Acer's 11.6-inch Aspire One goes legit

After a little bit of suspense-free rumoring, the 11.6-inch Acer Aspire One is now official -- and pretty lovable. It's an inch thick, boasts a LED backlit screen with WXGA resolution, and runs the usual netbook internals like an Intel Atom processor, 160GB HDD and 802.11 b/g WiFi. On top of that there's Bluetooth, 3G, Dolby Pro Logic Sound and a multicard reader. It's also got a 8-hour lifespan with a 6 cell 5200mAh battery. Build quality is top-notch for its class, and we'd say Acer's doing good by the Aspire One name -- though they're messing with any sort of tight definition of "netbook" in the process. No word yet on price or availability.

Gallery: Acer Aspire One 11.6-inch hands-on

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[Jimmy Jones @ Apr 7th 2009 10:49PM]

Acer must be trying so hard to pull some sale figures and "top-net/note/book" seller spot by year end..... what exactly is their year-end target again?

I better start my own company.......what is it that I'm waiting for....

[RoboDan @ Apr 7th 2009 11:44PM]

... but it's an Acer

[notselfcreated @ Apr 7th 2009 10:51PM]

Wow, hey, Bluetooth in a netbook. Whodathunkit?

[Sean @ Apr 7th 2009 10:51PM]

Sweet XP PRO!!!! I'll take one.

[jeesusfreek @ Apr 7th 2009 10:53PM]

i actually really like this
form factor is looking nice
normal internals, but i'm guessing the size would allow for a 5400 RPM 500GB to be put in there (which is the first thing I'd do)
hopefully allows RAM upgrades!!

put all of that in that package for less than $400 and I'm sold.

[Spiraling Shape @ Apr 7th 2009 10:55PM]

It looks like it has multitouch too. At any rate it seems like a good compromise

[Mike @ Apr 7th 2009 10:59PM]

I swear, these days it seems manufacturers will call any laptop with an Atom processor a netbook.

I'm just waiting for the 15" netbooks to start being announced. What happened to the 7" screen? Isn't that what a netbook was all about?

[Neoprimal @ Apr 7th 2009 11:18PM]

There are quite a few people who return the 7 to 9 inch netbooks because they are just TOO small. Sure you can make stuff LOOK bigger, but surfing isn't comfortable on them by any means - nothing is. So 10 inches to 12 or 13 will hit the sweet spot at long as they remain very light and cheap.

I think you're right about the size and the thin line and blurring between net and note book, but for me it's a matter of price AND size more so than just size or just price. If it's 600+ then I don't consider it a netbook - it's gotta be a umpc and something had to have distinguished it entirely from it's 300 cousins, no matter how small. Same thing if it's over 13 inches or over 4lbs...it's not a netbook.

I'm still waiting for them to include a dual core atom or via chip to buy mine.

[Rotaryfan @ Apr 7th 2009 11:32PM]

netbooks are all about the net. the processor is intended to be irrelevant, because it doesn't take much to browse the web. Core 2 duos in 11" form factors are utter overkill. the Atom is plenty powerful for XP. ideally, the larger netbooks will allow for larger batteries, which would in turn allow for a decent amount of use unplugged. Any larger and I'm totally with you.

I suppose that any larger than this, and it could be considered a battery powered nettop. On that vein, why not give it a touch screen and a disk drive. and DDR3. and a giant SSD, and an HDTV Tunder, and...

If they shrunk the bezels on most netbooks, they could probably fit 11" screens. that would be sweet.

[YpoCaramel @ Apr 8th 2009 12:47AM]

I don't think the vision of extremely cheap, 7" notebook only for surfing the internet works anymore. Sure, that was the original concept, but as soon as Windows XP came along people started to use the computers as cheap ultraportables. The netbook now is basically a cheap, small and light notebook now with an ever-expanding number of abilities. Manufacteurs have, for the most part, acknowledged this and moved away from the original vision (which doesn't sell as well) and made netbooks larger, nicer and more multi-media oritented.

As for it being all about the net - its more than that. Office tasks, word processing, and even light video use - people will use netbooks the way they are used to with other computers, to the extent possible by the hardware, not as some new type of device.

[GadgetGeek @ May 3rd 2009 4:33PM]

You guys are all correct... but have a freak'n cutoff already.. say 13 inch? Anything above that would just confuse the 'netbook' industry.

[TouchHack++ @ Apr 7th 2009 11:06PM]

What is the first notebook pictured? its a 13.3 incher.

[Will @ Apr 7th 2009 11:10PM]

It looks like some pictures of another Aspire laptop are mixed in. For example, http://www.engadget.com/photos/acer-aspire-one-11-6-inch-hands-on/1477682/

Says 10+ hours, Centrino 2 processor and 13.3" screen.

Anyways, I might be amenable to a 11.6-inch netbook if it gets 5 or 6 hours of battery life (assuming that the 8 hours they claim is inflated as it is with every manufacturer), as long as the price is below, say.. $600? I'm also curious what the weight is.

If they put it under $500 retail they'll make a killing.

[Chris @ Apr 7th 2009 11:19PM]

299.99 at Best Buy, Available for purchase now.

[birthday is 1990 @ Apr 7th 2009 11:27PM]

Nope.
Perhaps you were looking at this?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9186249&st=acer&lp=3&type=product&cp=1&id=1218049844243

[Alex @ Apr 7th 2009 11:26PM]

though it is early I got mine from Micro Center & J&R


the 299.99 is the old 8.9" one

[Frogboy @ Apr 7th 2009 11:27PM]

Could be the perfect netbook. Price will be the main concern. An almost full resolution screen is really the one thing that netbooks needed although I'd have preferred 1280x800 like the HP but hey, beggars can't be choosy. I say that we just drop the whole "netbook" term and just make laptops of all sizes from now on. Why does everyone care what word we use to classify it?

[Diseage @ Apr 7th 2009 11:28PM]

I really like the size, I don't give a crap what you call it. Also diggin the resolution. However, I'm holding out to see what the Dell Mini 11 is all about. I like the sound of laptop performance with an 11.6 inch screen.

[digitallysick @ Apr 7th 2009 11:31PM]

Processor and screen res please?

[Mystik @ Apr 7th 2009 11:49PM]

According to the blurb below the photo, it should be WXGA resolution (1366x768) with an Intel Atom processor.

[Lancelot @ Apr 8th 2009 12:04AM]

The screen size is right on for those of us who can't use the 8", 9" or 10" due to vision issues but as usual I bet it will be priced higher than most 14" or 15" notebooks. As soon as someone comes out with an 11" or 12" netbook that sales for $399 & has a good hardware package I'll purchase one & put OS X Leopard on it.. Can't wait.. I think I just got goosebumps up my arm..

[LongshotX @ Apr 8th 2009 12:51AM]

You'd be better off putting Windows 7 on it unless you need someone to hold your hand while you use the computer.

[laughing_skullx @ Apr 7th 2009 11:59PM]

Looks really nicely built. I don't know if I could adjust going from 1920x1200 to these small resolutions though.

[Ted @ Apr 8th 2009 12:30AM]

It Aspires to be a netbook worth owning.

[Tagbert @ Apr 8th 2009 1:40AM]

"a LED backlit screen with WXGA resolution"

I hate these stupid designations like "WXGA", "WUXGA" and "WSXGA+". What is that? 1280×800, 1366×768, 1280x960?

They tell you nothing useful. Why not just list the damned pixel dimensions. Much more informative.

[hatax3 @ Apr 8th 2009 4:44AM]

Looks perfect, I sold my 8.9" Aspire One because someone needed a good deal on a used netbook and now I've been searching. Really my main requirements are the N280, bluetooth, at least 768 lines of horizontal res, and upgradeable to 2gb of ram.

Looks like it'll be the next purchase as long as it's under $400!

[Helmsman @ Apr 8th 2009 5:36AM]

My Eeepc 701's 7" screen has 'at least 768 lines of horizontal res'... It's 800x480 :-)

[rogerionascimento @ Apr 8th 2009 5:52AM]

Does it have backlit keyboard?

In some pics it looks like, no???

[Howe @ Apr 8th 2009 2:20PM]

no backlit keyboard~
but it's a FULL size keyboard!!!

[fikhl @ Apr 8th 2009 12:40PM]

Yeah finally!!

[happeaflyer @ Apr 9th 2009 5:16AM]

"Sweet XP PRO!!!! I'll take one."

I agree with that! and MS is extending XP lifetime to 2011 or something!

WINDOWS XP ROCKS!!!

[Richard @ May 18th 2009 11:12AM]

Surprisingly, I saw these at my local Wal-Mart over the weekend. $399 or $499 - I can't remember...

[Thoughtcity @ Jun 17th 2009 2:43PM]

I just bought the 11.6" with the 3-cell battery for $349 from costco. Works great so far.