Hands-On With The 11.6-Inch Acer Aspire One

Tonight, at Acer’s New York press event, we got some brief hands-on time with the new, 11.6-inch Aspire One.We still have no pricing or specs, but check out our video and gallery for a walk-through of the updated design.

At less than an inch thick, it’s significantly thinner than the current 10-inch Aspire One, which is 1.3 inches thick. Even with what appears to be a six-cell battery, it’s super thin. Editor-inChief Mark Spoonauer says it’s the “sleekest he’s ever seen.” To boot, the glossy black stylings give it a classy, understated look.

In addition to the slimness, the thing that struck us most was the 11.6-inch display, a screen size we’re not used to seeing. Aside from being bright, we were impressed with the LCD panel’s 1366 x 768 resolution, the first time we’ve seen that resolution on a netbook.

In addition to the display, we took to the keyboard, which felt roomier than the current generation’s (a larger footprint, of course, seems commensurate with a slightly larger display). Acer gets bonus points for remembering the details, like putting the right shift key in the correct place. We found the touchpad small, though, and were disappointed that it still has a single, narrow touch button.

Again, pricing and specs will follow soon, as will our full review (the unit we saw had a 1.6-GHz Atom Z530 CPu, 1GB RAM, and a 160GB The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data.
Learn Morehard drive, although we don’t know yet if these are final specs). In the meantime, enjoy the video and the gallery.