Acer Aspire One
Acer Aspire One Netbook
Acer says the Aspire One is not a laptop and are promoting it as an Internet Device. Some call them mini laptops but we call the Netbooks!
The Acer Aspire One is lightweight, at just 995g its lighter than the Asus EEE 901, but it is slightly wider than others we've seen. The weight is saved by having a smaller battery (and battery life) than its other competitors.
The Acer Aspire One is a beauty, coming in Glossy Blue or White and featuring rounded edges and smooth lines. It looks more mature, more sexy, than the almost toy like EEE PC.
In making the Aspire One wider than other netbooks, Acer have managed to squeeze a 95% size keyboard on there, which made it much easier and much more natural for typing documents (for those of us that need to work and not just surf the net!).
There are three USB ports in total -- two on the right, one on the left. There's also a D-Sub video output port, Ethernet port and mic and headphone ports. There are two SD card readers, one on either side, one for accessing media and one intended as a more permanent flash based storage using for example an 8gb SDHC card.
Like most netbooks, the Acer One comes in both Linux and Windows XP versions. The entry-level Linux version sells for £220 and includes the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU and 512MB of RAM. You only get a small 8GB flash memory based "hard drive" but size is not as important as speed and price with Netbooks.
The basic Windows XP model uses the same 1.6GHz Atom CPU, but gets 1GB of RAM, plus an 80GB mechanical hard drive, all for around £320.
Although we didnt play with the XP model, we'd prefer the Linux version any day. Netbooks are all about price, speed and simplicity. While an 80gb hard drive is nice, a Netbook is not intended for storing all your documents, files, music and movies. Store them online or with a NAS drive to your wireless router for maximum benefit.
The Acer One has a very nice 8.9-inch, 1,024x600-pixel display which is good surfing purposes. It has a 1.3 megapixel webcam above the screen which integrates well into Instant Messaging programs.
The Aspire One has some downsides though; there's no Bluetooth, for a start, and the wireless is of the 802.11b/g variety, which tops out at 54Mbps. While no problem for surfing, if you want to stream a movie from a NAS drive etc, then you might see some slow down. The one compensates this by having space for an optional 3g/HSPDA adapter which has a slot for your sim card in it.
The Linux version of the Acer Aspire One is based on Linpus Lite. The home screen is divided into four sections: 'Connect' for all Internet, instant messenger and email-related tasks; 'Work' for accessing OpenOffice word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and database applications; 'Fun' for the games, media player and photo management software; and 'Files' for accessing your data. Like all Netbooks, its easy and simple to use, fast and efficient and has all the software you need on a day to day basis.
The Acer One is pretty nippy. We timed it at about 17 seconds to boot up and about 8-10 seconds to load the usual apps, such as OpenOffice and Firefox.
The battery life isnt great though lasting less than most of its competitors in our tests. We managed about 2 hours watching a DivX film with usual surfing lasting about 3 hours. A larger battery is available from Acer.
Conclusion
The Acer Aspire One is a lovely looking machine. Using the Atom processor, this Netbook is fast, small and light. It has a good screen and a decent keyboard. And the price is fantastic.
Buy an Acer Aspire One
Buy from PC World for just £249.99
