Acer Aspire One ‘Pro’ 531 now official

Asus is not the only netbook manufacturer that frustrates me with its hard-to-follow model numbering. Acer‘s recent announcements has left me scratching my head trying to work out the difference between models. If you look at the Aspire One D250, for example, and compare it to the Aspire One 531, they are almost identical models apart from a thinner form factor for the 531. To add to the mix, Acer has now announced the Aspire One Pro 531.

Now we had first heard rumours of the ‘Pro’ series just under a month ago. The Aspire One Pro models were to be targeted towards business users and ‘prosumers’. So how does the ‘Pro 531’ differ from the ‘531’ you may ask? From what we can tell, the ‘Pro 531’ seems to be almost identical to the 531 apart from its storage options and choice of OS.

The Pro 531 offers a choice of operating systems (XP Home, XP Professional and Vista Business) whilst the 531 offers just XP Home. The Pro 531 also has the choice of up to 250GB hard-disk drive or a 64GB solid-state drive. The Pro 531 also seems to be slightly bigger and heavier than the 531. The Pro 531 has dimensions of 259 (W) x 187/206(D) x 26.1/33.1 (H) mm, this compares to the following for the 531: 255 (W) x 183 (D) x 19/26.9 (H) mm. The Pro 531 seems to be thicker and have more depth than the 531.

The Pro 531 is also heavier at 1.12kg with the 3-cell battery and 1.27kg for the 6-cell battery when configured with the HDD. This compares to the 531 which is just 1.00 kg with the 3-cell battery and 1.15 kg with the 6-cell battery. The SSD option for the Pro 531 lightens the load by around 100g. The 3-cell battery should give you 3 hours of life according to Acer, whilst the 6-cell should be good for 7.5 hours. The 531 has the same performance for the 3-cell battery but lasts only 7 hours with the 6-cell one.

The rest of the specifications are identical from what we can tell. Given the different choices of operating system and hard drive options, there is no doubt this is targeted towards business users. I imagine the pricing will reflect this, although we have seen no confirmation on pricing yet.

Acer Aspire One Pro 531 Technical Specifications (translated):

Operating System Genuine Windows ® XP Professional
Genuine Windows Vista ® Business
Genuine Windows ® XP Home Edition

Processor & Chipset Intel ® Atom ™ processor N270/N280 (1.60/1.66 GHz, 533/667 MHz FSB, 512 KB L2 cache)
Mobile Intel ® 945GSE Express Chipset (DDR2 400/533/667 MHz)
Mobile Intel ® 82801GBM Chipset

Memory channel with a single SODIMM slot
DDR2 533/667 MHz SDRAM memory interface design
SODIMM Slot: supports 1 GB / 2 GB SODIMM for the entire system memory up to 2 GB

Display 10.1 “SD 1024 x 600 (WSVGA) pixel resolution, high-resolution (200-nit) Acer Crystal Brite ™ LED backlight TFT LCD

Drives 2.5 “Hard Drive with 9.5 mm up to 250 GB or
2.5 “Solid State Disk (SSD) drive with up to 64 GB
Multi-in-1 Card Reader
• Supports Secure Digital ™ (SD) Card, MultiMedia Card (MMC), Reduced-Size Multimedia Card (RS-MMC), Memory Stick ™ (MS), Memory Stick PRO ™ (MS PRO), xD-Picture Card ™ (xD)
• Supports memory cards with adapter: miniSD ™, microSD ™, Memory Stick Duo ™, Memory Stick PRO Duo ™

Audio High Definition Audio Support
Two built-in stereo speakers
MS-Sound compatible
Built-in digital microphone

Communication Acer Video Conference:
• Integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam, supporting Acer PrimaLite the vortschrittliche ™ technology and 0.3 megapixel resolution
WLAN: Acer InviLink ™ 802.11b / g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ® network connection, supporting Acer SignalUp ™ wireless technology
LAN: 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet
WPAN: Bluetooth ® 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
(Manufacturing option – not all models)
WWAN: UMTS / HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) 850/1900/2100 MHz and quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), upgradeable to 7.2 Mb / s HSDPA and 2 Mb / s HSUPA (for 3G models)
Supports receiver diversity and equalizer to 2100 MHz
(Manufacturing option – not all models)

Dimensions & weight 259.41 (W) x 186.8 / 206.37 (D) x 26.1 / 33.09 (H) mm
Models with SSD:
1:03 kg for models with 3-cell battery
1:17 kg for models with 6-cell battery
Models with a HDD:
1.12 kg for models with 3-cell battery
1:27 kg for models with 6-cell battery

Battery & Power 30 W adapter with power cord
Product Safety Electric Appliance and Materials (PSE), zertifitziert for the battery
24.4 W 2200 mAh 3-cell Li-Ion Battery
• Up to 3.0 hours of battery life
(actual duration depends on application and configuration)
or
57.7 W 5200 mAh 6-cell Li-Ion Battery
• Up to 7.5 hours of battery life
(actual duration depends on application and configuration)

84-/85-/88-Tasten Keyboard Keyboard, 89% of the size of a standard keyboard, 1.6 mm (minimum) Keystroke
Touchpad Display:
• Circular-motion scrolling
• Pinch-action zoom
• Page flip
12 function keys, 4 cursor keys, 2 Windows ® keys, hotkey controls, integrated numeric keypad, international languages are supported
Power button with LED
Start Buttons with LED: WLAN, WWAN
(Manufacturing option – not all models)
Bluetooth ® Start Button
(Manufacturing option – not all models)

3x USB 2.0 ports
1 x monitor (VGA)
1 x speaker / headphone / line-out
1 x Line-in/Mikrofon
1 x RJ-45 connector for Ethernet
1 x AC power connector

Security BIOS user, supervisor and HDD passwords
Kensington Lock slot

Productivity software applications:
• Acer Recovery Management
• Microsoft ® Works SE 9 with Office Home and Student 2007 Trial
• Google Toolbar ™
• Google ™ Desktop
• Google ™ Setup
• Adobe ® Reader ® 9
• Adobe ® Flash ® Player 10
• Microsoft ®. NET Framework 2.0
• Consumer-friendly Internet Explorer ® 7.0
• eSobi
• Carbonite Online Backup
McAfee ® Internet Security Suite (60-day trial version)
Communications Applications:
• Acer Video Conference Manager 4.0
• Windows Live Essentials ™ – Wave 3 (Mail, Photo Gallery, Live ™ Messenger, Writer)

Storage bag options
Carrying
Additional Lithium Ion Battery
External HDD
External optical drive

Certifications Wi-Fi ®

Eco Standards ENERGY STAR ® 4.0
WEEE
RoHS

Warranty 1 year warranty including 1 years International Travelers Warranty (ITW)

Via Slashgear.