Splitting the Atom: Acer Aspire One goes dual-core

From CNET News.com: Netbooks don't change very much in terms of specs, at least compared to other laptops, but there has been one new wrinkle as of late: dual-core Atom CPUs.

Acer's 10.1-inch Acer Aspire AOD255 Netbook includes a new dual-core Atom N550 CPU for $350, along with 1GB of DDR3 RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter. A single-core AOD255 will still be sold as well, starting at $269. It comes in four colors - red, black, brown, and aquamarine, and will go on sale later this month.

Acer has a line of "premium" Netbooks featuring 11.6-inch screens and AMD Athlon II Neo processors, so what does a dual-core Atom offer? Based on price, it doesn't cost quite so much to upgrade, though its performance as compared to a Neo CPU may not be nearly as eye-opening.

So, is a dual-core Atom worth it? We'll be taking an up-close look at dual-core versus single-core Atom performance in Netbooks later this week, so stay tuned.

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