Acer Aspire One Netbooks
Acer has announced four new additions to the Aspire One netbook line. The AO521 and AO721 feature AMD Athlon Neo II processors, while the AO533 will come with an Intel Atom N475 processor and the AOD260 will round things off with an Intel Atom N450 processor.
The new AMD Athlon Neo II powered netbooks are the Aspire One AO521 and AO721, with LED-backlit 10.1” and 11.6” displays respectively. They use the K125 processor that features a single core clocked at 1.7GHz, 1MB L2 cache and 12W power consumption. Acer’s claim of HD capable performance stem from the graphics provided by an ATI Radeon HD 4225 with 384MB of allocated system memory. With video decoding accelerated by the IGP, at least 720p H.264 playback should be smooth, though we'll have to see about testing 1080p in person.
The smaller AO521 is aimed at ultra mobility with a chassis less than an inch thick and weighing in at around 2.75lbs. It includes a 93% size keyboard, a fairly meager 1GB DDR3 RAM, and a 250GB HDD. The netbook comes with Windows 7 Starter. The AO721 is aimed at the road warrior with a full size keyboard in a chassis that is also less than an inch thick and weighs in at around 3lbs. A more reasonable 2GB DDR3 RAM is fitted along with a 250GB HDD. The netbook comes installed with Windows 7 Home Premium, which makes a nice change from the Windows XP and Windows 7 Starter netbooks.
Connectivity wise, both models feature HDMI ports to make the most of the graphics capabilities. Wired Ethernet and wireless 802.11b/g/n are standard as one would expect. An integrated webcam and digital microphone, along with a gesture-capable trackpad rounds things off. Both models are available now with the 10.1” AO521 coming in at $349.99 and the 11.6” AO721 coming in at $429.99. The latter is rapidly leaving netbook pricing territory, though the HD capable graphics, HDMI port and the fully fledged operating system certainly set it apart from its cheaper rivals. To get a similar experience with Atom, you'll need NVIDIA's ION, and such netbooks are priced similarly.
Acer also launched two new Intel Atom powered netbooks. The AOD260 and AO533 both feature 10.1” WSVGA LED-backlit displays, Ethernet and WiFi, integrated webcams and digital microphones along with gesture-capable trackpads.
The AOD260 is aimed at the style conscious buyer as Acer claim it’s designed as a “fashion accessory” with a patterned design, smooth surfaces, chrome-plated logos and flush battery. The chassis is less than an inch thick and comes in at 2.43lbs or 2.76lbs depending on the battery fitted. Performance comes from a standard Intel Atom N450 processor, and it's available in four colors: black, charcoal, pink, and purple.
The AO533 is aimed at the productive buyer rather than the fashion buyer and bumps the CPU up to an Intel Atom N475. Coupled with a 6-cell battery, it's good for 8 hours from a single charge. This is backed up by 1GB DDR3 RAM and a 250GB HDD. The netbook weighs in at 2.76lbs with a “newly enhanced industrial design.” It’s available with a glossy red, black, or white and like the AOD260 features a flush fitting battery.
The AOD260 and AO533 will be available later this month for $298.00 and $329.99 respectively.
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