back to article Acer to deliver ARM notebook within nine days

Acer needs to hurry. Apparently, it's going to launch the first ever notebook based on an Nvidia Tegra 2 chip this month, and there only nine more days to go. The - we suppose we have to say "smartbook", the moniker once given to ARM-based netbooks but sadly much out of favour in these tablet-centric times - will run Android 3 …

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  1. Arrrggghh-otron

    Price?

    I expect it will cost more than an entry level laptop...

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Prepare to be surprised

      No reason for them to be that expensive. All the chippery is either the same or cheaper, less memory required, screen, chassis and ports the same battery life with a smaller battery, probably no fan required.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    AC100

    Toshiba AC100 still exists, since about last November, and has ubuntu releases working on it.

  3. Phil Endecott

    Efika

    Not the first. Not even the second: see the Efika prodcts at http://www.genesi-usa.com/products/smartbook . (New versions due soon I believe.)

    Now what would be really great would be if they give it a screen with a decent resolution, i.e. better than 1024x768.

    1. Gordan

      Efika Screen

      Screen in the Efika can be upgraded to 1280x720:

      http://www.altechnative.net/?p=152

  4. Joe Burmeister
    Flame

    As long as we can replace Android I'm happy.

    I don't want Android/Linux I want real Linux i.e. GNU/Linux, more specifically Debian.

    Yer you can chroot Debian on Android, but that sucks (but it is better than nothing).

    1. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
      Linux

      With you.

      Would seriously consider an ARM netbook but not till debian can boot relatively flawlessly.

      Manufacturers, please take note. Some of us don't want your stinking Android.

      I looked at the Asus transformer and got a new Atom Eee instead.

      1. Gordan

        Efika

        Efika comes pre-loaded with Ubuntu, and yes, it works flawlessly.

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. ThomH

      They've a vested interest in upsell, though

      As will anybody else that enters the market. And once Windows for ARM is out, somebody else will have exactly the same motivations that they did during the period in which Intel netbooks mysteriously doubled in price.

    2. alain williams Silver badge

      Blame the journalists

      Most people don't need vast horsepower on a laptop, but the journalists who review these things seem obsessed with how fast they are. As long as it is fast enough to: browse the web; run a word processor & other such tasks then I would much rather have the extra battery life than useless speed.

      Please can we have real people review these things in future.

  6. Mikel

    First?

    What's this Asus Transformer in my hand then?

    1. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

      What's it doing?

      Err... pass... but probably a lot less than my 1015PEM booting debian 6.0 :P

      But seriously, I tried looking at the transformer, decided against it because it seemed heavier and AFAIK no one has quite hacked a proper linux to run with it (Correct me if I am wrong).

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Err...

    What about the Acorn A4 laptop in 1991?

    1. Stuart Halliday
      Happy

      oops

      The A4 may be the first ARM core lapbook. But as the article says it's the first running Niva graphics copro...

      Now we just need RISC OS 6 for it!

  8. alex dekker 1

    Smartbook? Blech

    How about a name that suggests it's a tablet with a keyboard?

    - Clamshell tablet

    - Flip tablet

    - Keyblet

    - Qwerty tablet

    - Multi-button tablet

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