Acer's Eee rival breaks cover

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 3 Jun 2008 at 08:27

Acer's entrant into the low-cost laptop market, the Aspire One, has finally broken cover, ending months of speculation.

As expected the Aspire One will feature an Intel Atom processor, and run a Linpus Linux Lite customised with a bespoke Acer interface.

Find out how the first Atom chip scored in our benchmarks here

As the market becomes more crowded with these laptops, they're beginning to sound eerily familiar, a fact backed by the now ubiquitous 8GB solid-state drive, 512MB RAM, Wi-Fi, and 8.9in screen. However, according to Acer its Aspire One will be available stateside from the beginning of July for $379, significantly undercutting the similarly specified competition from Asus and HP. There's no word when it'll arrive in the UK, or at what price.

Just to complete the sweep of standard features, Acer has also confirmed a Windows XP version with an 80GB hard drive and 1GB RAM will be available, though the company says it is still working on pricing and availability.

There'll also be 3G and WiMax for modules for those with greater wireless needs, as well as a range of colours for anybody looking to personalise.

Read our review of the HP Mini Note here, and the Asus Eee PC 900 here.

Visit our blog for a first look at the Aspire One with UK release date and prices