We weren’t supposed to mention this until next week, but computer maker Acer is hoping on the Pine Trail bandwagon and plans to roll out (surprise!) another new netbook, this time sporting Intel’s latest “Pine trail” Atom N450 processor and Windows 7…and up to 10 hours of battery life for those on-the-go users.
“These new Aspire One netbooks offer mobile users some of the features and performance of a larger notebook, while providing a highly portable, compact design that’s easy to take anywhere,” said Acer America senior product marketing manager Ray Sawall, in a statement. “Consumers can browse the Internet, check email, share photos, enjoy their entertainment applications, and even get work done wherever their travel takes them.”
Hear that? You can “even get work done.” In our experience that might be a first for a netbook.
The Aspire One 532h will be available in a variety of configurations. All will feature a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 processor and a 10.1-inch LED-backlight display (Acer isn’t specifying a resolution, but we’d bet on 1,024 by 600 pixels). The systems will also feature a 160- GB hard drive, start out with a 1 GB of RAM, feature 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi networking, 100Base-T Ethernet, a multi-in-one media card reader, an integrated webcam, three USB 2.0 ports, and a multi-gesture trackpad. The systems will come with Windows 7 Starter Edition pre-installed, and be available in blue, red, and silver cases. The netbooks are barely an inch tall and weigh just 2.76 pounds, so they’re reasonably portable; they also feature a keyboard that’s 93 percent of standard size—thus friendlier on larger hands—and will be available with two types of six-cell batteries: a 5600 mAh unit gives up to 10 hours of use, while a 4400 mAh offers up to 8 hours of usability.
Acer expects the Aspire One 532h’s will be available in January with suggested retail prices starting around $299.99.
