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Acer's Aspire One 751 netbook gets officially pictured
This one's been in the oven for some time, but at long last, we're finally able to see official images of the 11.6-inch Aspire One netbook that we first heard about in early March. Obviously aimed at the likes of Dell's Mini 12, this larger-than-usual netbook still packs the all-too-familiar suite of "netbook internals," but that doesn't mean it can't look pretty being average. The relocated VGA port is sure to become this unit's signature (or... something), right beside the sleek overall appearance and nicely spaced keyboard. If we didn't know any better, we'd say we see a little X-Slim in here -- right? One more look after the break, or you can opt for a boatload down in the read link.
Acer's 11.6-inch Aspire One gets a spec list, release date
We've already gotten a good look at Acer's new 11.6-inch Aspire One netbook, and even gotten word of some of the specs, but it looks like Acer has now removed any last bit of mystery on its German website, where it has finally let loose a complete spec list. Now officially dubbed the Aspire One 751, the netbook packs an Atom Z520 processor (as opposed to the Z530 that was initially rumored), along with up to 2GB of RAM, built-in Bluetooth, your choice of three or six-cell batteries, optional 3G, and a 1366x768 resolution on that 11.6-inch display -- not to mention your choice of XP or Vista. Still no official word on a release 'round here, unfortunately, but it looks like it'll be hitting at least some parts of Europe later this month for just over $500.[Via Electronista]
Zen-filled Aspire One netbook makes VAIO P look cheap
Oh, right -- we forgot that Sony's not actually considering the VAIO P a "netbook," but for all intents and purposes, it is. That being said, this highly decorated Aspire One easily blows the pants off of the aforesaid Sony, ringing up at $3,000 (minimum) on eBay. Why so pricey, you ask? No, there's no liquid nitrogen-cooled Core 2 Quad within, nor will you find a CrossFireX graphics setup. What you will see, however, is hours upon hours of TLC poured into this one-of-a-kind machine by Japan's own UFO-Hayashi. Still, for three large this better come bundled with peace, love and happiness for as long as the owner draws breath -- something we're definitely not seeing in the video after the break.
Acer's AT&T 3G-infused Aspire One now at $79 -- price war imminent?
Yeah, we definitely dig where this is headed. With Verizon's subsidized HP Mini 1000 about to hit store shelves at any moment, the AT&T 3G-equipped Aspire One has taken a tumble from $99.99 to $79.99. Just so we're clear: you can actually buy a name brand netbook now for under 80 bones. 'Course, you'll be stuck in a two year data contract with AT&T, and you'll actually have to insert yourself into a pair of pants in order to get the machine from a Radio Shack store, but surely that's a compromise you're willing to make. Here's hoping this leads to free-on-contract netbooks (or close to it) in the very near future. Right, American carriers?[Thanks, Sharukh]
Packard Bell's new DOT S and DOT M netbooks for Europe
Acer-owned Packard Bell is taking Acer's latest and greatest netbooks and rebadging them for the European market. The 10.1-inch DOT S swipes most of its specs from the Acer Aspire One D250, while the DOT M (pictured) goes for the 11.6-inch Aspire One's guts. There do seem to be a few aesthetic differences, however, with a fancy textured palm rest, silver touches to the trackpads and a tweaked lid. The DOT S will be available this week for 299 Euros, while the DOT M hits at the end of this month for 399 Euros.
Plethora of new Acer Aspires, eMachines, Gateway laptops and netbooks unveiled in one fell swoop
In addition to Timeline and the 11.6-inch Aspire One, Acer decided today to announce new laptops much in the way Nikon and other camera makers roll out their PMA lineup -- in groups of eight or more. By our count, we've got at least ten different models here. Aspire 5935 and 8935: The 18.4-inch 8935 laptop can output a 1080p resolution, True 5.1 channel surround sound and houses up to two HDDs totaling 1TB capacity. The 5935 meanwhile can hold just one 500GB HDD and doesn't do full HD. Both support up to 4GB DDR3 memory, biometric fingerprinting, 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, and optional WiMAX. Aspire 3935: A 13.3-inch ultra portable with 1366 x 769 resolution LED-backlit LCD and Intel Core 2 Duo / GM45 express chipset. Features built-in Wi-Fi / WiMAX, up to 4GB DDR3 RAM, biometric fingerprints, and 8 hours of use with a 8-cell battery. eMachines D, E, and G series (pictured): 16 x 9 aspect ratio LCD. Available with Intel Celeron or Pentium processors for all models, plus option for AMD Athlon with E and G series. 14-inch D and 17-inch G have up to 4GB DDR2 RAM, 500GB HDD, while the 15.6-inch E series can feature up to 5GB. All of them boast a wide keyboard, WiFi, webcam, DVD drive, a 5-in-1 card reader, and Windows Vista SP1. Gateway EC series: Lightweight and less than 1-inch thick. The 13-inch netbook has an LED backlit screen with 16 x 9 aspect ratio, Dolby Sound Room, SSD, DDR3 RAM, HDMI out, optional 3G and Bluetooth, webcam, and capacitive hotkeys on top of the keyboard. Gateway 10.1-inch LT20, 11.6-inch LT30: Both are under 2.62 pounds, boast built-in WiFi, Webcam, optional Bluetooth and 3G modules, 5-in-1 card reader, and up to 160GB HDD. The touch pad supports multi-gesture features and reportedly it comes with a "cool protective bag" -- yay? Gateway ID series: Available in glossy midnight blue or night sky with a matte interior and silver-colored touchpad. It's got an 15.6-inch LED backlit screen, slot-in DVD drive, webcam with a curtain (for privacy, obviously), mult-gesture touchpad, and capacitive hotkeys on top of the keyboard. There's still got plenty of missing pieces here, such as pricing and availability for anything here, but one thing's for sure: we are thoroughly overwhelmed by the sheer number of new offerings.
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.
Video: Acer Aspire One D250 gets unboxed
Just days after the machine popped official on some of the company's overseas web portals, Acer's Aspire One D250 netbook has just been acquired and unboxed across the pond. The N280-powered rig doesn't look drastically different than previous Acer netbooks, but you know you're hungry to hit play and search intently for the minute changes. It's just past the break, by the way.
Acer Aspire One D250 and 531 pop official in Germany
This is it, folks -- our wildest dreams are coming true. Oh, and in case you aren't savvy on our wildest dreams, we're talking about having more Aspire Ones to talk about than we can even count. At any rate, the rumored Aspire One D250 and ultrathin Aspire One 531 have both grabbed a landing page over on the outfit's German portal, which likely means we're just minutes, hours or centuries away from seeing these slide over to North America. As for the D250, it checks in with a 10.1-inch WSVGA panel, 160GB HDD, 1.6GHz Atom N270 (or an upgraded 1.68GHz N280) processor, Intel's 945GSE chipset, a multicard reader, up to 2GB of RAM, 0.3 megapixel webcam, Ethernet, WiFi and optional WWAN. The latter machine is a sleek, 1-inch thick (maximum) rig with most of the same specs internally. As for pricing? Try €379 ($502) for the D250 and €399 ($529) for the 531.[Via PortableMonkey]Read - Aspire One D250Read - Aspire One 531
Acer Aspire One Pro could signal a diluting trend
We'd guess that Acer wouldn't intentionally put itself in any sort of contretemps, but its actions are proving otherwise. As ASUS did (and continues to do), it seems that Acer is moving closer and closer to obliterating any semblance of separation between its Aspire netbooks. Shortly after hearing of the 11.6-inch Aspire One comes an ever-so-tweaked variant that reportedly caters to professional and business users. Granted, we're not so sure what suit can sufficiently load those 40 task bar applications on an presumed Atom CPU, but we digress. The always insightful macles has it that the so-called AA1 Pro will sport a more industrial design, a Linux-based OS (Windows optional) and your choice of HDD or SSD. Check the read link for a few more angles, and go ahead and bank on Acer coming clean with the full slate of specs here soon.
8.9-inch Acer Aspire One said to have hard drive flaw, distaste for U2
It looks like any 8.9-inch Aspire One owners out there may want to refrain from playing music full blast through the netbook's speakers for the time being, as some users have found that it can have the unfortunate side effect of completely trashing the hard drive. According to reports on the HardwareCult forum, the problem only affects Aspire One netbooks with standard hard drives, not SSDs, and it arises when the right speaker causes enough vibration and / or magnetic interference to throw the hard drive into a tizzy, leading to a whole host of errors and even some potential data loss. Apparently, the problem was first discovered when someone played U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" at maximum volume, which has since conveniently proven to be an effective tool for reproducing the problem -- not recommended, of course. No word if the new album has any effect.[Thanks, Tigre]
Acer's custom Aspire One netbook: Heinous, exemplified
If the Acer Aspire One netbook above makes you feel uncomfortable, even angry, then you're probably not a Japanese school-girl. Hell, even if you are we hope you have the good sense not to paste stuffed animals, taffeta, and frills to your Atom-based netbook. That's what UMPCs are for.
Acer Aspire One mod adds eSATA port, an element of danger
The blogster known as tnkgrl has just rounded out a delightful series of step-by-step Acer Aspire One hacks covering the gamut from RAM upgrades to installing internal Bluetooth, a 1.8-inch HDD, and HSDPA 3G. For the final part of the series she's salvaged an eSATA socket and placed it just above the venerable netbook's second SD card slot -- and she's provided enough photographic evidence that if this were a crime, she'd go away for a very long time. Of course, this sort of anti-social warranty-voiding business ain't for the timid, but if you're feeling rather Legend Of Billie Jean, here's your opportunity to go wild. [Via Liliputing]
Slimmer Acer Aspire One pops up in the FCC
We're not sure what Acer is up to lately, but this is the second slightly-revised Aspire One we've seen in the past few days -- it looks like that rumored slimmer model with the weird hinge VGA and Ethernet ports is in fact real and headed for our fair shores. No hard specs on this mysterious stranger just yet except for the presence of the 3G SIM slot, but the model number Z68 AO530 strongly suggests that there's an Atom Z530 lurking in there instead of the usual N270. We'll let you know if we find out anything else -- hit the read link for some more pics and oodles of FCC test data.
Acer planning mildly tweaked Aspire One netbook?
We snooped around pretty heavily at Acer's CeBIT booth here in Hannover, but we definitely didn't see a single Aspire One with a port layout like this. That said, we wouldn't put it past the company to push out an oh-so-barely different version of the Aspire One netbook that has already proven remarkably popular. macles* has it that Acer is planning to release a slightly revamped version, possibly dubbed the D250, that'll sport a new motherboard, port layout and a larger hard drive. Outside of that, everything should remain the same, which basically means that it's pulling an ASUS. Awesome.[Via PortableMonkey]
ASUS: Our Eee PC 1000He is better than Acer's Aspire One D150, fashion elegant too
When you're number two, you've always got a humble eye and a gun pointed at number one. Just look at Apple and those "Get a Mac" ads. Now in true Pepsi-challenge fashion, ASUS is trying to convince consumers that its Eee PC 1000He is vastly superior to Acer -- the number one seller of netbooks -- and its Aspire One D150. On the surface, the two laptops appear to be identical in that they share the same N280 processor, 10-inch display, and 1GB of DDR2 memory. Of course, same specs result in an equivalent application performance as seen in the reviews. But if you look closer (as ASUS hopes), you'll see that the 1000He features a larger keyboard and touchpad, faster 802.11n WiFi, and more robust 8,700mAH battery and power management compared to the 5,800mAH jobbie found on the Aspire One. ASUS takes the comparisons much deeper though, right on down to the size of the power bricks to prove its point. Ok ASUS, you win... too bad better products don't always translate to market dominance. P.S. Picture of the competing transformers after the break because we know you're wondering.
Acer Aspire One D150 hands-on
Acer's N280-powered Aspire One D150 has already been reviewed, but considering that we've yet to have the pleasure of meeting, we took that very opportunity today while parked at the company's CeBIT booth. A trio of colors were around for demoing, so we walked our camera around to tag all three. You know the critics think this machine's a-okay, but does it live up to your demanding style standards? Pop down to the gallery below to decide.%Gallery-46764%
Netbook buyer blows by 5GB limit on AT&T data plan, sues
Nothing quite like a four- or five-figure phone bill to break your spirit, and in many circumstances, we can understand why your first reaction after opening such a bill might be "I'll sue the pants off of these people." Of course, contracts are pretty well ironclad thanks to the generations of overpaid lawyers that have perfected them over the years, and generally speaking, you've got to lie in the bed you've made -- but occasionally, a situation develops that's genuinely bogus. This one has been brewing for a while, actually, ever since AT&T and others decided to drop their unlimited data plans down to a 5GB cap: unexpected overage. A buyer of one of those $99 Aspire Ones bundled with an AT&T contract at Radio Shack got a shock of a bill after blowing past her 5GB cap, and while the individual should've certainly done a better job of understanding that the cap existed, shouldn't the carriers be shutting off data by default when you hit 5GB, or after just a very small amount of overage has developed? At any rate, she's suing AT&T and Radio Shack for her troubles -- and it looks like she's seeking class-action status -- so we'd love to see this spur companies into more proactively preventing nasty bills from developing in the first place.
New slimline Acer Aspire One slimline pics, alleged specs leak
After seeing the tiniest bit of evidence this morning of a slimmer Acer Aspire One, an anonymous reader has bragged to netbooknews.de that he's gotten some hands-on time with the laptop, and brought along some purported pics of it as evidence. Dimension-wise, we're looking at 0.95 inches thick, 10 inches wide, 7.28 inches deep. As for specs, it's pretty much what you'd expect from a netbook: 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 with 945GME graphics, 1024 x 600 resolution, 1GB RAM, 802.11 a/b/g, a 3-cell battery that's said to last a discouraging 3 hours or less, and "apparently" integrated UMTS -- no word on whether or not this thing's packing SSD. Overall, the mysterious individual with an enigmatic hat gave it positive impressions, with special props given to the keyboard and touchpad. Hit up the read link for more pics, and Acer? Give us some official glamor shots soon, please.
Acer's Aspire One trims the fat, upcoming slimmer model pictured
At just over an inch thick it's hard to think of a little laptop like Acer's Aspire One as being chubby -- but that doesn't stop us from looking longingly at other, skinnier options in the pipeline. Apparently aware of our wandering eye, Acer is set to release a thinner model that, according to speculation, will buck the netbook storage trend by being SSD-only. Beyond that little is known about this streamlined portable, but you can be sure we'll be keeping an eye out for more info -- between fleeting glances at other hot arrivals, of course. [Thanks, Chris]