tell exactly where notebooks leave off and netbooks take up with the latter getting bigger all the time. Acer has announced their two newest model “netbooks” that leave the world of tiny screens behind and step up to a minimum of 10.1 inches.
The smaller of the two new models from Acer is the Aspire One AOD250-1042 with the 10.1-inch screen running at the typical netbook resolution of 1024×600. It’s powered by the powerful Intel Atom N270 (1.6 GHz) with 1 GB of DDR2 RAM. It’s obvious that Acer is upping the game with the rest of the components, which include a 160 GB HDD (5,400 RPM), 3 USB ports, web cam and a multiformat card reader integrated into the device. It weighs in at 2.44 pounds.
The “big boy” model is the Aspire One Ao751h-1192, with the 11.6-inch screen that pushes the resolution up to 1464×768. Interestingly, Acer went with the less powerful Atom Z520 (1.22 GHz) with the slower, front-side bus. This unit weighs a respectable 2.75 pounds.
Both of the new Aspire One “netbooks” are available now with a MSRP of $298 and $379.99 for the smaller and larger unit, respectively.
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I must be missing the difference between the new AOD250 and the old AOD150; it’s probably something minimal, which is why I’m not seeing it: http://jkontherun.com/2009/02/10/acers-next-generation-netbook-hits-us-as-a-minor-upgrade/
Folks that want the older 1.6GHz Atom N270 instead of the 1.22GHz Atom Z520 can get it in the 751h per the press release.
Oh but the new one is in red. :)
I think the 11.6 inch could be the perfect form factor for a netbook. I’m not so keen on the z-series processors. Most reviews I’ve seen complain about them being too slow for real modern OS multitasking.
Is the ram upgradeable in these?
Honestly, they’re just shooting themselves in the foot…. again. The main differentiators between a netbook and a notebook are size and price. So now they’re building larger, more expensive units instead of making the small light units cheaper. Stupid. Looks like they’re listening to journalists again rather than consumers, just like the tablet PC. Journalists may want full sized keyboards. The rest of us want small and light. Just look at the sucess of the Viv….
They’ve sold millions of small machines. Now look at that market dry up as they get larger and pricier.
Gordon