First pics of Acer's Aspire One, the Eee PC's evil twin?

Whoa, big day in the land of low-cost ultra-portables. First Dell, now Acer in what appear to be the first shots of Acer's first sub-$500 ultra-portable. The images above were dumped into the forum over at UMPC Portal and show what appears to be an "Aspire One" branding to the right of the touchpad and what could certainly pass as the rumored 8.9-inch display. And although that UI is very un-Microsoft, there's no denying the Microsoft flag waving back from the keyboard. We'll know for sure if this is Acer's contestant in the race to the bottom next week at Computex.

[k2001 @ May 29th 2008 6:20AM]

Acer fire the designer that design this note book. Two color look cheap. Try using just one color.

oh yeah, First comment

[gad get @ May 29th 2008 7:09AM]

How many notebooks use just one color? Seriously. Even Macs don't, and I think there's no denying the Apple designers know what they're doing (appearance-wise). All one light color would just look weird. You need the contrast in order to create a striking image, and thus an attractive notebook.

And btw, I love the design of this thing!

[mog @ May 29th 2008 7:30AM]

gad get: Idunno. My MacBook is all white. If I had purchased the black model, it would have been all black. The MacBook Pro is all silver.

In fact, only MacBook that has more than one color is the just-introduced MacBook Air, which likely uses a black keyboard (1) to show off its whiz-bang illumination and (2) to differentiate itself from the MacBook Pro. And keyboard keys of a different color from the rest of the notebook is far more subtle than this, what with the "different sides of the screen are different colors!" bit.

Still, it looks to be one of the better-designed "netbooks" as far as the keyboard is concerned - someone gets the right shift key arrangement right! In that, and other ways (trackpad buttons and the aforementioned dual-tone lid) this seems to be going after the HP Mini 2133 more than the Eee, design-wise.

[k2001 @ May 29th 2008 7:34AM]

but you got to admit that this laptop look alot worse than the other sub-notebook(excluding the cloudbook). Maybe it is the angle of the shot. At least make the inside all white or all black.

[Khris @ May 29th 2008 8:31AM]

Would I buy this based upon it's appearance? Probably not.

Is it the worst looking UMPC out there? Definitely not.

IMO, the Cloudbook is a horrible looking device. There's nothing attractive about it.

[happy_penguin @ May 29th 2008 7:13PM]

One color would make it look much like a Macbook, not that that's bad because the Macbook looks nice. But this looks nice as it is. It's a very attractive design. Leave it alone.

[Za @ Aug 4th 2008 7:26PM]

Uh, mog, you must be an idiot or something. I have a white Macbook, and it is definitely two colors. Look at the case. That is white. Look at the keys. They are white. Now look at the color of the plastic - grey. Last I checked, grey is not white.

Even if you were color blind, you'd be able to see the different shading. Poorly played.

[Dennis @ May 29th 2008 6:22AM]

I read it was going to be around 299 Euro. That's a great price for a 9" screen. However, I am not sure I like the looks of a black keyboard surrounded by beige. Unless this is a prototype and it will get color coordinated in the production run.

[gad get @ May 29th 2008 7:03AM]

I think it's white, the lighting just makes it off-white.

[Callmy Attorney @ May 29th 2008 6:29AM]

That lid is way too sharp.

[jd @ May 29th 2008 8:03AM]

sell them. now! you must.
i can wait no longer

[Chad @ May 29th 2008 10:34AM]

You were waiting for *Acer* to throw its hat into the mEee Too ring?

Acer....

Seriously?

The fact that there are no less than 10 other brands out there selling netbooks right now - that doesn't matter. You are desperately awaiting the Acer release?

alrighty then...

[martin @ May 29th 2008 8:41AM]

thats one of the nicest sub notebooks i've seen, plus being an acer it wont cost the earth like a sony of the same appearance

[d00b @ May 29th 2008 9:00AM]

Yes! Dedicated PgUp/Dn keys! And cursor keys on its own space and not squishing the bottom row. Too bad Acer didn't copy the rest of the Thinkpad layout and have dedicated Pg Fwd/Bk keys as well, but this is a big ergonomic improvement over the rest of the field. I would favor this on the keyboard improvement alone.

Re: Dell "Mini" - Anyone notice that it doesn't have Function keys?

[d00b @ May 29th 2008 9:19AM]

Er, take that back. Just noticed the funky L/R touchpad buttons. You giveth, and you taketh away.

[riggs @ May 29th 2008 9:23AM]

I Love how it looks, if only the acer logo were black as well

[Ashvala @ May 29th 2008 10:02AM]

Wha?

[jebusta @ May 29th 2008 12:47PM]

I don't know I think it looks better than the dell. The price is about right too. I hope it comes in an alternate color.

[JaXX @ May 29th 2008 5:18PM]

And a windows-less version (thus cheaper) would even be better...


oh... wait, it's an Acer... you get answers from their european support to any question until it comes to answering "I threw out windows and would like I refund as law now allows me"...

[Jeff @ Jun 22nd 2008 6:51PM]

I agree - fanboyisms aside, I think Linux is better suited to low(er) powered portables than Windows - heck, I can run Linux on my Palm Zire 72 with no problem.
Also: "...there's no denying the Microsoft flag waving back from the keyboard."
Mine was inset, so I just slapped an Ubuntu sticker on it :P

[nope1590 @ May 30th 2008 10:36AM]

i see what you did there

[Ky @ May 31st 2008 6:58PM]

Finally! A sub-12 inch that has a proper right-shift key!

[panos @ Jun 10th 2008 11:53AM]

"Finally! A sub-12 inch that has a proper right-shift key!"

This is PRECISELY what I am thinking!!! Bravo Ky!

[Garratt @ Aug 7th 2008 3:57AM]

the acer one looks like a good laptop . the acer website and other currently say that by the end of the year theyl be increasing the ram to 1.5 from 1.0gb and harddrive from 80gb to 120gb and wil also be available with windows and another colour BLACK! god itl look beter in black. also theyl take it up from 3 cell batery (only lasts 2 hours running a movie) to 6 cell.... if i was gona get one il wait til the enda the year.