Netbooks growing to 11.6-inch

Competition in the only growing PC market is heating up. As more PC makers crowd into the 10" screen size market, two major netbook makers is set to roll out new model with larger screen, further blurring the line between low cost netbooks and traditional notebooks.

Currently, Dell and Samsung already have 12.1" models in the market and are great for the eyes, but they compromise on portability. On the other hand, current 10" screen may be easy to carry around, but are a bit of a strain to the eyes after long hours of usage.



Acer has officially announce the Acer Aspire One 751 which attempts to hit the spot between portability and size. The Aspire One 751 will be thinner than the current models and it will have a full-size laptop keyboard. Its expected to hit the stores some time this month.

Meanwhile, Asustek president Jerry Shen said his company will launch an Eee PC netbook with an 11.6-inch display later this month. He expects 10" netbooks to remain the most popular version with at least 50 percent of orders for this year while the new 11.6" models are expected to grab 30 percent of the market.

However, these larger netbooks are likely to run into stiff competition from a new class of less-costly, ultra-thin laptops based on the AMD Athlon Neo, such as the HP Pavilion DV2Z, or the upcoming Intel CULV processors, such as MSI’s X-Slim series.