Acer announced the launch of its new series of affordable notebooks. The Aspire One Cloudbook will be available in two sizes, comes with Windows 10, and both models are available for $200 or less.
The name Cloudbook alludes to this being a cloud-focused device such as Google's Chromebook. However, that is not the case. Acer has stated that there are no restrictions on OS, and it comes with a full license of Windows 10. To make up the name Cloudbook, Acer has bundled a 1-year subscription to Office 365 Personal, along with 1 TB of OneDrive online storage space. The company also included a suite of cloud-ready applications to go along with the devices. "Build Your Own Cloud" apps, as Acer calls them, include abPhoto, abMusic, abDocs and abFiles. These applications will let you share files to your tablet, smartphone and other devices in a secure private cloud.
The Acer Aspire One Cloudbook is a light-weight, highly-portable notebook running Windows 10. The Cloudbook will be available in two variants, an 11-inch model that weighs 2.54 lbs., and a 14-inch model that weighs 3.5 lbs.
Each model is only .70-inches thick, yet they still manage to include a full size HDMI port, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 port, and a full size SD card slot. Acer has even managed to include a full-size chiclet keyboard along with a large touchpad that supports Windows 10 Gestures.
The Aspire One Cloudbook 11 and 14 are similarly equipped, with Intel Celeron N3050 dual-core processors clocked at 1.6 GHz (boost up to 2.16 GHz) and 2 GB of DDR3L memory. Cloudbooks all include a 640 x 480 webcam, dual digital microphones with enhanced digital sound processing (DSP), and regardless of size, they both include a 1366 x 768 HD LED-backlit display. Communication is handled through Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
The main difference between each model is the size of the internal storage. The Cloudbook 11 is available with a 16 GB or 32 GB eMMC hard drives, and the Cloudbook 14 has options for 32 GB of 64 GB eMMC drives.
The 11-inch Cloudbooks will be available this month and can be purchased through Microsoft starting at $169.99 for the 16 GB version and $189.99 for the 32 GB version. The 14-inch model will be available this October at Walmart, and will start at $199.99. The price for the 64 GB version has not been released.
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