It's time for a break from today's eleventy-billion Windows Phone 7 phones. Instead, let's have a splash of colour with the cheerily named Acer Aspire One Happy, a 10-inch cocktail-coloured netbook that has a clever party piece: it juggles Windows 7 and Android.
The Happy laptop comes in candy pink, lavender purple, lime green and Hawaii blue. Colourful netbooks with silly names wouldn't normally get our juices flowing, but these models have an interesting raison d'etre. They run not just Windows 7, but allow you to switch to Google's Android operating system.
We've seen a flood of tablet PCs this year challenging the iPad by taking advantage of Android's lightweight OS for portable Web browsing, social networking and apps. We've even seen a tablet -- the ViewSonic ViewPad 100 -- that'll switch between that mobile experience and Windows 7 for when you need more computing grunt, but this is one of the first netbooks to get in on the act. Like the ViewPad, you have to reboot the Happy and wait for it to restart in order to switch between one OS and another.
The Happy runs Android 2.1 so it's nearly bang up to date. It's powered by your choice of Intel Atom N450 or dual-core Intel Atom N550, with up to 2GB RAM and Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150. Acer reckons it'll keep smiling for up to 8 hours. There's a 3G version for proper portability, with each model measuring 24mm thick and weighing 1.25kg with a six-cell battery pack.
The Aspire One Happy is available now starting at £250.
Update: A previous version of this story stated, based on information supplied by Acer, that the Happy could switch between operating systems without rebooting. When we asked how that worked, Acer admitted this was a mistake in the press release and you do in fact have to reboot.
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Comments 8
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Nyadach 11 October, 2010 18:50
Spec good, features good, price good. Look of the things, you have to be kidding me! Wouldn't be seen dead with one of them. Coloured netbooks are all well and good, just not those colours.
Anonymous 15 October, 2010 00:59
Wow I love those colours. CAN THEY MAKE A FURRY ONE?
Anonymous 4 January, 2011 21:37
how do I change the background image ?
Anonymous 7 January, 2011 13:54
you cannot change the background as the Windows 7 software is purely the starter pack... if you upgrade to Windows 7 completely... this feauture will be available. - i know its frustrating... what i do is put a screensaver on of a picture in my picutre album, which makes it seem a little better.
Anonymous 2 February, 2011 09:22
I bought this netbook 3 days ago.when I try to watch movie it freezes and makes a crazy noise. Does anyone know if this is a HW error or is because of windows7 starter limitations?
Anonymous 15 February, 2011 21:05
We have an Acer laptop and an Acer netbook, both run fine so we decided to purchase the Aspire One Happy. We are now onto our 3rd machine as the first two kept freezing and then making a really loud strange noise (when watching videos) that could be heard all over our house....3rd time lucky hopefully
Anonymous 9 March, 2011 00:39
my one is doing jus that freezing and loud noises after having it just 2wks.
Anonymous 13 March, 2011 10:30
Mine works just fine, it switches between android and windows without rebooting. Can anyone tell me if it is 32 or 64 bit please?