Here’s a riddle. Why are little Ion PCs sporting Atoms and low-power GPUs being touted as such versatile machines? They are capable of the basics, like a Mac Mini, but not much beyond that. I’m skeptical of their actual capabilities. 1080p? Call of Duty 4? Does it slice and dice, too?
The AcerRevo promises a lot, and to be honest, I’ll believe it when I see it. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that 1080p playback is limited to certain bitrates, file formats, or players. Likewise gaming. The fact is this thing has the guts of a high-end netbook, and I haven’t heard of anyone playing CoD4 on an Aspire One or Dell Mini. Maybe on OnLive?
That isn’t to say it’s useless, but let’s not get carried away with everything the companies that make it want us to think. I’ll tell you what this thing is: your HDTV’s hub for streaming media and, if you’re into it, emulators. Get a couple wireless 360 controllers, load up a nettop with games, and you’re laughing. As for the other stuff, well, we’ll see.
We’ll keep our eyes open for AcerRevo pricing and availability.
I have been watching this one since it was announced. If it can handle the specs, it is going to be my Boxee set top box for my HDTV/receiver.
Your post makes no mention of one key word: NVIDIA. The Ion platform (atom + nvidia 9400m) is the first and so far only pairing of an atom chip with something other than intel’s horrific integrated graphics. This is a solidly mid-range device, not “low-powered” as you describe, perfect for casual gaming and easily supporting all 1080p content. Blu-ray support was specifically promised (thru usb). You might be right that playback could be limited to certain players that can take advantage of nvidia hardware but those players are out there and the list is growing. Playing almost any game at 720p is not asking too much of this platform. When they get this into a netbook with hdmi and make it fanless like the dell mini 9, i’m buying.
Nvidia isn’t as much of a key word as you’d hope, I think. I didn’t mention it because it’s implied by Ion and the GPU, and I said “low-power,” not “low-powered.” That is to say, it’s a mobile processor, the same as in the MacBook, and it just doesn’t have the stream processors or memory for high-res gaming. It’ll be fine for 720p video probably and playing bejeweled or maybe World of Warcraft, but anything beyond that is pixie dust.
Maybe you’re just jealous. Today’s Acer product orgy was a game changer. They are strongly pushing all the right new consumer tech: eSata, hdmi, card readers at low prices. They’ve got a long way to go in terms of Support, Marketing, Brand cachet, but a Steve Job-less Apple had better watch out.
Agreed. This is a start of a new direction for desktops. They are finally getting to a form factor, price, and are quiet enough for set top boxes for the living room. And with more and more people looking for these devices to stream hulu.com/boxee/xbmc, etc to their tv’s, sales are sure to explode in the next year. Believe me when I say it is close to impossible to find a small mainstream desktop that is both affordable, quiet, and can push full HD. It is nice to see alternatives.
humbug!
I own an ION Atom 330. It can play bluray without hickups and last gen games (like COD4) at low settings.