Acer Confirms Aspire One Mini Notebook
December 7, 2008 | Acer, Electronics, Notebook | Comments OffAs indicated below, Acer is joining HP, Dell and others in launching a subnotebook to compete with the new Asus Eee PC range. The machine was unveiled at Computex in Taiwan.
The result is a masterpiece of technological simplicity of an intuitive and specifically optimized software interface to support connectivity needs. At only 24 x 17 cm and weighing less than one kilo, the Aspire is not only extremely compact (smaller than an average office diary) but offers many opportunities for connection, a comprehensive and easy to use application software suite and a battery life of up to 6 hours.
Well, three hours than normal, with a flash memory drive, which usually means 2.5 If you’re lucky. The six hours requires the optional 6-cell battery. The interface is Linpus Linux Lite with four groups of Connect, Works, Fun and files, but there is the option of Microsoft Windows XP.
The Aspire One has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor with 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM (with a slot for expansion) or a driver 8GB Flash or a hard disk of 80 GB and 8 9-inch 256K-color screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. Graphics are provided by an Intel Mobile Express chipset 945GSE. It also has three USB ports, a port Ehternet, and an external monitor port, and an extra feature is the 5-in-1 card reader.
The Acer One dimensions are 249 x 170 x 29mm (9.8 x 6.7 x 1.14 inches) and weight is 995g (2.19 lbs) assuming you have the SSD and a 3-stack. In sum, it is extremely similar to the Asus Eee PC901, except for throwing in a card reader and offering a hard disk drive option.
But it will be interesting to see what the keypad. Acer says: “The Aspire One has a 95% full-sized keyboard natural, easy to type as you are accustomed.” As a touch typist, I am looking for something as close as possible to my old IBM ThinkPad 240x Ultra, which had a keyboard than 95%. (Unfortunately, the 240x has been rendered obsolete by the progress it has up to 192 MB memory and a 800 x 600 screen).
