We were expecting a few ground-breaking announcements at this week's Mobile World Congress, but we weren't expecting to see the Acer Aspire One 532G - the world's first netbook to be equipped with NVIDIA's second-generation ION platform.
Not that we're complaining, mind you, as this 10.1in ultra-portable actually looks rather useful.
Built around NVIDIA's ION 2 platform, the Aspire One 532G takes your typical netbook hardware - namely a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 "Pineview" processor and Intel's GMA 3150 IGP - and pairs it with NVIDIA's 512MB GeForce 310M GPU via the use of NVIDIA Optimus Technology, which, if you recall, provides seamless transition between IGP and GPU use.
Sounds like a near-perfect mix, we reckon, and Acer tells us that the netbook can manage 10 hours of operation from a single charge - though, we're going to presume that number applies only when using the IGP, and not the more-potent GeForce 310M GPU.
We're told the netbook can playback 720p content - hinting at a 1,280x720 display resolution - and there's HDMI output that'll let you push full-HD 1080p content to your big-screen TV. Elsewhere, users can expect Wi-Fi connectivity and optional support for 3G.
The system will ship in Q1 2010, and though there's no word on pricing, something tells us we're going to see Acer's Aspire One 532G - and many other ION 2 netbooks - at next month's CeBIT.
