Acer’s ION 2 Aspire 532G 10” netbook cancelled?

Acer’s first 10-inch netbook the Aspire 532G has reportedly been cancelled according to Pierre from Blogeee. Apparently, technical problems meant that the Acer and Nvidia teams could not deliver on the performance front and hence cancelled the netbook. To be honest, this all sounds a bit too vague. Surely, other manufacturers are prepping 10-inch netbooks so why is Acer having difficulty?

If true, it would be a big blow to Acer and leave the ION netbook market pretty much to Asus. It’s not clear whether this cancellation is on a global basis, although if those technical issues are true, then I don’t see why region would make a difference.

Asus Eee PC 1015N: 10-inch ION 2 netbook with Optimus

Computex is underway and we are expected to hear about a host of new devices from a number of Taiwanese companies including Asus, Acer and MSI. To kick things off, Asus is showing off the Asus Eee PC 1015N netbook. The 1015N is the company’s first 10-inch next-generation netbook and will come with Nvidia’s Optimus technology.

Judging by the pictures it comes with a matte (smudge-free) lid, matte display, chiclet keyboard, large touchpad with single rocker bar, HDMI, three USB ports and a 6-cell battery. You will only be able to upgrade the RAM as no access panel has been provided for the hard drive. Pricing is expected to be around the €400 mark when it launches in H2 2010. Other specs are unknown right now, but we’ll update this post as soon as we have them. In the meantime, check out some pics after the break. Read more

Asus Eee PC 1201PN netbook now available Down Under

Whilst there are still no signs of the ION 2-packing Asus Eee PC 1201PN launching in the UK, it has seen its release in New Zealand. This single-core 1.66Ghz N450 Atom powered netbook is selling for AUD$799 in the region and users are already getting hands-on.

This particular model has 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Wi-Fi (b/g/n) and Windows 7 Home Premium. Hopefully this means the 1201PN will be landing in other regions very shortly.

Via Netbooked.

Asus’ dual-core ION 2 Eee PC 1215N netbook benched & snapped

Asus’ upcoming 12-inch flagship netbook, the Eee PC 1215N, is set to include a dual-core Pine Trail processor, next-generation ION as well as Nvidia Optimus technology. We knew that much already, but now NetbookNews has managed to get hold of a pre-production sample and spilled the beans on additional specs, benchmarks as well as a good look at the unit itself.

The Eee PC 1215N tested came with the 1.66GHz dual-core D510 Pine Trail processor that is normally found in nettops. It was initially thought that the netbook would come with the upcoming 1.5GHz N550 dual-core processor that would have had greater power efficiency, but maybe Asus have decided against waiting for the new chip. Read more

Asus’ next-gen ION 1201PN netbook loses Optimus tech?

I’d park this firmly in rumour territory for now, but Pierre from Blogeee is reporting that Asus’ upcoming Eee PC 1201PN netbook that comes with ION 2, will not be sporting Nvidia’s Optimus power-saving technology.

His source for this news is Nvidia France, who has suggested that next-generation ION graphics is not synonymous with Optimus technology. If true, this is completely against my understanding of the next-gen ION part. ION 2 was presented to us as having embedded Optimus technology. At no point was it suggested that it is a feature that a manufacturer may or may not include. Read more

Next-gen ION netbooks from Asus and Acer delayed

The wait to see next-generation Nvidia ION graphics hit netbooks already feels like a long while. However, this wait is set to get longer if Engadget is to be believed. The 12-inch Asus Eee PC 1201PN with 16-core ION is now expected to hit Europe/Asia in late May and the US in June.

The 8-core ION Acer Aspire One 532G has also been delayed by a month is now expecting to appear in early June also. It’s unknown what has caused this delay, although Nvidia claims it has nothing to do with them.

Asus Eee PC 1201PN with next-gen ION benched

The Asus Eee PC 1201PN will be the company’s first netbook with next-generation ION when it launches shortly. It uses the same chassis as most other 12-inch netbooks in the Eee PC 1201 range, but differs from its current ION netbook (1201N) by offering a single-core N450 Atom processor as opposed to the dual-core 1.6GHz Atom 330.

For those wondering how the Eee PC 1201PN will perform then NotebookCheck has the answers. They’ve taken an exhaustive look at the performance of ION 2 and used the Eee PC 1201PN to do the benchmarks. Read more

Asus Eee PC 1201PN ION netbook benched

The last time we saw some benchmark numbers for Nvidia’s next-gen ION, it seemed to suggest that the performance wasn’t up to the original. Following the official new ION announcement this morning, we now know that two ION versions are hitting netbooks. An 8-core version for 10-inch netbooks and 16-core version for 12-inch ones.

It is safe to say that the Asus Eee PC 1201PN will sport 16-core ION and Notebook Italia has managed to conduct a benchmark to give us an idea as to where performance sits. Using the 3DMark06 benchmark, they managed to record a score of 2,013. This compares to a score of around 1,580 3DMarks for the Asus Eee PC 1201N. Read more

Next generation Nvidia ION official: All you need to know

After months of speculation, Nvidia has finally released details on the next generation of Nvidia ION graphics. There have been various rumours up until now including whether the new ION is a chipset or discrete solution, performance leaks and talk of two ION solutions. As with any kind of leak, the reality is that some of these rumours have been spot on whilst others have been off the mark.

We are big fans of Nvidia’s original ION chipset, believing it makes a massive difference to a netbooks overall proposition. The ability to play flawless 1080p video, HD Flash as well as enabling casual gaming is a real game changer for those who demand a multimedia solution. In our view, next generation Nvidia ION builds on this further. Click through for full details on the new ION. Read more

Asus Eee PC 1201PN: 12.1-inch Pine Trail netbook with next-gen ION

It was only a matter of time, but Asus will launch a Pine Trail update to its popular dual-core ION Eee PC 1201N netbook. The Asus Eee PC 1201PN has been spotted at CeBIT but will not be a dual core machine, it will sport a 1.66GHz N450 Atom processor and come with next generation Nvidia ION graphics.

Design wise, the Eee PC 1201N looks exactly the same as all of the other Eee PC 1201 ranges from Asus (1201HA, 1201N, 1201T, 1201 and 1201NL). It is from the Seashell range and comes with a 12.1-inch (1366 x 768) display, chiclet keyboard and dimpled touchpad. Read more

Nvidia Optimus tech demoed on Acer Aspire One 532G ION netbook

The Acer Aspire One 532G is the world’s first 10-inch netbook to be armed with next generation Nvidia ION graphics. It was announced last week at the MWC show in Barcelona and we managed to get hands on with the device at a press event in London earlier this week.

The AAO 532G is expected to launch in late April/early May and will come in two configurations. The 1GB RAM/160GB HDD combo will cost £349, whilst a 2GB RAM/320GB HDD combo will cost £399. These prices are not set in stone and depending on exchange rates may end up costing another £30 more. However, Acer is keen not to price the higher end SKU above £400 if they can help it. Read more

Two versions of ‘next-generation ION’ due

There are still many question marks over how Nvidia’s next-generation ION will shape up. We reported recently that benchmarks for ION 2 might signal that performance may lag or be worse off than the original ION, something refuted by Nvidia. Now we are hearing from Fudzilla that Nvidia may in fact launch two ION chips, the slower one of which was benchmarked on the Acer Aspire One 532g netbook at MWC in Barcelona last week.

The slower ION will have less shaders than the current ION, whilst the faster version will have more and should be more powerful than the current ION chipset. They go on to say that Nvidia will not brand these chips ION 2 and will instead continue to brand it ION. Read more

Nvidia ION 2 benched; performance lags original ION?

The Acer Aspire One 532G emerged as the first officially announced Nvidia ION 2 netbook earlier this week. This is despite still knowing very little about the “next generation ION” apart from the evidence suggesting it will be a discrete GPU part, possibly the GeForce GT218.

The 10-inch AAO 532G netbook was on show at MWC in Barcelona this week and NetbookNews managed to do some sneaky testing to see how ‘next-gen’ the new ION really is. They conducted the 3DMark03 graphics benchmark test on the netbook and initial results don’t look too promising for those hoping ION 2 would be a leap in performance over the original. Read more

Acer Aspire One 532G Nvidia ION 2 netbook; first pics & specs

The Acer Aspire One 532G will be the first Pine Trail netbook to sport Nvidia ION 2 graphics along with Nvidia’s Optimus power-saving technology. Details on the ION 2 implementation are still scant however we have been told it is a GeForce G218 part with dedicated 512MB memory.

The Aspire One 532G will be powered by a 1.66GHz N450 Atom processor, 2GB RAM, a 320GB HDD and a 10-inch high-resolution display. As you would expect it also comes with a HDMI out and optional 3G. Acer says that the netbook will have a 10-hour battery life, this falls to five hours if using ION 2 graphics constantly. Read more

Nvidia Optimus automatic GPU switching officially detailed; heading to ION 2 [Video]

Nvidia has formally announced details regarding its Optimus technology that allows for seamless graphics switching on netbooks and laptops. We briefly talked about Optimus earlier with rumours that ION 2 may support this technology, but now that the NDA is lifted, there’s a lot more detail on just how impressive this new technology is. We can also confirm that those earlier rumours are true, next-generation ION will have Optimus technology support.

It’s worth emphasizing that Nvidia Optimus technology is different to the switchable graphics that you may be familiar with. Optimus is designed to be invisible, working in the background and automatically switching between integrated Intel graphics or Nvidia discrete graphics depending on the application used. No rebooting, logging out or closing apps is needed here. Read more

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