One of the most successful netbooks around is the Acer Aspire One. The Aspire One is a rather surprise hit for Acer, and probably has something to do with the aggressive pricing policies of the company, and the fact that you actually get a very sturdy and decent netbook for the money. Acer formally took the wraps off the Aspire One’s successor, the 10″ variant.
The new Aspire One has several new features, most prominently the bigger 10″ screen (compared to its 8.9″ predecessor). The device also has a new design, but it’s clearly still an Aspire One. Several of the most prominent shortcomings of the device have been fixed; the touchpad keys are now underneath the touchpad, and the expansion slot are easily accessible from underneath the device (sanity! Sanity!).
When it comes to internal specifications, it’s a fairly bog-standard Intel Atom netbook. It sports the well-known 1.6Ghz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, 1024x600pix resolution, 160GB HDD, and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. Rumour has it the new AA1 will be fitted with the newer Atom N280 processor, but that one isn’t out of Intel’s fabs yet.
Acer is fairly mum on remainder information, such as whether or not a Linux model will be available, or a possible SSD option. Pricing information is also unknown, but there’s a rumour going around that Acer wants to keep its netbook offering clear and simple, and may opt for discontinuing the 8.9″ models, from which you could conclude that the new 10″ model would stick at the same pricepoint as the old models.
In any case, all I needed to know was that it comes in a completely red model. Where can I place my order?
Depending on cost and “comes-with-linux”-ness it looks like I might have paid the price for being an early adopter.
Ah well I’ll console myself with the fact that I still adore my old AAOne.
I’ve been on the verge of buying an AA1 for more than a month now, so I could have a look at the new toy in town.
But “no Linux” will surely mean “no 10″ AA1” for me: there’s no way I will be paying a Microsoft tax on one of these, I already fattened their greedy wallet too many times.
Rehdon
I wonder if it’ll be any easier to swap out the wireless card in this one if it’s not going to have 802.11n? If not I should probably not opt for an Aspire One–they look nice, but given my past experience with Acer’s build quality I’d be a bit hesitant in any case, n or no n.
Whatever it costs, I know we’ll get screwed here in Australia. Instead of axing the old model, shops will keep the old models the have in stock (and they’ll have a lot, they haven’t been selling well since they’re a lot more expensive than their US counterparts). They’ll keep the old ones at the same price and sell the new ones even higher.
It’s like every company in the world is into anal, and Australia is the ass of the world…
Australia is not the ass of the world. All south hemisphere IS.
I think they’re already here in Australia? I’ve seen one with a 160gig HDD. Why anyone needs that much space on a netbook is anyone’s guess.
I think Acer is discontinuing the Linpus Aspire Ones. Everyone seems to want an obsolete proprietary operating system on netbooks these days, god knows why.
Here is a thought: you would need that much storage in order to be able to infect a netbook with Vista.
The new One is also said to have a 6 cell battery that will last about 7 hours. Low battery life is my only complaint from my current One.
It would be cool if you could now add another memory module without disassembling the whole thing.
I’m quite satisfied with my aspire one anyway, probably because I was well aware of all it’s limitations and it still met my needs.