Acer subsidiary Packard Bell has announced plans to sell its new line of  Dot mini-laptops in the UK. Basically, these are just rebranded versions of Acer Aspire one laptops… with a few changes in both branding and specifications.

The Packard Bell Dot S has a 10.1 inch display, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and Windows XP. Prices will start at about £249 or around $397 US. If you ask me, it looks a lot like the Acer Aspire One D250.

The Packard Bell Dot M has the same chassis as the Acer Aspire One 751. But the insides are a bit different. In lieu of the underperforming Intel Atom z520 CPU found in the Aspire One 751, the Packard Bell Dot M has an AMD Athlon L1110 and up to 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive. The computer runs Windows Vista and will run about £349 or $556 US. A version with an Intel processor will also be available.

We first heard about the Packard Bell Dot M and S in April, but now it looks like we have a time frame for a product launch (in the UK anyway). Both laptops should be available in July.

The reports of the Packard Bell Dot netbook’s death appear to have been mildly exaggerated. I reported back in March that Packard Bell was pulling the plug on its 8.9 inch version of the Dot, a netbook which is little more than a rebranded Acer Aspire One anyway (Acer owns the Packard Bell brand). But Notebook Italia is reporting that the Dot has been reborn, in the form of two new laptops.

The Packard Bell Dot S has a 10.1 inch display and the Dot M has an 11.6 inch. 1366 x 768 pixel screen. They’ll come with WiFi, Bluetooth, and 3G options and multitouch trackpads. The rest of the specs are pretty much par for the netbook course, with 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drives, webcams, and 5-in-1 flash memory card readers. The Dot M will have a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU instead of the more common 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor. This CPU should offer better battery life, but marginally slower performance.

The notebooks look a lot like recently announced laptops from Acer. But I have to wonder, can you get away with calling an 11.6 inch laptop “Dot?” I mean, the name works for an 8.9 inch netbook, but Packard Bell is sort of pushing the boundaries of netbookdom here.

According to Notebook Italia, the Dot S will run 299 Euros and should hit the streets in some areas this week. The Dot M will be availale later in April for 399 Euros.

via Blogeee