Acer shows new laptops, netbooks and nettops

Acer's latest Aspire One has an 11.6in display

Acer has unveiled a new line-up of systems, including an Aspire netbook with an 11.6in screen, laptops with extended battery life, a touch-screen desktop and a low-cost Revo desktop based on Intel's Atom processor.

Announced at a launch event in New York, the systems include several new Aspire laptops, an all-in-one PC with a touchscreen, and a new Aspire Timeline brand of laptops designed for longer battery life.

Most notable is the Aspire Revo, a so-called 'nettop' that costs less than a traditional PC, according to Acer. It is the first small form factor PC based on a new platform that combines the Atom 230 processor with an Nvidia ION graphics processor.

Aimed at consumers, the Revo has a compact chassis that can attach to the back of a monitor. It can be fitted with a Sata hard drive or Flash solid state drive and up to 4GB of memory.

Acer also extended its Aspire One netbook family with a new model featuring an 11.6in screen. Although this blurs the boundary between netbooks and standard laptops even further, the new model weighs just over 1Kg and is just 2.5cm thick, according to Acer.

The new Aspire Timeline series of laptops features Intel's Display Power Savings Technology to reduce the power used by the screen backlight, boosting battery life by up to 40 per cent, Acer claimed.

These models are based on ultra low voltage Core 2 Duo processors, and are available with 13.3in, 14in or 15.6in screens.

Expanding Acer's touch-screen PC line is the Aspire Z5600, an all-in-one design featuring a 24in LCD screen. Acer said that the model is designed to make full use of the optional touch-based user interface that will be part of Windows 7 when the new operating system ships later this year.

Acer also unveiled three new Aspire laptops - the 8935, 5935 and 3935 - which have 18in, 15in and 13.3in displays respectively.

Prices and availability have yet to be announced for the new systems.