Finally, The Acer Aspire One Netbook Review!

The Introduction:

I know that this has taken a long time to get put up but I wanted to make sure that I have taken the time to really test my Acer Aspire One Netbook before I actually did a review.

The Netbook that I purchased at Walmart ($298.98) is model AOA150-1887 and the specs are as follows:

• 160 GB HDD
• 1 GB DDR2 533Mhz
• Atom N270 1.6 Ghz Processor
• 8.9 Inch Active TFT Screen
• Windows Xp Home Edition SP3
• On board web cam .3 Mega pixels
• Built in mic
• Stereo Speakers (use headphones)
• 3 Cell battery (purchased 9 cell for sixty eight bucks)
• Multi card reader and SD Card Reader
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• Atheros wireless 802.11 b/g Network adapter (built in)
• RealTek RTL8102E/RTL8103E 10/100 Mbps NIC Port
• RealTek High Def Audio

I could go on and on with the specs but I think you get the point. I will not get into all the bench marks because this blog is for the average user or new computer user. So if you are a gamer or a programmer etc, this blog may be boring for you.

The nuts and bolts of the Acer Aspire One Netbook

When I first picked up my netbook I got it home and immediately unboxed it and found out that I did not get the slip cover which is usually shipped with every Acer Netbook. No big deal, I am going to get a really nice case for it anyways so I can take with me on the road.

Now I want to get tell you up front that Acer Aspire One netbook is not a notebook/laptop computer as the technical terms apply because there is no CD/DVD drive. You have to get an external CD/DVD drive if you need one.

I have installed Open Office on my netbook but it did come with Microsoft Works 8.5 which is doable but not as powerful as Open Office and Open Office is free! I also installed a copy of Microsoft Office 2003 Pro along with Google Chrome for my browser and Picasa for my pictures applications.

First impressions

When I first plugged in my netbook I hit the power button and it loaded into windows in about 30 seconds which was faster than my laptop (another Acer product). As I stated I then started to install all my preferred software and then went online to see how the netbook handles the websites that I normally go to. I was very impressed with how my netbook handled each and every website without any problems.

I really like the way the netbook looks and feels and the keyboard is not hard to get used to at all. I thought at first that the keyboard would be an issue because I have big hands, but that proved not be the issue, in fact I really like the way that I can just rest my hands and do my typing with out having to reach for the number keys, back space etc.

Putting the Netbook to the test

I read and watched a lot of reviews on netbooks before I purchased the Acer Aspire One. It got good reviews and the average user seemed to really like it. But the real world applications have to be usable on the netbook or it is just another novelty.

I first installed Open Office and the Acer Aspire One handled this application very easily and worked without a hitch. I also loaded MS Office 2003 and that worked without a hitch either. I installed Picasa from Google's site because I love this program that I use for downloading my pictures from my digital camera. Picasa works really well on my netbook and I just love the ability to be able to upload my pics to my Picasa website and my videos to YouTube.com!

Every Day Use

From here on out I am going to just tell you how my Acer Aspire One netbook works for me on a daily basis.

What will follow below is some movies that I made to show you how my netbook works and compared to my Acer Aspire 4720Z laptop computer. I did a couple of comparisons with the browsers on each machine side by side and such. I hope the videos are clear enough for you to see. I only have a Nikon L10 digital camera to shoot my vids so please bear with me.

The first video shows my netbook (Sea shell white) next to my laptop.

Second Video talks about size also but other qualities and comparisons.

This third video shows the brightness screen comparison of both computers.

This fourth video is a continuation of the screen comparisons.

This next video is a performance comparison with loading a website www.pcpitstop.com using the Google Chrome browser on both machines.

Now this last video on Internet performance is showing the capability of the netbook compared to the laptop. Remember that the laptop has a dual core processor and the netbook has a single core. Also, my Internet connection is only 1.5 Mbps and the buffering is most likely due to the Internet connection as opposed to the performance of the netbook.

That does it for this segment of my review of the Acer Aspire One netbook. I hope that this was benefitial to you. Stay tuned because I am going to be continuing this review by doing more video for you as the days and weeks go on. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.