When is a tablet not a tablet?
Last week it was reported that Acer was going to launch a device using Google's Chrome OS at the impending Computex show. This story was so widely reported that Acer felt moved to comment on rumour and speculation and issue a press release to the contrary.
In spite of this tablet computers are expected to be a big feature of this year's Taipei tech-fest, but that could mean any of a wide variety of specs and form-factors. Thanks to Apple, people currently think of tablets as keyboard-less touchscreens running a mobile phone OS, but until recently they were merely regular notebooks with a swivel touchscreen.
As if to emphasise its reluctance to commit to new-fangled devices, Acer today launched the Aspire Timeline 1825PT - a tablet variation on its thin-and-light range. With typical Acer understatement, it's being called "a wonder of technology and design," and claims all-day battery life.
The Timeline 1825PT has a swivel touchscreen, but runs good, old Windows 7 and has a relatively old Intel ULV Core 2 Duo CPU - the 1.3 GHz, 10 W SU7300 (full specs on the next page). The integrated graphics is the GMA 4500MHD, which offers 1080p playback.
Acer reckons people are going to use the multi-touch capabilities in preference to the mouse and keyboard and has included a bunch of touch-optimised applications, such as a browser and a notepad, as well as the Acer TouchPortal for a bunch more.
The 11.6 inch, 1366x768 screen and ULV processor combine to offer a claimed eight hours of battery life. The Aspire Timeline 1825PT is available now with an expected price of £700, although you can save yourself 100 quid by going for the lower specced PTZ variant.
