Acer Aspire One NetBook - Part 1

[Riz]

Hi all,

Thought I would post a small review about this value for money product - Acer Aspire One NetBook.

Here was my problem....... im pretty much a casual internet surfer and my current laptop has been annoying me for sometime! I have a Sony GRT series laptop which is more like a brick on fire!

I had to constantly keep it plugging it into the mains as the battery only lasts about 40-60mins max. The fan was nearly always one and because i used it on my lap it got very very HOT! It isnt a light laptop either!

So I wanted something to take on the duties of the internet side of things.... surfing the net, mail and msn messenger.

I looked at many different units but remembering that I wasnt replacing my laptop completely as I have a study with that no sitting on a desk where it belongs...... so I wanted sometime cheap and upto the job without worry about it being knocked about etc.

I considered the expensive soon to be released HP MiniNote 100 and the Compaq 700 priced £299 and £399. They are really nice bits of kit from what ive seen on the web but the price point was a issue and again I didnt need anything too fancy.

This is where the Acer Aspire One came in... priced at a very low £179.99 from PcWorld....... so what did I get for my £179.99. Well the following.....

Intel Atom 1.6Ghz CPU

Intel Graphics 8MB

Onboard sound

Onboard mic with webcam

8GB SSD

512MB Ram (up to 1.5GB)

2x Memory card slots, one of which actually is a expansion for the SSD storage

Linux based user friendly O/S

Trackpad

Glossy finish in blue

3cell battery - 3hrs approx (6cell available 7hrs)

Pre installed applications, FireFox2, IM, Open Office etc

Bootup time 15-20seconds

VGA out

3x USB ports

Realtec onboard LAN

Built in WiFi

1 year warranty

I un-boxed the acer yesterday after getting home from PCworld and I was really pleased with the overall build quality, remembering that this unit only cost £179.99.

Having used it a fair bit and done a few charge cycles im only seeing about 2 - 2.5hrs of battery, perhaps this will improve alittle over time.

Ive updated the BIOS to the latest version without any problems too.

Linplus Linux is a very basic looking desktop........ some may prefer Windows etc but remember this unti boots into the O/S within 20 seconds from powering up........ puts shame to my Windows XP Pro running 1Gb Ram on a 2.8GHz P4!!!!! Very suprised.

It comes bundled with FireFox2 internet browser which runs pretty much ok....... the Email application which is basically like Outlook wont get mail from Hotmail which is abit of a let down...... perhaps a future update will solve this.

The IM chat client its spot on...... works just like MSN including video conversations etc.

The acer has a built in 0.3megapixel webcam built into the top of the screen with a microphone next to it....... it does a wonderful job and works flawlessly, you can also take screen grabs / movie clips if you require...... perhaps for the buget porn newbies..

The keyboard and screen are alittle on the small side so do take abit getting used to but overall im happy with it...... the picture quality, brightness and contrast are spot on with very minimal isses with colouring..... noticable in some pictures, think the screen has a blue tone to it.

The built in WiFi and Lan are pretty standard along with the 2 USB ports.

Mem slot one is a multi slot, so it can handle SD, MMC, Duo etc

Mem slot two is for SD card but this slot is market up at "Storage Expansion" this is a really neat feature...... because SSD is still a expensive method of storage the Acer I bought had 8GB SSD, ok for my purposes of web browsing etc.... So you can buy a fast SD card and slot this in and what the machine does is mount this into the SSD storage, so it combines the SSD drive and SD card to give you one complete drive! Neat.

It comes with OpenOffice which is a freeware office suite..... pretty good as its free!

There are a few other applications and games too......

Now there is also a Media player which is the main player, similar to Windows Media Player......... I did a few tests and much to my suprise I can copy a large MPEG2 recording off my PlayStation3 (PlayTV recording) and copy it to the SSD drive and it plays back as good as it gets..... stunning, no frame rate drops or problems.... just rename the file from the PlayStation to *mpg and no conversion is required. On the downside I copied the clip onto a Sony Mem Duo and the acer didnt like playing it direct of the stick at all....... perhaps the data rate is too slow off that type of mem stick?

So I think i`ll be getting a decent fast SD card which I can use to get my recordings off my PlayStation3. Pretty chuffed.

Linplus Linux has a LiveUpdate tool too which keeps it up to date software / patchwise

Overall im pretty impressed with the machine you get for £179.99 and would recommend it to people who want a small, cheap, useable netbook.

Riz

Edited November 1, 2008 by Riz
Updated - Part 2