June 23rd, 2009
New Acer Aspire laptops start at $480
Everyone knows that PCs get faster and cheaper every year. For a while the shift to laptops seemed to slow things down a bit, but those days are over. Laptop prices have been dropping fast as computer makers vie for a bigger piece of the industry’s only growth area. Even Apple has been forced to cut prices.
Acer is among the companies that have been most aggressive with notebook prices in retail, and its latest Aspire models show just how far prices have fallen. These 15- and 17-inch mainstream laptops remain big sellers. They may not have the sleek good looks of the ULV-based Timeline series–and they weigh about the same as two Aspire One netbooks–but mainstream Aspire models offer a lot for the money. In fact, the 15.6-inch Aspire AS5536 is closing in on the price of a 12-inch netbook.
All of the new Aspire models have 16:9 widescreen displays, Dolby Home Theater surround sound, a multi-touch touchpad, and a one-button backup utility. Here are the details:
Acer Aspire AS5536
- 15.6-inch LED-backlit display
- 2.1GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64 dual-core processor
- 3GB of memory
- ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
- 320GB hard drive
- 8X DVD drive
- Available now starting at $479.99
Acer Aspire AS7735Z
- 17.3-inch LED-backlit display (16:9 aspect ratio)
- 2.0GHz Intel Pentium T4200 processor
- 4GB of memory
- Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics
- 250GB hard drive
- 8X DVD drive
- Available now starting at $599.99
At the end of June, Acer will also release an Intel-based 15.6-inch model, the Aspire AS5739G, with a 2.1GHz Core2 Duo T6500, 4GB of memory, Nvidia GeForce GT130M graphics with 1GB, a 250GB hard drive and an 8X DVD for $749.99. The original version of the press release stated that this configuration also included a Blu-ray drive, but that turned out to be too good to be true. Nevertheless this looks like a very nice configuration for the price.
[Read the Acer Aspire release.]
John Morris is a former executive editor at CNET Networks and senior editor at PC Magazine. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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