11.6-inch netbooks on the way

Ever since Asus bestowed the 7-inch Eee PC upon us, screen sizes have crept up and up.

And it now looks like we'll soon be seeing 11.6-inch netbooks from both Acer and Asus in the not-too-distant future.

The move to a bigger panel means a larger native resolution of 1,366x768 pixels, which will allow for far more gubbins on your desktop than on previous netbooks. It will also further blur the line between netbook and laptop. More details after the cut.

Nothing official has been announced yet, but some interesting photos have surfaced of what Acer's 11.6-inch model might look like (see below).

The photos certainly look pretty genuine – if they are the real thing, the Windows key that you can just make out in the bottom left corner indicates Acer is opting for a Microsoft operating system as opposed to Linux. However, Microsoft will have to relax its limits on usage if either model is to run off Windows XP – it currently only allows manufacturers to use XP on netbooks with a maximum 10.2-inch screen size.

There's no indication of what processors are likely to be found in either device, nor has a price point been mentioned. However, it is rumoured that vendors will be looking to create clear boundaries between these new 11.6-inch models and those based on 10.1-inch panels, so you can expect them to be both faster and more expensive than current netbooks.

[ Eee PC Blog]

 

Originally published on www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk, now incorporated into Broadband Genie
© Dennis Publishing

 

 

 

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