Acer planning Nvidia ION 2 netbooks?
December 7, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Acer is one of the few netbook manufacturers that currently does not have an Nvidia ION-powered netbook on the market. All the other big names in the market (Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung) have released models or are about to. Whilst, Acer has several ION-powered nettops it seems to have ignored the netbook market for one reason or another.
However, Acer could be waiting for the next-generation ION 2 chipset to appear before sticking it in Acer netbooks. Digitimes is reporting that Acer has placed orders for the ION 2 chipset, which is designed to support Intel’s upcoming Pineview processors.
Of course, Acer may just end up sticking the ION 2 chipset into nettops, however as one of the biggest manufacturers in the netbook market I’d be surprised if they left this particularly netbook niche to the competition.
As Intel’s Pine Trail platform is two-chip rather than three-chip, ION 2 will act as more of a discrete GPU than compared to current ION configurations. It is expected to be more power efficient and have twice as many shaders compared to the original.
December 7th, 2009 3:24 PM
I have been holding my breath waiting for news of ION 2 net books. Since Intel has demanded that new Pineview netbook models not be announced until January, I was figuring that we would hear about the ION 2 then. I have taken note of the ION 2 Nettops being manufactured and guessed that it would only be a short time until we see an ION 2 Netbook. Will we see dual core Pineview processors? A dual N480, 1.66 ghz, ION 2, in an 11.6″ would be a nice netbook ($600 machine?)
December 23rd, 2009 12:07 AM
Personally, at $600, I would not buy a netbook, even if it had a dual-core Atom and the ION2. It’s just too high for what it is. I can get an ASUS K50AB for the same price and it has more power, a larger screen, and a full keyboard w/numpad. If they could keep the price to $500 or lower, however, I’d consider it. If it would release for $450 or less… I’d be waiting in line to buy the first one.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that they are pushing the envelope with the new netbooks. Larger 12.1″ screens, dual-core N330 and D510 CPU, ION and ION2. But, I feel they need to keep the pricing on par with other systems already on the market. Portability is great, but, higher power systems like these don’t have the 6-8hrs battery life that netbooks are known to reach. Original ION systems commonly claim 5+ hours but get less than 3hrs if you’re doing anything remotely intensive. This is similar to what the larger systems can get; so, not much benefit there. The only real benefit I see is the weight, and i’ts just not worth giving up all the benefits of a full notebook if I’m paying the same price just to shed 3 lbs.
February 12th, 2010 10:38 AM
@SuperIT – you must be joking! 🙂 11,6″ netbooks (ex Acer AO751h) have full keyboard and very high resolution display and still weight less than 1.5kg with 8h of battery time. I would never buy 15″ laptop as I carry my netbook with me at all times without straining myself. I’m even happy to pay more for 11,6″ netbook that fits my tiny backpack as soon as it has ION2 on board with support for HD playback – this is the only thing I’m missing from my current 9″ screen netbook.
I just travel alot and netbook is a blessing. Even if you live in big city (like London) having netbook is also great even while commuting (wasting your time using public transport). My netbook saved my life as I could keep up with latest shows and browse the web as well as even do programming if I wanted to. Playing some cool games like World of Goo works just fine.
It’s great little companion on any long distance flight (I can use it all the way from London to NY). I can’t see any laptop priced at around $500 weighting less than 3kg to beat netbook.