With the launch of Windows 8 this week, PC makers are understandably pushing fancy new computers with unusual designs, high performance processors, and high price tags. But you can also find some new Windows 8 computers with pretty low price tags.
Acer has updated its 11.6 inch Aspire One 725 budget laptop with Windows 8. You can pick one up from Best Buy for $349.99, or for $299.99 from Office Depot.
The new model features a 1 GHz AMD C-70 dual core processor, Radeon HD6290 graphics, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive.
It has a 2500mAh battery which Acer says should provide up to 5.5 hours of run time, thanks to the low power processor. AMD’s C-series chips are basically the company’s answer to Intel’s Atom chips for netbooks.
In other words, they’re not particularly fast, but they don’t consume a lot of power either. What AMD C-series chips do offer, though, is support for HD video playback and 3D graphics acceleration.
The new Aspire One 725 measures 11.2″ x 8″ x 0.9″ and weighs 2.65 pounds. It has 1 USB 3.0 port, 2 USB 2. 0 ports, VGA, Ethernet, and WiFi, but no Bluetooth. The laptop runs Windows 8 64-bit.
While there’s no touchscreen on this model, you can use the touchpad to navigate the Windows 8 user interface using multitouch gestures. Another advantage to running Windows 8 is that you can install the Netflix app from the Windows Store. The browser-based version of Netflix doesn’t play well with devices with AMD C and E series processors, but the Windows 8 app should work just fine.
Acer actually shows a starting price of $329.99 for this laptop, but I haven’t seen any stores selling the notebook at that price yet.
So if the C chip is the answer to the intel atom, I wonder what the E chip is the answer to.
The entire AMD Fusion line was basically AMD’s alternative to Intel ATOM but with much better graphics.
The Ontario C-Series were set to compete against the mobile Intel ATOMs like the N-Series. So could go into even 10.1″ size systems with its 9W max TDP rating.
Similarly, the Zacate E-Series covered the upper end that Intel’s Nettop/desktop range D-Series ATOMs held. But being 18W max TDP it couldn’t go into anything smaller than 11.6″ …
While the Z-Series is similar to Intel ATOMs Z-Series, mean for low power needs that fit devices like tablets. The Z-01 was in fact specifically for tablets and was basically a more optimized version of the C-50 that managed 5.9W max TDP.
The new Hondo Z-60 takes it a step further and reduces the max TDP to 4.5W, not including the FCH, and should still manage to perform about as well as the C-50.
The Bobcat cores are more efficient than Intel ATOM but the higher TDP means they have to under clock to meet the same range of uses. The C-50 for example is clocked at just 1GHz.
So Intel has been able to clock faster to compensate and except for the top end E-Series that means generally the Intel ATOM had a small CPU advantage as long as it was dual core and clocked more than a few hundred MHz faster.
Meaning the only significant advantage AMD has is much better graphics, about 5x to 9x better than the older GMA 3150. The newer Cedar Trail GMA are 2-3x better than the GMA 3150 but that still gives a large advantage to AMD for graphical performance.
While Intel has focused on being able to apply the ATOM to the mobile market now. So the newest Clover Trail Z2760 is a dual core 1.8GHz (may be the Burst Mode and actual sustainable clock speed may be 1.5GHz) that performs somewhere between what you would get from a Cedar Trail N2600 1.6GHz to N2800 1.86GHz but only has a max TDP of just 1.7W…
We’ll have to wait till next year before the next gen 22nm ATOMs come out and we’ll see how they’ll compare to the 28nm Jaguar Core updates AMD will be coming out with about then too.
Office Depot has it for $299.99
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/972889/Acer-Aspire-One-AO725-0487-Laptop/
This is the new netbook. People may have discounted my collusion theory, but you tell me where the $300 10-inch laptops are. Show me the $350 10-inch laptops. Keep going. Where are the $399 10-inchers? Get my point? You can’t buy something if they don’t exist. A $300 Windows 8 10-incher with non touch screen and non removable display? You can’t even find a 10-incher with those specs and forget about price. They simply don’t exist. Don’t tell me that it’s a demand thing and consumers wouldn’t be buying. That’s a pile of S.