Nice power in a small package!!!
Written: Sep 28 '08 (Updated Sep 22 '09)
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Pros: Small, fast, nice readable screen. Reasonably priced.
Cons: No recovery DVD shipped with the unit.
The Bottom Line: Small unit, priced to sell. Performance very good for a system in this price range. See my UPDATE for new comments after a year of use.
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| randomaccess's Full Review: Acer Aspire One A150-1649 (AOA150-1649) PC Noteboo... |
I have been in the market for a long time for a small but usuable internet device.
I have a pocketpc from HP, which only works well on sites optimized for the smaller screen. I also have an Ipod Touch which is great for using on the go when wifi is available, but has no keyboard.
When ASUS came out with it's small line of UMPC's, now called Netboods, I was very interested, but the 7inch diagonal screen was not wide enough for normal web use, having to scroll both left and right and up and down to read a normal web page. The first units were also slow and underpowered.
The next round of Netbooks featured the new Intel Atom processor, running at 1.6GHZ, and while only single cored, supports hyperthreading. These new netbooks featured screens at 8.9 inch and 10 inch diagonal. This is a much more usuable size.
Acer's Aspire One is part of this new group. The Aspire line is split into two camps, the first runs a version of Linux, not Windows, and does not have a hard drive, instead using a small 8GB solid state drive, which utilizes less power then the typical mechanical hard drive.
The other group of Aspire One's run WindowsXP, and have a 120GB-160GB mechanical hard drive. These units also have 1GB of RAM, vs only 512MB of RAM in the Linux based units.
I have the model with XP and the 120GB hard drive. The case is blue colored and the keyboard and screen border are black.
The Aspire One comes with a small charger and power cable, the computer, and a very basic vinyl slip case. There is minimal printed documentation and no discs. The battery is a 3 cell battery and I get about two hours -- 2.5 hours in normal use.
The keyboard is very usuable, key movement is very nice. The trackpad has botton on either side, instead of the front, which is unusual, and you can scroll left to right along the top edge, or up and down along the right edge.
Instead of listing all the ports and tech specs here, I will past in the technical details at the end of the review.
On initial bootup, Windows spends a fair amount of time discovering and setting up drivers for all the hardware. The whole process took about 5 minutes.
Once booted, the unit looks for wireless networks, and found mine without a problem. Wireless perfomance was about the same as my HP laptop, which does very well..
Web pages load quickly, and the 1024 screen resolution means little, if any side to side scrolling is necessary.
Acer includes a free trial of McAfee security softare, and a free trial of Microsoft Office. These can be easily removed and replaced with your own Office Suite and Security software.
Acer also includes a utility to restore the system to factory default, using a hidden partition on the hard drive. This is fine unless you have a mechanical problem on the drive, then you are out of luck. The program would not burn a recovery disk using an external drive.
I called Acer, and to their credit I had recovery DVD's arrive via Fedex three days later. I would definitely go this route in case you ever have to replace the disk drive.
The unit is very nice, and at 2.19 lbs, very portable. Microcenter sells this one for $349, which is a bargain for what you are getting.
Highly Recommended!!!
Below are the technical specs for the Aspire One:
Operating System:Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Processor: Intel® Atom Processor N270
Processor Speed: 1.60GHz
Level 2 Cache:512KB Level 2 Cache
Data Bus Speed:533MHz Frontside BusRAM
Installed / Max RAM Supported: 1GB DDR2-533 RAM
Hard Drive:120GB 5,400RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive
Display Type:8.9" Widescreen SVGA CrystalBrite Display
Video Card: Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Video Chipset
Internal Max Resolution:1024 x 600
Sound Card: High Definition Audio Chipset
Network Features: 10/100 Fast Ethernet Network
Wireless Network Features: Acer InviLink 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTFIED Wireless Network
Ports and Connectors: (1) VGA 15-pin Port; (3) USB 2.0 "A" Ports; (1) RJ-45 Network Port; (1) Microphone Port; (1) Headphone Port
Memory Card Reader: Multi-in-1 Card ReaderMemory Cards SupportedSecure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Reduced- Size Multimedia Card, Memory Stick®, Memory Stick PRO, xD-Picture Card
Built-In Devices:Stereo Speakers, Webcam
Input Devices: Keyboard, Touchpad
Included Battery: 3 Cell Rechargeable Lithium-Ion BatteryAverage Run TimeUp to 2.5 Hours
Included Software: Acer eRecovery Management, Acer Launch Manager, Adobe® Reader®, McAfee® Internet Security Suite (Trial Version), Microsoft® Office 2007 (Trial Version)
Dimensions: (WxDxH)9.8" x 6.7" x 1.14"
Weight: 2.19 lbs
Manufacturer Warranty: 1 Year Limited Warranty
UPDATE: I can't believe it, but the Aspire One is now about 1 year old. Everything is still going strong, including the battery.
I have no regrets about this purchase, and right now there is nothing on the market worth upgrading to.
The newer Netbooks on the market now have slightly bigger hard drives (160GB), and a process that runs slightly faster, and most have 10.1" screens vs the Aspire One's 9 inch screen. These are not necessarily compelling reasons to upgrade.
With windows 7 just around the corner expect another crop of devices to appear before the holidays. I am sure that some will have more RAM and even bigger hard drives, and even dedicated graphics chips. If I was in the market today for a Netbook, I might hold off for about 4-6 weeks, just to see what pans out.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 349
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
randomaccess
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Member: Bob
Location: NJ
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 9 members
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