Acer's 10in Aspire One spied on web
Big improvement on the original?
Acer's eagerly anticipated 10in version of the popular Aspire One netbook has popped up in pictures on the web.
Acer's 10in AA1: clear improvements over original
Images courtesy AspireOneUser.com
The shots will come as some relief to owners of 8.9in AA1s who've struggled to upgrade the mini-laptop's internals: one picture indicates the the wireless card, hard drive and memory are easily - or at least, more easily - accessible through hatches in the bottom of the new machine.
Easily accessible innards
The 10in AA1 offers only one SD card slot - with an anticipated 160GB hard drive, there's no need for the original machine's Storage Expansion facility - but its other specs are straight-down-the-line netbook: 1.6GHz Atom, 1GB DDR 2 memory, Wi-Fi, webcam, VGA port, Ethernet port and a trio of USB connectors.
Customary netbook port array
Acer is expected to chuck in Bluetooth too, and there's likely to be a 3G option as well.
The new model takes a lot of design cues from the original AA1, but we note that the sideways touchpad buttons are not among them, thank goodness.
The 10in AA1 - already confirmed by Acer - is expected to go on sale next month. ®
Netbook Reviews...
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COMMENTS
@RE: So it's MS' fault that they're all the same?
Any saving from removing the MS tax so the budget can be put on better spec'd hardware is quite the desirable end. Dual core Atom, next-gen SSD, more memory, higher-res screen. It's in our future and once MS declines to license XP for netbooks any longer and wants to force Win7 instead, we'll see more people than ever moving to 'nix for their portable computing.
People want XP, but for various reasons. Once more and more people are using 'nix on netbooks, others start noticing and leave behind the perception that they "need" windows by observing others doing without it.
Plus, they can always add that (XP) later. Gone are the days when people lack access to information, a simple Google search will provide details of mundane things like installing the most popular OS on earth.
RE: So it's MS's fault that they're all the same?
I think you missed the point of the MS imposed limitations - the XP versions are the limited ones, but IF Acer want to release a 1280x800, 4GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, 2.0 GHz Atom Linux version, there's nothing stopping them... they just can't put XP on it. However, any saving from removing the MS tax is also lost in the extra cost of the components as well as the lack of scale of economy in terms of production lines.
Somewhere, I think the beancounters have realised that Joe Public wants to use XP as they are used to it and it is within their comfort zone, and so to make this line a success they need to sell to Joe and Joanne Public rather than James T. Geek as the former accounts for millions of sales, and the latter tens of thousands, so they go off and target the larger audience with what they feel comfortable with.
Cold hard economics meets IT wishful thinking, but with the deciding vote by economists.
@Cameron Colley
"Won't they just be miffed they didn't wait for the new, improved, model?"
In a word, yes.
In a few words, if you come across Z-stock AA1s with the 8GB SSD, don't touch them with a barge pole if you intend to run a full, journalled OS on it [Win on NTFS, Linux with EXT3 etc] as the controller on the SSD is utterly fucking atrocious. And you can't just install a 2.5" HDD like they have on the XP models, because the XP models have a physically different chassis to fit it - you have to hunt down a low profile, 1.8" [and 5mm deep IIRC] HDD of the iPod ilk to make it fit.
*goes off to hunt down 1.8"x5mm deep HDDs on eBay*
Steven R
[NB - it is usable - but even with FAT32 the SSD controller chip shits itself when it clears it's cache and just --stops-- for ten seconds or more before carrying on as if nothing has happened...toss!]
Huh?
Paltry 512MB, paltry 60GB HDD, paltry this, no that ... just what sort of shite are people trying to run on these things ?
I'm using XP SP2 on a 256MB 1GHz Celeron, 20GB HDD desktop and it's plenty serviceable for all everyday intents and purposes ( yes, I'll buy a better machine if some Hollywood bigshot wants me to CGI their next film for them - and I won't expect a Netbook to be up to the job, nor whinge when it isn't ).
I really don't know how people can live without an eight bedroomed house, two cars and a private jet.
Paris : 'cos if you had her you'd still be complaining.
So it's MS's fault that they're all the same?
Can someone compain to the EC about this flagrant abuse of a monopoly, please? In these depressed times I'm sure some more million-dollar-per-day fines would come in useful ;-)
Meanwhile, perhaps ASUS or another could once again go back to the original Linux/EeePC concept, and bring one out with 2Gb RAM and a higher-res screen, running Linux only if MS won't play along. And perhaps once again it will prove that people do not insist on Windows, and once again force Microsoft's hand? (The first time was to resume selling XP, this time would just force them to sell it on higher-spec systems. Preferably, on anything. Surely by now even MS knows that Vista is as popular as a turd in the punch-bowl? )
That said, 1024x600 is perfectly useful (even with XP), and you can have higher resolutions on a desktop monitor plugged into the VGA socket while you are working at your main desk.
10inch vs 9inch? It depends on your eyesight and/or on your typing. I find the 9 inch keyboard just a bit too small to be pleasant to type on. 10 inch, though a little smaller than standard, is much better. 1.25kg is 250grams more than a 9 inch one, but still at least a kilo lighter than any cheap "full" notebook PC. There might even be a market for an 11 inch one with a full sized keyboard.
