Netbooks boot Windows, smartbooks boot Linux and smartphone OSes. That seems to be the somewhat generalizsed public perception, but Acer has shown this week it couldn’t be more wrong.
The increasingly successful PC maker has officially announced the ‘Aspire One D250′ – an Intel Atom=based netbook which dual- boots both Windows 7 and Google Android. Odd? Yes. Interesting? Most definitely. Sensible? Not really.
On the surface there is little to get excited about. The D250 ticks all the usual (and not overly exciting) netbook boxes: 10=in. 1024 x 600 display, 1.6=GHz Atom CPU, 1 GB RAM, 160-GB HDD, Intel integrated graphics, 802.11g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Ho and indeed Hum. It also isn’t going to woo any customers with its generic looks. If all this seems somewhat out of pace with the lasted ION and ARM technologies, that’s because the D250 has actually been on sale in a Windows XP- only form since the summer.
Still, the addition of Android makes this otherwise unremarkable model newsworthy. The D250 has become the first commercially available computer to run Google’s increasingly popular smartphone OS, and Acer promises full hardware and software compatibility with owners, including the ability to use Android Marketplace to download apps. The problem is the D250 doesn’t have a touchscreen panel, so initial reports suggest navigation is problematic at best, with liberal use of the ESC key required to get you back to the homescreen.
The other oddity here is Google doesn’t even want Android on computers. For this segment it has targeted the much lauded (yet so far completely unseen) Chrome OS, so the D250 seems more circus freak than a trailblazing sign of what is to come. Still, if you want to experience this platform oddity, it goes on sale now in black, blue, red and white for $350.
Gordon
