NetbookBoards.com
Netbook, Netbooks, Netbook Reviews, Acer Aspire One, Lenovo S10, ASUS Eee PC, HP Mini-Note PC, MSI Wind PC

People might have thought Acer, the new rebellious teen on the block and netbook powerhouse, would have come out full throttle into this tsunami of tablet products.  Instead, however, they plan to go against the tide, refusing to take part in the tablet war.  Acer’s champion of choice will instead be the ultra-thin laptop, a form factor that has never truly realized its full potential.

Acer Taiwan’s President Scott Lin simply retorted to Digitimes that, while there would be no difficulty in developing such a tablet, it simply has no place in the Acer business model.  He estimated that 20-30% of their business this year would come from ultra-thin laptops, a surprisingly large statistic for what has remained a niche market for so long. This is indeed a peculiar and unique announcement, given the current climate where the public’s attention is fawning over tablets.

He also mentioned models thinner than 2 cm (0.7 inches) coming out this year.  Most likely, some of those fabled Chrome OS netbooks will be tossed into this mix.  Whether or not they will be ready to compete with the tablets will be seen in due time.

Via Engadget

Acer, already the second largest computer maker in the world, has ambitious plans for the future. According to Bloomberg, Acer is tossing its hat into the already over-saturated yet underdeveloped market of eReaders, facing off with the likes of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, and others. No specifics have been announced other than it will have a 6-inch, monochrome (assume E-Ink) screen and ship in Europe.

More surprisingly, Acer is announcing an online apps store. Jim Wong, president of the Acer IT product division, has stated it would contain hundreds of applications, “otherwise you can’t call it an app store.” It will likely be a cross-platform marketplace for Android, Windows Mobile, and ChromeOS.

However, Acer’s most stunning announcement is the fact it has announced plans to rush forward with a ChromeOS netbook to provide a “a change to the Microsoft-Intel environment,” according to Wong. The mention of Intel hints that this new product line might be ARM powered as an alternative to the standard Atom on-board most mainstream netbooks. Acer plans to release the netbook sometime around Q3 2010, on schedule with Google’s release date for ChromeOS.

Via Bloomberg, image via Wikipedia.

As CES 2010 draws closer, netbook makers have been dropping hints about their upcoming netbooks in order to whet consumers’ appetites for new technology. Acer is the latest in the line of manufacturers to do so, today announcing the Acer Aspire One AO532h featuring an Intel Atom N450 CPU, 10.1″ screen, and up to 10 hours of battery life. The boost to the battery is due in part to the efficiency of the Intel Pinetrail chipset and the LED screen, but also to Acer’s new high density 6-cell battery.

The Aspire One AO532h has a multitouch-capable trackpad and 93% keyboard – a tad larger than average. You can get this thing for only $299 with the standard 6-cell, or with the high-density 6-cell for an additional fee.

Via Notebooks.

We just got wind of some new information about Acer’s first Intel Atom N450 netbook, the Aspire One 532h. This 10.1″ computing machine has 1280×720 resolution, is powered by an Intel Atom N450 processor and Intel GMA3150 chipset (an upgraded version of the current Intel GMA950), and comes with 1 GB of RAM and either a 160 GB or 250 GB hard drive.

Other specs include Wi-Fi, a memory card reader, optional Bluetooh, three USB 2.0 ports, a D-sub connector, a webcam, and Windows 7 Starter Edition. There’s an option for either a 3-cell or 6-cell battery as well.

The base price for the Aspire One 532h netbook is €299 (or ~$441 USD), slightly more expensive than its predecessor, the Aspire One 531h, but as there’s nothing exceptional about Acer’s newest Intel Atom N450 netbook, if you have a netbook already, you need not worry too much about upgrading.

Via SemiAccurate.

The Acer Ferrari One netbook is finally available for purchase. Some specs of this fully-loaded 11.6″ netbook include:

• 1.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor
• AMD M780G chipset
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 graphics chipset
• High-definition widescreen display
• 250 GB hard drive
• Built-in optical drive
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• Optional WLAN
• Windows 7 Home Premium

The netbook’s weight falls roughly around 3.31 pounds and its height is about one inch.  To learn more, check out one of our previous articles.

You can get your very own Acer Ferrari One netbook with a 6-cell battery for a higher-than-average $599.99.

Via Engadget.

Acer recently showed us their new laptop with a multi-touch display. The Acer Aspire 5738PzG series gives us a 15.6 inch screen with a multitude of Windows 7 gestures that will be supported by the laptop. Because they also included an All-In-One PC featuring this multitouch technology, they decided to follow a minimulist design scheme, which comes with Microsoft’s TouchPack.

Their laptops will not only come loaded with Windows 7, but will have touchscreen support that allows users to perform simple everyday tasks like printing, sharing information, emailing, and taking pictures, all with simple gestures that better allow a user to interface with their devices. The laptops being a whole new definition to the words “user friendly.”

The date has been confirmed: you’ll be able to get your hands on the all-new Atom N450 line of netbooks from ASUS, Acer, Lenovo and MSI on January 11th, 2009. The new Atom netbook CPU was going to be here in December, but manufacturers have been holding off at Intel’s request.

However, in an effort to not overshoot consumer demand,  most vendors will only stock ‘conservative’ numbers of the new machines. These netbooks will be coming on a wider variety of operating systems than in the past – Moblin, Windows 7, and Windows XP have been mentioned, and everyone is still holding his breath for the Google Chrome OS. Word has it that if you buy a Moblin or XP netbook in January, you can upgrade to Chrome for free by the March release of the Intel Atom N470.

Via I4U.

We hope you still have money left after Black Friday, because for the hefty price of $1700, you’ll be able to get your hands on the upcoming ASUS G51J 3D which claims to bring “real 3D” to laptops. Using NVIDIA’s 3D vision technology, the G51J is already able to play over 400 games.

The system employs shutter glasses, which is supposed to outperform the Polaroid lens alternative currently used by the Acer’s Aspire 5738DG. As for the ASUS G51J, it will include a GeForce GTX 260M card which boasts 1GB of DDR memory. It’s time to start saving!

“NVIDIA® is excited about the world’s first 3D Vision notebook coming from ASUS,” said Phil Eisler, General Manager of 3D Vision business unit at NVIDIA. “The ASUS G51J 3D notebook will set the standard by which gaming and 3D notebooks will be judged. Congratulations to ASUS for achieving this monumental milestone!”

Via Engadget & GoodGearGuide.

Acer says it will be the first PC maker to get a Chrome netbook on the market.

The news was announced in Chairman J.T. Wang’s recent interview with Digitimes, in which the Chairman stated that he was “confident” Acer would be the first.

The announcement shouldn’t be tremendously surprising – Acer is one of the only manufacturers with an Android netbook on the market, so it makes sense that it would use this partnership with Google to jump into the Chrome space ASAP. We should expect Acer’s Chrome netbook by mid-2012.

The world’s second-largest PC maker has designs on being the first to offer a Chrome OS Netbook. However, this new machine’s hardware shouldn’t just be more of the same – Google says new Chrome netbooks will have bigger keyboards and screens, SSDs, 802.11(n) Wi-Fi and x86 or ARM processors.

Via CNet.

The Google Chrome operating system isn’t pre-installed on netbooks just yet, but if you’re interested, below are some netbooks that have been “officially” tested and that claim to be compatible with the software. On these netbooks, you can assume that everything works, including 802.11 Wi-Fi, Ethernet, the touchpad, and the suspend/resume functions.

• Acer Aspire One AOD250* – $299.99 at Amazon.com
• Acer Aspire One AOP531h – $269.99 at TigerDirect.com
• ASUS Eee PC 1008HA – $339.95 at Amazon.com
• ASUS Eee PC 900 – $282.25 at Amazon.com
• Gateway LT20* – $259.99 at TigerDirect.com
• Toshiba Satellite A205-S5000 (This is a 15.4″ laptop, but you can get one at netbook pricing for about $350 on eBay.)

*These netbooks ship with both Atheros and Broadcom 802.11 wireless adapters. The Atheros adapter works out-of-the-box with the Chrome operating system, but the Broadcom adapter does not.

Via Google.

If you weren’t able to get in on all the Black Friday netbook action, here are some Cyber Monday Windows 7 netbook deals to check out.

Dell Insprion Mini 10v – Touting the standard 10.1″ screen display, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, and 1 GB of RAM, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10V netbook is available on Dell.com for $299, a $98 discount from the original price of $398.

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 - Also equipped with a 10.1″ screen display, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, and 1 GB of RAM, in addition to a 1.3 megapixel webcam and HD TV tuner, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook will be available at Walmart.com for $398 with free shipping. In comparison, it sells for $499 on Dell’s website.

Toshiba Mini NB205 – This 10.1″ netbook boasts 1 GB of RAM, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 processor, and a battery that can last up to 9 hours. You can grab your very own Toshiba Mini at Amazon.com for $329, which includes a $50 discount from the original price of $379.

Acer Aspire One AOD250 – Available at Walmart.com for $328 (with free shipping), this netbook’s tech specs are no deviation from the standard. It has a 10.1″ screen display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, and 1 GB of RAM. At least it has a 6 hour battery.

HP Mini 110 – Equipped with a 10.1″ screen display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, and 1 GB of RAM, this Mini is available at Kmart.com for $309.99. That’s only $20 off the original price, but a discount nonetheless.

This year, netbooks are on fire and Windows 7 is hot hot hot, so if you’re interested you’d better get to these sizzling deals before they’re gone. Otherwise, if none of these netbooks tickle your fancy, check out some of our previous Cyber Monday articles for more great deals. Happy (online) shopping!

Via RedmondPie.

If you think the gloriously thoughtless spending is done now that Black Friday has passed, you obviously haven’t heard the news – tomorrow is Cyber Monday, where you can reap the benefits of gutted price tags online even if you didn’t make it to the Black Friday doorbusters a few days back.

Huliq has already discovered some of these deals, which are as follows:

Dell

• Inspiron Mini 9 netbook for $299, a 50 dollar cut. Shipping is free for all Dell orders over $129.
• Dell Insprion Mini 10v for only $250.
• Inspiron 1525 laptop for $519. Specs are a 15.4-inch widescreen display, Intel Pentium Dual Core CPU T3200, 3 GB of RAM, a 250 GB SATA Hard Drive and DVD+/-RW Drive, and Windows Vista Home Basic SP1.

Best Buy

• Acer AL2216Wbd flat-panel Widescreen 22-inch LCD HD monitor for only $169.99 with free shipping, a $50 price cut compared to most retailers
• Free shipping on laptops $699.99 and up and desktops $499.99 and up.

Walmart

• Compaq CQ50-139QM notebook for $498, which comes with an 8 GB flash drive, carrying case, and HP printer. If you just want a printer instead, hit Staples.com for a $149 Xerox Phaser 6125 Color Laser Printer, a price drop made available by their $200 instant coupon.

Sony

• Drop promo code CYBERMONDAYVAIOCS at Sony.com for a $200 subsidy of their CS Vaio notebook.

Apple

• Apple offers free shipping on orders over 50 bucks. You can also get free gift advice at 1-800-MY-APPLE if you’re completely weird.

HP

• Free shipping on overs over 60 dollars at HP.com.

I hope your appetite has been whetted, ladies and gentlemen. Check back for more info as Cyber Monday draws closer.

If you’re like most mobile internet users, you’re probably in the market for a brand new lightweight and versitile netbook. Well, you’re in luck: today is arguably the best day to make some legendary Black Friday deals, and bring home with you a brand new spanking netbook. We’ve done the searching for you and have compiled an excellent list of netbook deals that are priced below the 200$ pricetag.

If you take a trip to Best Buy, you’ll notice they’re offering a $197 Hewlett-Packard laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) with a 15.6-inch screen and an Intel Celeron processor. Other specs include 2GB of RAM (expandable to 4GB), 160GB hard drive, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Because this is an in-store only special item, you’ll have to line up early.

Everyone’s friendly Wal-Mart Supercenter is offering an eMachine running Windows 7 Home Premium for $198. This computer also features a 15.6-inch screen, 2GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive.

Office Depot’s are showing an ad @tgiBlackFriday.com offering an Acer Netbook with a 10.1 inch screen as well as an Intel Atom N270 processor priced at a very wallet-friendly 199.99.

If Dell netbooks are your thing, you can find a $199 Inspiron Mini 9. The mini sports a 8.9-inch screen, 1 GB RAM, an Intel Atom N270 processor, and a 4GB solid-state drive. While it only offers a 0.3 megapixel webcam, they’ll allow you to upgrade to a 1.3 megapixel for a mere $10!

Via PCWorld.

Newegg Black Friday sales started earlier today at 3 p.m. PST. The deals are published on their Facebook page and if you become a fan, you’ll be able to see the entire list.

The Gateway LT2021u and LT2022u netbooks for $199.99 that were on sale starting today have already sold out, but another noteworthy deal that’s still available is the LG BD270 blu-ray player that’s going for $99.99. If you’re still interested in the Gateway LT netbook, check out Verizon’s Black Friday deal.

On Black Friday, the Acer Aspire One netbook with a 3-cell battery will be available for $189.99, in addition to a TomTom GPS for $59.99.

If you’re interested in more deals, be sure to check out Newegg before they’re all gone. Also, be sure to keep your eye out for upcoming Cyber Monday deals. In the meantime, happy shopping and Happy Thanksgiving!

Via I4U.

Acer is currently the world’s second biggest PC manufacturer, but it’s looking to crank up its presence in Chinese markets within two years.

While Acer has seen strong results in Brazil, Russia, and India, the netbook maker has had more trouble in China where Lenovo is king. Acer tends to bounce between fifth and sixth place in China.

CEO Gianfranco Lanci explained to Reuters just why that’s not good enough:

“We don’t like being anything less than No.3 … You need scale, although of course it’s always a balance between market share and profit margins. Five years from now, China is going to be larger than the U.S.”

Acer plans to take extra market share by cutting selling prices by about 5%-10%. No word yet on whether those effects will be felt elsewhere, but at that outset that seems unlikely – manufacturers commonly practice price discrimination between different regions.

Via Reuters.

SquareTrade, an independent warranty provider, has done research on the failure rates for 30,000+ netbooks and laptops covered by warranty plans. They’ve found out that roughly a third of laptops will fail within three years and that the failure rate for netbooks is 20% higher than that for laptops.

Further breakdown of the results indicate that 20.4% of laptop failures were due to hardware malfunctions and 10.4% were due to accidential damage. Here’s a graph showing some empirical evidence:

5.8% of netbooks malfunction within the first 12 months of ownership, which is 20% higher than the malfunction rate for entry-level laptops and 40% higher than the malfunction rate for premium laptops. The projected malfunction rate for netbooks over a three year period is 25.1%. Compare this to 20.6% for regular laptops and 18.1% for premium laptops.

ASUS Eee PC and Toshiba netbooks and laptops tend to be more reliable. Fewer than 16% of Eee PC and Toshiba owners reported a hardware malfunction over a period of three years. Acer, Gateway, and HP machines had relatively higher malfunction rates.

Here’s another graph to show the 3-year laptop malfunction rates for different laptop manufacturers:

Via Gizmodo.

Quartics, Inc. is announcing a new solution designed to improve movies, gaming, and media streaming on netbooks and laptops. It’s called Qvu, and it’s designed to deliver video quality that’s “Beyond HD” while conserving power use.

Qvu is also designed to bring non-HD content up to near-HD levels. It’s already been picked up by a number of OEMs including Acer.

Most netbooks don’t have the hardware to rock HD video, but Qvu means to solve that problem, according to Quartics executive VP Derek Meyer:

“Consumers have raised the bar on the experience they want with video content. Qvu is the only solution to be created with this goal in mind. Any Netbook or Laptop enabled with Qvu will be unique in its ability to provide true enjoyment through incredible video realism and detail like never before.”

Forward Concepts president Will Strauss piped in with his own summary of Qvu:

“Netbooks are one of the hottest new product categories. But they have lacked an ability to deliver an immersive video experience – until now. Solutions such as Qvu from Quartics help fulfill the promise of Netbooks and other portable products as a dynamic platform for the consumption of video from any source. This can only increase their appeal to consumers, and holds the potential to further grow Netbook and ultraportable device markets.”

It will be incredibly exciting to see where this new technology goes and to see how it is implemented in netbooks.

Computing technology is generally on people’s holiday shopping list in some form or other, and even though the economy may not be so great this year, the situation is no different. That’s why we’re giving you a sneak peak of some of the the offers that Office Depot are promoting for Black Friday. Office Depot will open at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, November 27th, and deals on netbooks, laptops and desktops start as low as $229. Take a look.

Netbooks:

• Acer:  10.1″ screen display with 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor – $199.99

Notebooks:

• HP: G60-508US with Intel Celeron 900 processor – $299.99
• Acer: Aspire, 15.6″ widescreen display with AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core L310processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive – $379.99
• HP:  G71-343US with Intel Core 2 Duo processor T6600 – $449.99
• Toshiba: 15.6″ widescreen display with AMD Turion II Dual-Core processor M500, 3GB RAM, 320GB hard drive – $469.99
• Toshiba: 17″ screen display with AMD Turion II M500, 3GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive – $499.99

Desktops:

• Compaq: CQ4010F with AMD Sempron LE-1300 Processor, 2GB RAM, 250GB hard drive- $229.99
• Compaq: Presario AMD LE-1300 with 18.5″ Monitor – $329.99
• HP: Pavillion Slimline s5220f with Intel Pentium processor E5300, 4GB RAM, 640GB hard drive – $369.99

There’s also a rumor that there will be a two page bonus ad in the Office Depot’s Black Friday ad, so be sure to be on the lookout for that!

Via Huliq.

Image via Blogspot.

If you’re looking for a laptop that does all the basics and don’t want to shell out a buttload of dough, here’s some food for thought. This holiday season (actually, starting tomorrow) an Acer Aspire laptop will go on sale at Best Buy for a mere $249.

This Acer Aspire laptop will feature netbook-like specs, including an Intel Celeron 900 CPU, 2 GB of RAM, and a 160 GB hard drive. It’s price tag will also be comparable to that of a netbook, ringing in at $249. In addition to this Acer laptop, some other items on Best Buy’s holiday list will include 30+ laptops, six netbooks, 17 desktops, and four all-in-ones.

Via MaximumPC.