Acer Aspire One 571

The Acer Aspire One 571 netbook advances the resolution of its 10.1-inch display to 1280 x 720, plus an optical disc drive. However, unlike the ASUS Eee PC 1004DN, this is no DVD burner but a Vmedia drive which uses 32mm Blu-ray discs, loaded inside small plastic cartridges, each with 1GB capacity.

Initially only ROM discs full of media content will be available, with 576p-quality video content, but the company anticipates recordable versions in the future. To handle that media, the Aspire One 571 couples its Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz processor with the Quartics Q1721 Multimedia Coprocessor. Look for Bluetooth and WiFi in there too. There’s no word on pricing or whether consumers will endorse Vmedia.