Acer has started shipping its Aspire 1551. The 11.6 inch notebook has better specs than a typical netbook. Still, it is cheaper than most thin and light notebooks on the market.

The Acer Aspire 1551-5448 is powered by a 1.5GHz AMD Turion II Neo K625 dual core processor with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 graphics. The powerful ATI graphics will give the machine enough oomph to handle 1080p HD video playback. And with the dual core processor, you should be able to get decent performance.

Other specifications include 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 320GB, 5400rpm hard drive, 1.3 megapixel webcam, Dolby sound system, multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Gigabit Ethernet, 3 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI port and multi-gesture touchpad. The notebook runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit operating system. It ships with a 6-cell battery rated at 4400 mAh. Acer claims that you will get around 5 hours of battery life.

The Aspire 1551 measures around 1 inch in thickness and weighs just over four pounds. It is now available for purchase from Amazon
and some other retailers. Prices start at $550.