Acer introduces an advanced version of its Aspire One 531 netbook dubbed as the Aspire One Pro 531. Like its predecessor, this product also sports a 10.1 inch 1024 x 600 display and has N270 or N280 Atom processors. The company however adds larger hard drives, choice of OS and optional SSD in the latest Pro 531.
This product is 259.41 x 186.8/206.37 x 26.1/33.09mm in size and models with HDD weigh 1.12kg with a 3-cell battery or 1.27kg with a 6-cell pack. With SSD, 3 and 6 cell batteries weigh 1.3 and 1.17kgs respectively. The netbook gives users 3 and 7.5 hours runtime on 3 and 6 cells respectively. Unlike the earlier version of the Aspire One, this netbook has a choice of XP Professional, Windows Vista Business and Windows XP Home. The device also has up to 250GB standard hard drive storage and an optional 64GB SSD.
This sleek professional-looking netbook has a solid black casing and robust features. Although this mini-laptop is portable and light in weight, it gives users a fast and efficient performance. It also lets customers keep abreast with all their business appointments as the netbook provides access to the Internet, editing mails and conducting video conferencing through the Acer Crystal Eye webcam. A multi-functional user interface is also featured in the Pro 531.
The mini-laptop is integrated with Mobile Intel 945GSE Express (DDR2 400/533/667 MHz) and Mobile Intel 82801GBM chipsets. The netbook supports multimedia card, xD-picture card, secure digital card, Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro. This product also supports different memory cards with adapter like Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, microSD and miniSD. In the audio section, the latest offering from Acer supports high definition audio, digital microphone, two stereo speakers and is compatible with MS-Sound.
The keyboard featured in the Aspire One Pro 531 is 89% the size of a standard keyboard and has a 1.6mm keystroke. Through a touchpad display, users can access information with circular-motion scrolling, page flip and pinch-action zoom. There are many LED and hot keys which give instant access to different applications. Three USB 2.0 ports, WLAN, LAN and optional Bluetooth are also incorporated into this device.
The Pro 531 notebook has many productivity software applications such as Acer Recovery Management, Microsoft Works SE 9 with Office Home and Student 2007 Trial, Google- Toolbar, Desktop and Setup, Adobe- Reader 9 and Flash Player 10. Also included in this array is Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, Consumer-friendly Internet Explorer 7.0, eSobi, Carbonite Online backup and McAfee Internet Security Suite trial version. Communications Applications incorporated in the netbook are Acer Video Conference Manager 4.0 and Windows Live Essentials consisting of Wave 3 (mail, photo gallery, Live Messenger, and Writer).
The price and availability of the Aspire One Pro 531 notebook from Acer is still under wraps. However the basic N270 531 starts at $455 (approx. Rs.22,572).
