Acer to launch new Aspire Ones

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 3rd April 2009
Comments (9) Stumble
Acer to launch new Aspire Ones

The Acer Aspire One range is due to grow - and an as-yet unreleased 11.6" model could be just what a fairly stagnant netbook market needs.

The days of pure netbook devices might be numbered, but that isn't stopping manufacturers churning the little beauties out while the going is good: Acer has announced new Aspire Ones to tempt the low-cost crowd.

The first – according to the guys over at Fudzilla – is an update to the existing 10” model we know and love. The specs of the Aspire One 531 are pretty much the same as the existing model – a 10.1” screen with a 1024x600 resolution, on-board WiFi networking, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB mechanical hard drive. This time, however, Acer has opted to move to the newer Atom N280 chip, rather than the N270 which seems to be all the rage at the moment. While the specifications might not excite, the good news is that the manufacturer has managed to slim an already pretty lightweight netbook down a smidge.

Rather more interesting is the new Aspire One 751, which represents an entirely new model. Presenting a design that appears to be half netbook and half notebook, the 751 has a larger 11.6” LED backlit screen with a higher 1366x768 resolution. Buyers will be given a choice of chips, with Intel's Atom Z520 1.33GHz for the budget-concious or a Z530 1.6GHz if you're splashing out. A three cell battery providing four hours usage will be provided as standard, although buyers will have the option of upgrading to six cell version for a claimed eight hours. Graphics are nothing to write home about, being provided by an Intel GMA500 chip – although anyone interested in running one of the new netbook-oriented Linux distros will be pleased by Intel's excellent Linux driver support. Sadly, this will be an aftermarket experiment – so far Acer has only revealed a version running Windows XP Professional.

If you find the small, low-resolution screen of a netbook cramped and awkward, but still want the portability without the pricetag, a design not unlike the Aspire One 751 could be the way to go. Unfortunately, the company has yet to provide pricing details – and it will be cost that makes or breaks this model.

Do you think the incremental upgrade offered by the 531 is enough to grab peoples' attention, or has the larger 751 finally got you interested in owning a netbook? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Quote proxess 3rd April 2009, 15:01
Netbooks have been showing up faster than my grandma can pop her daily pills.
Quote Narishma 3rd April 2009, 15:31
"Graphics are nothing to write home about, being provided by an Intel GMA500 chip – although anyone interested in running one of the new netbook-oriented Linux distros will be pleased by Intel's excellent Linux driver support."

I find this sentence surprising as the GMA 500 is one of the worst supported Intel chips on Linux.
http://www.happyassassin.net/2009/01/30/intel-gma-500-poulsbo-graphics-on-linux-a-precise-and-comprehensive-summary-as-to-why-youre-screwed/
That article is a few months old, so it's possible the situation improved a bit since then, but I've not heard anything about it.
Quote Gareth Halfacree 3rd April 2009, 16:14
Quote:
Originally Posted by Narishma
I find this sentence surprising as the GMA 500 is one of the worst supported Intel chips on Linux.
http://www.happyassassin.net/2009/01/30/intel-gma-500-poulsbo-graphics-on-linux-a-precise-and-comprehensive-summary-as-to-why-youre-screwed/
That article is a few months old, so it's possible the situation improved a bit since then, but I've not heard anything about it.
Strange - my only personal experience is with older Intel graphics chips, which have been great. I do know someone who has a GMA500 and is running Ubuntu on it fine - I note that the person who wrote that article seems to have something against Ubuntu and attempted to hack their driver to work with Mobilin. Whether that had something to do with it I don't know.

That particular issue aside, I stand by my statement - Intel's commitment to open source support is above and beyond anything offered by nVidia or AMD/ATI - both of whom offer only proprietary, binary-blob drivers for the majority of their cards. Intel, on the other hand, has an entire website dedicated to open source drivers for their graphics hardware.
Quote L2wis 3rd April 2009, 16:42
will it be able to play world of warcraft!?
Quote koola 3rd April 2009, 17:37
Quote:
Originally Posted by L2wis
will it be able to play world of warcraft!?

That's exactly what my sister said when I bought her a netbook for her birthday... haha
Quote HourBeforeDawn 3rd April 2009, 20:36
Aspire One 751 is now on my list of Netbooks to consider, the other being the 10" ASUS Touch Screen model when it comes out but this Acer is a bit ahead of it now.
Quote Jipa 4th April 2009, 00:08
Yay or the larger resolution. Boo for the larger physical size.
Quote pendragon 5th April 2009, 16:03
I'm really liking their 10" models
Quote Fruitloaf 5th April 2009, 23:27
Surely I'm not the only person to be holding off on netbooks for their poor resolutions? Maybe its because I want one that can do more than just browse websites but 1024x600 is really limiting for most programs. Now all I really want is an AAO 11" based on ION.
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