The slim and sleek body of the Aspire L310 looks amazing, but be prepared to sacrifice (hardware) upgrade potential if you opt for one of these compact babies. Well, that’s obvious enough. So, what else did CNET say in their review of one of Acer’s latest desktops:

The Aspire L310 works as a trim, affordable computer that will also serve light home-theater-PC duties. It doesn’t offer as much room for improvement as its competition, but as long as you don’t have plans for upgrading or running Windows Vista full bore, this system will serve you well.

Around US$850 for a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB DDRII RAM (max. 2GB), and a 250GB hard disk seems pretty good (among the big names at least), but note that it doesn’t come with a DVD writer or a dedicated graphics card of any sort. Of course, it is a small-form-factor PC, so I guess we weren’t supposed to expect too much, right?

P.S.: There doesn’t seem to be much stock of it online yet, at least, compared to the HP Pavilion Slimlines.

Not much (or rather, any) detail here, except that the China Economic News Service (CENS) reported yesterday that Acer has unveiled 5 models of ultra-small desktops – presumably in Taiwan. No pictures or tech specs were available.

There is hope, however, that these desktops will be announced for the international audience soon since Acer has predicted that it would sell 2 million units of these PCs next year in its effort to gain a 30% global market share.

[News via CENS]

(Source: IT News Online)

With all the top-of-the-line desktops and notebooks released in recent days, one might be tempted to forget about the budget-class, entry-level PCs Acer has used successfully to corner the Indian market.

One such PC released recently is the Acer Power 330, which is powered by the relatively dated 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor. It also comes with only 128MB DDR RAM, a 40GB (5400RPM) hard disk drive and a 15″ CRT monitor – a far cry from the specs of even the most average of computers in this “age”.

But who cares when it sells for only Rs. 17,999 (~US$388) ?

[News via IT News Online]

(Source: Norton)

Since January, new owners of Acer notebooks and desktops would have spotted a cute, little Norton CD pre-loaded with either Norton Antivirus or Internet Security 2006. That was part of a 3-year deal Acer made with Norton, which for some reason or another, has been modified this week.

What will happen is that Norton’s software will now be pre-installed, rather than pre-loaded with new Acer PCs. The install will be for a 90-day trial, which you can opt to buy when the trial period runs out.

Good? Bleh. Yet another so-so pre-install, and only a trial too. But if you’re a Norton-lover, like many mainstream users are, then you probably have nothing to complain about.

(Source: CNET)

In certain parts of Asia, e.g. Malaysia, Acer has launched an upgraded AMD dual-core version of its relatively dated Acer Aspire T160.

The older T160 sported a 2.4GHz Athlon 64 3400+ processor (which is still available if you’re looking for a lower-end T160), but you’ll get an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ dual-core processor, a 160GB SATA hard disk drive, and a dual-layer DVD burner instead if you opt for Acer’s latest incarnation of the Aspire T160.

It’s still a budget desktop, of course, especially given the intergrated nVidia nForce 4 graphics, but for only RM2,988 (around US$850), what do you expect?

Just a short one here. Acer India recently launched a new toll free customer service number, 1800-11-6677, to help buyers of Acer consumer PCs. Of course, as usual, the service is being outsourced to RT Outsourcing Services – an Indian outsourcing organization.

This addition to Acer’s tele-support service is part of Acer’s drive to widen their customer service network (both tele-support and onsite service) to 175 locations across India by the end of 2006.

According to Q1 numbers from Gartner and IDC, Acer (World No. 4 in market share) saw its global PC shipments grow 45 percent in the first quarter of 2006, and now has 5 percent of the world PC market. This rate of growth is more than 3 times the overall growth rate across all manufacturers, i.e. 13.1%.

World Nos. 2 and 3, HP and Lenovo, also saw their PC shipments and market shares rise, with Dell – the world leader – being the only Top 4 PC manufacturer that saw its market share decline.

[News via DailyTech]

This week has pretty much been a slow week in terms of Acer news and reviews. Actually, I’m sure you would already have realised this (from the lack of posts and uhmm… dryness of post content?) already, but no harm adding a formal excuse for the lack of posts this week, right?

Anyway, on the regional side, Acer is offering cheap PCs to students in Indonesia and Singapore (unconfirmed), with desktops being the primary target over at Indonesia, and notebooks in Singapore.

According to the news release, Sempron 3100-equipped desktops, with 80GB hard disk drives and 256MB SDRAM, are going at a pretty low price of US$300 (around Rp 2.75 million). I’m not too sure about the exact details over at Singapore, but certain Junior Colleges are hosting Acer notebook road shows.

The PCs offered are a little low end for the more techy (and well off) students to take advantage of this promotion, but I guess catering for this bunch of students was never part of the goals for this promotion.