First Netbooks, Now Nettops

I saw an advertisement for a "Nettop" in BestBuy this Sunday, and I was very curious to learn more about it. So I ended up Google-ling these new devices, and I'm highly impressed with what I found.

This blog post talks specifically about a $199 Acer AspireRevo. Just as a warning, don't make assumptions that EVERY nettop will have the following true about it, but it's certainly likely as they increase in sales more options with more sophistication will be available.

Netbooks can be pretty awesome. But the problem I had with the ones that are out right now, most of them have a very weak graphics chip, and the resolution of the LCD screen is too small to effectively do web design (in my humble opinion).

Now, this Nettop from Acer doesn't have the Wi-Fi or Screen that comes with a netbook. But, it costs about $100 less than a typical netbook, and has a few extra features.

This Acer system uses a NVidia Ion LE chipset... which has several awesome onboard features... nice audio, a very capable video card (DirectX 9 compatible 9400GM with 128MB VRAM), 1GB RAM (same as most netbooks, although the video chip steals 128MB from the total 1GB). But, the system has HDMI output, so presumably could drive a typical plasma TV or LCD TV.

I was very enticed by the system, after reviewing the features. So I ended up purchasing it--I was very curious about the 3D capabilities and exactly how much I can do at once with a single-core Atom CPU @ 1.6ghz. And I'm definitely impressed. This system is very capable for every day tasks as well as some basic 3D gaming. The graphics chip is shared by many desktop systems, so very very impressive for a $199 system.

And this thing's tiny. It's smaller than my Mac Mini. 6 USB ports plus sATA on the front. I really wish it came with Wi-Fi, but the 10/100/1000 Ethernet port is very useful. I can add a Wi-Fi adapter for about $30 from Newegg, but that's an additional cost that should be taken into consideration.

I look forward to the new developments in the nettop market, but I'm very pleased so far and certainly plan to get a few years out of this inexpensive device.

( Note: I'm in no way associated with Acer, I just think this device is freaking awesome. )