The much-anticipated 10.1″ Acer Aspire One has officially been announced, at least in Europe. While it still maintains the same resolution (1024×600) and storage (160GB 2.5″ SATA HDD), the addition to the Aspire One line (or replacement for the 8.9″ Acer Aspire One) addresses several issues that have been raised since the launch of the 8.9″ Aspire One.
The most important, in my opinion, is adding access panels to the bottom in order for the memory/RAM and hard drive to be easily serviced and/or replaced or upgrade. Given that most other netbook makers allowed for easy access so that the customer could upgrade the RAM to 2GB (given how cheap it is) as well as replace the drive with something larger, or one of the cheaper SSDs that have been rolling out lately.
The mouse buttons have also been moved to the bottom of the touchpad instead of the sites. That’s not as important in my opinion, but for others it’s a big change. Many of us learned to use our thumbs and tapping on the touchpad, and this arrangement will be one that is discussed for some time to come – as and example, the recently launched HP Mini 1000 utilizes the side-button arrangement.
The secondary flash/memory card reader expansion slot that could be used for storage has also been dropped. The reasoning, if I were to guess, I would say it’s because these days, any Solid State Drive (SSD) versions of the Aspire One will probably have ample storage. Earlier last year, SSDs were more expensive than they are now, so space was a premium, and the slot was a cheap and easy way for customers to store extra data if they needed it.
Even with the increase in the size of the screen, it still weighs in at 2.6 pounds / 1.18 kg.
Full Press Release:
Jan 23, 2009Milan
Acer, the third largest vendor in the global PC market (source: Gartner data, 1H 2008), today presented an all-new 10†Aspire One netbook, complete with a 10-inch screen, Windows XP and integrated Bluetooth, and designed for a fast, simple and utterly cool online life.
Only one year after first appearing on the market, netbooks have totally revolutionized the PC market, helping to form an entirely new market segment that users themselves created through a real need to be online all the time and to socialize around the clock.
Acer, thanks to its unique ability to read market trends and anticipate user needs, rapidly introduced the Aspire One, the world’s most popular netbook.
“Despite the recent problems of the financial markets and general economic uncertainty, the netbook and notebook markets will continue to grow in 2009†said Gianfranco Lanci, President & CEO, Acer Inc. “With companies focused on containing the crisis, consumers and products designed for them become more important as users simply cannot do without their personal communication instruments.â€
At a little more than one kilo (1.18 kg), the new 10†Aspire One combines style, great features and a new form factor to provide the best combination of ultra-portability and maximum screen size for navigation and data input.