NVIDIA Ion 2-based Acer Aspire 532g netbook canceled

Acer may have announced a handful of new netbooks this morning, but we've been waiting and waiting on the NVIDIA Ion 2-powered Acer Aspire One 532g. And we hate to be the bearer of this bad news, but it turns out we could be waiting forever on the 10-inch, 1080p-playing netbook. Blogeee is reporting that bugger has been canceled in France due to technical issues with NVIDIA and Acer drivers, and when we followed up with our Acer contact here in the US, we were told that the 532g would not be launched in the "upcoming back-to-school cycle." It's truly not looking good for the little laptop, not to mention it's extremely disappointing not to see any other Ion 2 netbooks on the market almost five months after its launch. Well 532g, we'll always look back on our time together at CeBIT fondly. Sniff.

[nrm590 Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:16PM]

NO..........

[N900 Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:47PM]

@nrm590 He's canceled, Jim.

[huskie fluff Posted Jun 18th 2010 7:53PM]

@N900 well, thats nvidia for you. driver issues ahoy!

[redsyrup Posted Jun 19th 2010 1:28AM]

@nrm590 I have feeling intel's in charge. Those guys keep a tight leash on their OEMs.

[One Love Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:18PM]

OMG..........

[DefPoet Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:19PM]

NVIDIA driver problems. Nah couldn't be :-D

[StalkyTheFish Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:19PM]

NOOOOOOOOO!!! This is the netbook I was waiting for!

I guess I'll have to go look at the upcoming AMD/ATI stuff that got mentioned somewhere a while back. I don't remember the details because I didn't pay much attention because I had my heart set on this one. ]

I want a 10" netbook with discrete graphics, dammit! Why is this so hard?

[StalkyTheFish Posted Jun 18th 2010 5:00PM]

@StalkyTheFish

Any more news about the 521 since this?
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/19/acer-set-to-launch-amd-based-aspire-one-521-netbook/

[Joanna Stern Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:23PM]

I am seriously upset about this. It's a real shame they couldn't get this thing together.

[Beckler Posted Jun 18th 2010 6:32PM]

@Joanna Stern

Ya me too j-stern. You'd think they were trying to put a man on Mars or something; is it really this hard? Anyway, ion2 Asus 1201PN apparently in stock at amazon...

[hdrhc3 Posted Jun 18th 2010 6:49PM]

@Beckler

Not sure but word on the street is that the 1201PN is not Optimus enabled? Somebody correct me if I'm wrong...

[rstoplabe14 Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:24PM]

Problems with nVidia, no, are you kidding.... (Well at least they are not hiding it like last time)

[Independence76 Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:36PM]

Don't they mean "DELAYED?"

[psiko Posted Jun 18th 2010 5:44PM]

@Independence76

No the model looks to be canceled.

[LANjackal Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:46PM]

Not missing it on this end. The quicker the whole netbook fad dies, the better IMO. Concepts like this belong where the PDA is: 6 feet under.

[Jordus Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:54PM]

@LANjackal The PDA concept simply merged with cell phones, its not dead. The Tablet/netbook concept is one that has formed out of the desire to be mobile, as has the smartphone/PDA concept. Laptops outsell desktops now and that trend will likely never reverse.

[HemanC Posted Jun 18th 2010 5:03PM]

@LANjackal

Yea, netbooks are out but tablets are in (again). Is there any tablet that are NVIDIA Ion 2-based? I wouldn't touch any portable that's not Ion 2 based.

[Scotjo Posted Jun 18th 2010 8:24PM]

@LANjackal If you don't like a product, you don't have to buy it...

[Michael Scrip Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:46PM]

Is there anything equal to or better than the HP Mini 311 ?

I want a netbook... and after playing with my friend's HP Mini 311... I like its 11" screen and 1366 x 768 resolution.

[pavlindrom Posted Jun 18th 2010 4:48PM]

@Michael Scrip
it's the one I've been eyeing, but I think it should be beaten soon in 'bang per buck', so I'm waiting.

[einhanderkiller Posted Jun 18th 2010 5:30PM]

@Michael Scrip
Yeah, I'm looking at the HP Mini 311 for a netbook to take to class, but I'm wondering if there's something better on the way.

[KevinQ Posted Jun 18th 2010 5:22PM]

The whole ION2 architecture is flawed by design. The new Atom cpu limits the gpu--cpu link to PCIe x1 and therefore not enough bandwidth for 1080p flash video playback. It's a hardware limitation that no driver or fix will resolve.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3765/new-driver-enables-smooth-1080p-flash-playback-on-nvidia-ngion

[petebob796 Posted Jun 18th 2010 5:51PM]

@KevinQ It's not NVIDIAS fault they are limited by the atoms chipset

[KevinQ Posted Jun 18th 2010 5:55PM]

@petebob796

Regardless of whose fault it is, Nvidia should just throw in the towel on this one and move on. They are getting plenty of business from Apple and should focus on things that work for them.

[tekdemon Posted Jun 18th 2010 9:09PM]

@KevinQ Forget Atom, they can't even get 1080p hardware acceleration to work on their older video cards that promised it. The 8400GS for example goes nuts if you try to use hardware acceleration at 1080P in Vista or Windows 7 because the way the nVidia drivers are set up it runs out of memory (at least that's the most likely explanation from what I can tell) on most configurations even though in theory it has Turbocache. Pretty crummy for something that was supposed to have purevideo HD. Most "fixes" seen on forums seem to involve giving up and using software decoders, although there is also the option of using weird proprietary renderers that compromise video quality.

[Seiche Posted Jun 20th 2010 12:50AM]

@KevinQ
Intel makes great cpu`s and nvidia makes great graphics cards. Why can`t they just freaking get along?

[petebob796 Posted Jun 18th 2010 5:47PM]

I wonder if ION 2 is going to disappear or is it just a slow start like the original ION. I am still waiting on the shuttle XS35.

[technogecko6 Posted Jun 18th 2010 6:19PM]

If they could put out something with the design and such of the Mini 311 with Ion 2, I would buy it in a heartbeat :/

[Nogib Posted Jun 18th 2010 6:22PM]

Guess Atom + Broadcom Crystal HD is the best we can do for Flash video acceleration on netbooks. Damn shame nVidia couldn't get their drivers together.

[ebon Posted Jun 18th 2010 7:09PM]

I doubt the world will lament the loss of yet another netbook line.

[airbag888 Posted Jun 18th 2010 8:54PM]

@ebon I am

[coro Posted Jun 18th 2010 9:03PM]

ASUS Eee PC 1015N anyone?

http://www.netbookreviews.net/asus/1015n/

Only USB 3.0 and a better resolution missing...

[onecallednick Posted Jun 18th 2010 11:37PM]

A sad day for nvidia, to be sure, to be boxed out of yet another market. A great day for AMD, who realizes that even netbook users would like decent graphics performance. The Radeon HD 3200/4200 IGP with the Athlon Neo looks to be a potent competitor for this space and will only get better as AMD brings more muscle to bear on this sector.

[SurgeArrest Posted Jun 19th 2010 1:02AM]

Blame Intel!!!!

Their chipset that is used with PineTrail Atom leaves only 1 PCI-e lane for the graphics card, that's not even enough to decode Blu-Ray stream.

Unfortunately it is not nVidia issue this time. The only hope is for the AMD Fusion laptops next year which hopefully will not be delayed.

[JakeInDC Posted Jun 19th 2010 5:41AM]

Can someone cancel ATOM processors forever?

[mastassmasta Posted Jun 20th 2010 9:14PM]

lets all thank Intel for Anti-Trust practices that are obviously stopping this from getting off the ground................

The Ion 2 whoops the shit out of anything intel intergrated in benchmarks. The only other reason why it snot on the market must be price.

[Pixelz Posted Jun 21st 2010 5:04AM]

This sucks! I have postponed buying a netbook to get this one, it seemed to have everything I wanted:
- small form factor but with high resolution screen
- very good battery life
- 1080p HD capabilities, HDMI
- win7 home premium (not the starter edition).

Does anyone know of products with similar specs to be released soon?
Is the ASUS with ION2 still going to be released or is the entire ION2 project dead?

Perhaps I should look at a tablet, Notion Ink Adam looks promising. If that one is not cancelled too.