14 DAY TRIAL // Netbooks, as a market, grew the most during 2009 and, in fact, were one of the main reasons why PC and hardware makers did not see the dismal marketing 'performance' of 2008 repeat itself. For AMD, on the other hand, this market was not exactly beneficial, since it caught it at a time when it didn't have anything to offer the mobile market, not in terms of processing at least. Now that the Sunnyvale, California-based CPU and GPU player has finally unleashed its own mobile chips, AMD-based laptops are finally making their way into stores.
Acer naturally wasted no time in making the best of the new platform from Advanced Micro Devices. In fact, two of its latest mobile creations are centered around the Athlon II Neo K125 chip, which has a clock frequency of 1.7GHz. Said products bear the names of Acer Aspire One 721 and 521 and can basically be said to fit into the ultrathin and netbook categories, respectively, even though their specs are, for the most part, similar.
The AO521 has the Neo K125 paired with 1GB of RAM, the Radeon HD 4225 integrated graphics and a 250GB hard disk drive. A 93%-sized keyboard and a 10.1-inch screen are also present, as is a battery that can keep the entire rig operational for up to 7 hours on a single charge.
Furthermore, the pre-loaded operating system is Windows 7 Starter. The AO721 is slightly larger, with an LED-backlit CrystalBrite 1366 x 768 screen of 11.6 inches. This ultraportable has 2GB of RAM, a 6-cell battery (5.5 hours) and runs Windows 7 Home Premium.
Both the 721 and 521 come with their own 1.3-megapixel webcams, Gigabit Ethernet, multi-gesture touchpads, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and HDMI outputs. The machines are priced at $430 and $350, respectively.