Acer Aspire One goes official on AT&T's 3G network

Hey, remember that Acer Aspire One equipped with on-board 3G we spied in a Radio Shack ad the other day? Well guess what? It's real -- and we've got the PR to prove it. Just as expected, the netbook is being offered for the teensy price of $99.99 (coupled with a lengthy and expensive contract with AT&T). The diminutive laptop comes equipped with a single mind-blowing gigabyte of memory and a decently sizeable 160GB hard drive. Besides doing its mobile broadband thing, it also sports 802.11b/g, weighs in at 2.44 lbs., and will never, ever seem worth it in the long run.

[who? @ Dec 11th 2008 10:02PM]

Neato. Do you think you can bundle this with your phone service to save more $$$ per month?

[PyRo1509 @ Dec 11th 2008 10:06PM]

NO

[who? @ Dec 11th 2008 10:12PM]

Yeah, that's what I thought:

"AT&T, Your World, Delivered"*

*Then repossessed.

[Flashpoint @ Dec 12th 2008 12:29AM]

I wanted 3G service on my Lenovo and I didn't want my pants pulled down over the price.

so I used QUICKPWN to unlock my iphone 2.2 and then downloaded PDAshare.

Now its a wireless Bluetooth modem running on At&t's 3G.


That's right Apple, At&T and FCC.... I spat in your face!

[who? @ Dec 12th 2008 1:17AM]

@flashpoint

Too bad you didn't get Netshare before it was pulled from the App Store like I did! Now if I only had an iPhone, $2000 for the contract, and a way to avoid the repo man... ;)

[admiral H @ Dec 12th 2008 2:29AM]

Will probably stick with my tethering & laptop combo, considering that monthly cost right now.

admiral H
http://admiralh.wordpress.com

[Wizardhowl @ Dec 11th 2008 10:08PM]

This just isn't worth it. Sixty bucks is way too expensive considering that adds on to my current one-hundred plus phone bill. I would totally go for it if it was around twenty or maybe even thirty bucks a month but sixty is just insanely high.

[1234321 @ Dec 11th 2008 11:39PM]

not to mention it's still $100 and a 2 year contract, a cellphone is one thing, but can you imagine how a netbook will age after two years, the eeePC 701 is pretty much a joke now after just over a year

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 13th 2008 2:46AM]

Yep, and all the cell phone companies in the USA are in collusion.... 3G Mobile broadband is $60/month FROM EVERY COMPANY!?! What the hell? Where is the price competition... There is no way that most mainstream users are going to spend $60 in addition to whatever their existing cell phone plan (and home broadband) costs. $30/month would be much more realistic, especially for customers who have an existing monthly cellphone contract...

[iCandy @ Dec 11th 2008 10:09PM]

Tether...... oh wait

[andres @ Dec 11th 2008 10:18PM]

and thus the astronaut was never seen again

[nick @ Dec 11th 2008 10:19PM]

QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ

[birthday is 1990 @ Dec 11th 2008 10:30PM]

Your mother.

[who? @ Dec 11th 2008 10:35PM]

Fruition!

[appendage1 @ Dec 11th 2008 10:21PM]

Can't you just buy the laptop and cancel the contract? You'd owe what -- a $175 early termination fee? That would make the laptop $275.

[Todd @ Dec 11th 2008 10:27PM]

"Can't you just buy the laptop and cancel the contract? You'd owe what -- a $175 early termination fee? That would make the laptop $275."

Don't forget about the $36 act fee and one month of service billed in advance so your 275 is now almost 375 + taxes and fees, I'll pass.

[bebop @ Dec 11th 2008 10:52PM]

And you can buy the laptop, minus the 3G modem, for $350... maybe with only 120GB, but whatever, the point is it's only a 3-cell battery.

[Evilgiggle @ Dec 12th 2008 12:51AM]

If you cancel within 30 days, you have to return the acer to the store you bought it from (in this case radioshack) to avoid cancellation or other charges. If you cancel within 90 days, you incur the early termination fee, and still must return the acer or be charged 375 for the laptop as well. After 90 days you can cancel and only be charged the early termination fee (175), minus 5 dollars for every month you were on contract. Also, and no one here will probably care all that much, if someone buys this from radioshack and cancels their contract within 90 days and does NOT return the acer, the store they bought it from gets a chargeback for canceled contract as well as the unsubsidized price of the acer :( It's probably a better idea to just get a free aircard for the same monthly price and use it on whatever laptop/desktop you'd like

[SeijinZero @ Dec 14th 2008 1:31AM]

Dude, amazon has the one with the 160 gb hard drive, 1 gig ram, and 6 cell (6 hour) battery for $378. I have one and it's great. it's SO small and light and gets the job done. No video games or video editting or anything like that, but I can use photoshop and the internet. The article says "it will never be worth it" but I'm sure they mean the ridiculous $60 or more fee. I did some research, and it's by far the best netbook for the money.

[Rahim @ Dec 11th 2008 10:25PM]

Boy do i feel bad for ASUS and their Eee pc right now..... but I can't help but smile =) and commend the Acer Aspire One!

[John @ Dec 12th 2008 1:14AM]

Weird, I just bought an EEE 900A and I'm not feeling badly about it at all.

[Pastry Chef @ Dec 11th 2008 10:36PM]

What if you cancel the contract during the no penalty period?

[LWood @ Dec 11th 2008 10:46PM]

Usually the no-penalty means you're returning the device, so, you don't gain anything that way.

[CJ @ Dec 11th 2008 10:37PM]

Stop being such snobs engadget, the aspire one is a well rounded piece of gadgetry.
yes the contract price may seem a bit steep in the us.
but here in the uk you can bag this or the advent 4213 for under $400 and for $10-15 per month unlimited data without contract...
---Sent from my aspire one with XP($300 Amazon.co.uk with damaged cardboard box)

[Tes @ Dec 12th 2008 9:28AM]

You can't get this model in the UK at all. 3G, 160Gb hard drive, 1.3mp cam and 6 cell battery. The best one that Amazon has has has a 120Gb hard drive, 0.3mp cam and 3 cell battery. No 3G card slot.

[CJ @ Dec 12th 2008 9:51AM]

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!

[digitallysick @ Dec 11th 2008 10:40PM]

You are better off teathering , and buying the aspire one out right. But, noobs will fall for this

[drewdoog @ Dec 11th 2008 10:40PM]

$60 a month! haha

[Tiny Pen!s @ Dec 11th 2008 10:43PM]

used to have a HP business laptop but was a bit too bulky botokumus(9lbs) so i currently use my skypephone s2 with my aspire one for unlimited data for £5 per month....

[bebop @ Dec 11th 2008 10:56PM]

$60 a month! You'd think that in the current economic climate, people would be looking at ways to reduce the monthly bills, not add to them.

[linderman @ Dec 11th 2008 10:59PM]

Here we go again...a major ripoff in the making. So, the customer gets a netbook which is usually considered a second computer. The Aspire One can be obtained anywhere for $349, including Wal Mart and Costco. The family might want to purchase several of these computer since they are so cheap. Now, AT&T wants to charge $59.99 per month, per laptop to have an embedded broadband 3G card. The card will not work with any wireless router since it is embedded into the Aspire One. Chance are that the customer has more than one laptop or computer so they will have to purchase multiple accounts at $59.99 each.

Wouldn't it be simpler to just purchase a USB modem that can be shared or placed into a Cradlepoint or Kyocera KR-2 router and there will only be one charge of $59.99 per month? Also what if someone in the family wants to purchase a new laptop in a couple of months? They will have to either purchase a new modem, do an ESN swap so the modem is compatible with multiple computers or the customer will have to purchase an entirely new modem account for another $59.99 per month.

The problem is that the customers will not think about this when they make the purchase, they will only see the free computer or the cheap modem.

I own an Aspire One as a second laptop and I know several other people who do. We all have Verizon 3G USB727 modems.

This is a prime example of a wireless voice company who is irresponsibly pushing this on customers instead of creating family plans and making this product affordable for the masses. All of these morons who are running these companies are looking at their metrics, ARPU (average revenue per unit) and the bottom line while they continue to screw their customers. The worst thing of all is they are locking the customers into two year contracts with this crap and are charging high early termination fees as a consequence.

Remember the old cliche people, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is! Shame on you AT&T and any other company who does this. I can understand this if they put the product into a more expensive computer which is not going to become someone's second computer but this is outrageous and the mainstream customers who are the most vulnerable need to be informed of this common sense before they throw their money away and have to deal with AT&T's wonderful customer care and retention department in the future.

[Tiny Pen!s @ Dec 11th 2008 11:12PM]

yes but if the average person was intelligent there would be max 10 posts per engadget article and no-one would pay prepaid prices for data...

[John @ Dec 12th 2008 1:13AM]

Hey buddy, some of us have bandwidth caps over here. Mind cutting down the verbiage a bit?

[alexkapone @ Dec 12th 2008 6:42AM]

Its early in the morning and I accidentally voted you down... but that comment was spot on.

[Alan Strangis @ Dec 12th 2008 10:14AM]

Forget second laptop. I've been using my Acer Aspire One as my only laptop.

I tether my AA1 to my Diamond, with great 3G results with no tethering fee.

[lkw15 @ Dec 12th 2008 10:38AM]

"Shame on you, AT&T?" Oh come on man. Your contention that this is worthless because YOU think it is is arrogant and frankly, a bit ridiculous. Just because you don't think it's a good deal and it doesn't work for your lifestyle, there are plenty of people who would disagree. Maybe the govenrment should set up a netbook czar to make sure people don't get taken by these huge evil wireless conglamorates.

[Maestro @ Dec 11th 2008 11:05PM]

Looks cool (from the picture anyway).

[keatonreckard @ Dec 11th 2008 11:10PM]

so basically you can get a month of service, 3g card and a aspire one for the same price of buying an aspire one upfront....dont see the problem in that at all

[Sameer Surampalli @ Dec 11th 2008 11:49PM]

I bet if this was the Apple One, this would be received with flying colors and called one of the most remarkable creations in technology to date. Furthermore, this measly 1GB would be considered enormous and the laptop would be absolutely worth it in the long run.

[medici @ Dec 12th 2008 12:49AM]

Leave Apple out of this already. The only part in common is AT&T which is the extremely annoying part. It ought to be illegal to restrict the on board 3G. This is anti-competitive behavior. Probably interesting material for the EU court.
This is going the wrong direction when a good idea of putting a SIM card slot in PC's is basically hijacked by the service providers. They should stay unlocked. I travel all over the world for business and companies like AT&T that lack international service are a huge money drain and slow down the technology developments. AT&T and the like, concentrate on your core business and keep your hands off hardware. Top customer service would be already a huge achievement.

[Kathleen @ Dec 12th 2008 12:00AM]

I bought one of these from Staples. It works great with my local cable co. connection. It's a great alternative to my 17" Dell laptop to carry around. For the price $349 it's so worth it.

As far as this AT and T crap I would never go for that. I don't need any special card as I've taken this mini laptop to different places and it works just fine. Great machine for the money, just buy it somewhere ELSE (staples, etc.)

[Harrison66 @ Dec 12th 2008 1:02AM]

Now that I think about it I'm totally getting this...from NewEgg of course. My ATT my contract expires tomorrow. I'll just keep paying the 15 bucks for unlimited data for internet usage on my Razr V3, pay regular monthly bill and just use my bluetooth dongle to teether to the aspire for internet access when on the go. And yes I'm sure alot of people are doing this and not falling for the bs Radio Shack shenanigans. I pity the fool that signs up for this shady deal.

[ace587 @ Dec 12th 2008 12:59AM]

PDAnet ftw

[Sal @ Dec 12th 2008 1:27AM]

I got mine at sam's club for$350.00. I love it.

[Stuart @ Dec 12th 2008 11:14AM]

It is a good deal if you want to get the service. I have the service already and it is worth it for me and those who travel a lot will find the benefits of internet everywhere outweigh the cost of wifi. I can put my sim in any number of devices and usb modems...no hassle with ESN number. And it is easy to get it sim unlocked...just call AT&T and tell them you are going overseas and they can give you the unlock code. If you don't want it, don't buy it. But I am thinking of getting more than one 3G equipped netbook....definitely worth 99 dollars

[skytofu @ Dec 12th 2008 2:09AM]

damn this is too much. that contract going to cost more than the actual unit on regular price

[Ryan @ Dec 12th 2008 2:26AM]

So this has an embedded 3G modem? Not just a sim card that goes in the computer?

[Chris @ Dec 12th 2008 10:42AM]

No, it has a second mini PCIe slot. The non-3G AAO's have the contacts on the main board, so Acer just added the components to make it work.

Personally, I like my AAO. If I want WWLAN I'll just tether it. Not as aesthetic, but definitely cheaper.

[Ramon @ Dec 17th 2008 7:57PM]

I have an Aspire One with 3G I bought with no contract (part # LU.S090B.101). I currently have unlimmited Internet with my AT&T iPhone. I inserted my SIM card into the slot and am able to send and recieve text messages...just not able to connect to the network...keep getting Error 619. Is there any way to configure this correctly to browse with the AT&T SIM card?

[Mattybats @ Dec 18th 2008 3:41AM]

Does the unactivated one still come with the 3g module? Is it unlocked. Can I unlock it easily and throw in my sim card with a data plan?