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  • Acer Aspire One Netbook

    I needed a small, lightweight (inexpensive) laptop for my uaifi. Costco had some netbooks on display and I was intrigued. They had an
    Acer 10.5", Acer 11.5", and HP 10.5". I researched the literature and in netbooks, Acer fared better than HP. All 3 had the same same storage and the same procesor, Intel Atom. The Acer 11.5" was the least expensive of the 3 at $279. Costco has a 90 day return policy and they double the manufacture's warranty to 2 years. I thought what is there to lose, I can try it out for 90 days and return it if we don't like it. I purchased the Acer Aspire One 11.5" screen about 2 weeks ago.

    The Good
    This thing is about the size of a sheet of paper, easy to stuff in a large purse. It is light as a feather. The screen is very bright. The battery lasts 3 to 4 hours on a charge. The unit is well designed and the fit and finish is excellent. Includes a webcam!

    The Bad
    None of the netbooks have a DVD/CD drive. Costco was selling a wireless mouse and DVD drive for the Acer for $70, but I didn't see them in stock the last time I looked. The processor is a bit slow. I would say about on par with top of the line processors of 5 or 6 years ago. But, it is not excruciatingly slow. The keyboard is a little smaller than a full size laptop. It is great for smaller hands like uaifi's but matapule tends to "fat finnger" the keys a lot. I'm sending this on the Acer right now and I have to make a lot of corrections. The touchpad seems a little quirky, maybe I just need to get used to it.

    The Ugly
    The speakers sound like records from the 1920's - somebody signing into a magaphone. However, if you plug in earphones they sound great.

    The Conclusion
    This thing works great for email and websurfing, but you need to be a little patient. You won't be able to do gaming. Although we both have full size laptops, we both reach for this one first if we just want to see what's going on in webland. At this point, it is a keeper. It is perfect to take to the beach, on vacation, surfing in bed, etc. I am pleasantly surprised!
    Peace, Love, and Local Grindz

    People who form FIRM opinions with so little knowledge only pretend to be open-minded. They select their facts like food from a buffet. David R. Dow

  • #2
    Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

    I also bought the Acer from Walmart around Halloween of last year. I couldn't agree with your assessment more. Speakers really sound like crap, but with headphones on, it's awesome...pretty good on-board soundcard on this thing.
    Twitter: LookMaICanWrite


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    • #3
      Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

      To me having a built in DVD/CD on a Netbook doesn't make sense. You better off with an external unit. If you are the type to really travel light I wouldn't recommend getting the HP dvd555s. While the DVD burner is okay it uses an external power supply that you need to lug around.

      Best Buy also sells external DVD/CD units for netbooks.

      As far as processor speed, the fastest I have seen so far is the 1.6 GHz Atom.
      Last edited by helen; October 27, 2009, 08:50 AM.

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      • #4
        Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

        This junk speakers vs headphones thing must be universal with laptops/notebooks. On my Toshiba laptop I keep the speaker turned off all the time but when I want to listen to music, plug in the Koss headphones and the sound is great.

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        • #5
          Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

          Originally posted by matapule View Post
          The screen is very bright.
          Can see the screen and the mouse pointer if the netbook is in the sunlight?

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          • #6
            Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

            Originally posted by helen View Post
            Can see the screen and the mouse pointer if the netbook is in the sunlight?
            Yes, with some degradation.
            Peace, Love, and Local Grindz

            People who form FIRM opinions with so little knowledge only pretend to be open-minded. They select their facts like food from a buffet. David R. Dow

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            • #7
              Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

              Four more questions about the Acer Aspire since it was not mentioned in the base note.

              1) How much disk space does the system have? Is it a 160Gbyte hard disk drive or a smaller semi-conductor drive (usually 16 Gbyte)?

              2) How much USB ports does the system have?

              3) For the operating system does it run Windows XP Home or something else?

              4) Can you hook up an external monitor to it? If so what kind of interface does it have?

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              • #8
                Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

                Originally posted by helen View Post
                1) How much disk space does the system have? Is it a 160Gbyte hard disk drive or a smaller semi-conductor drive (usually 16 Gbyte)?
                160Gb

                2) How much USB ports does the system have?
                Two

                3) For the operating system does it run Windows XP Home or something else?
                Windows XP. Some netbooks, like HP, run Vista and cannot be upgraded to W7. Another reason to avoid certain netbooks!

                4) Can you hook up an external monitor to it? If so what kind of interface does it have?
                Yes, I don't know what you call the connection, it has 15 pins.

                Another neat thing, it has a dedicated SSID slot
                Peace, Love, and Local Grindz

                People who form FIRM opinions with so little knowledge only pretend to be open-minded. They select their facts like food from a buffet. David R. Dow

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                • #9
                  Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

                  Originally posted by helen View Post
                  4) Can you hook up an external monitor to it? If so what kind of interface does it have?
                  Originally posted by matapule View Post
                  Yes, I don't know what you call the connection, it has 15 pins.
                  If it has 3 rows of it, then that's the VGA monitor port.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

                    Originally posted by helen View Post
                    If it has 3 rows of it, then that's the VGA monitor port.
                    RS232 connector.

                    As for optical drives on netbooks. They were designed without them because not too many people need to insert a disk in one while on the go. Today's external USB DVD-ROM drives using laptop drive units are slim and lightweight and can be packed if necessary.

                    I'll wait until faster processors come out (and they will), OLED screens become available (the brighter the sunlight the brighter the display) and I'm waiting for a tablet version of a netbook in Windows 7 to take advantage of it's small form factor and Windows 7 built in touch screen apps.

                    With a tablet netbook using OLEDs, ebooks would be easier to read in daylight plus with a touchscreen tablet format, it would make portability even easier with no lid to keep open and no touchpad to deal with.

                    I'll wait.
                    Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

                      Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
                      RS232 connector.
                      2 rows of 9 pins is the RS-232 connector. On the PC this would be a male connector (with pins sticking out)
                      3 rows of 15 pins is the VGA monitor port. On the PC this would be a female connector (with holes).

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                      • #12
                        Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

                        Originally posted by helen View Post
                        2 rows of 9 pins is the RS-232 connector. On the PC this would be a male connector (with pins sticking out)
                        3 rows of 15 pins is the VGA monitor port. On the PC this would be a female connector (with holes).
                        That's right the 15-pin is the DE-15 found on most analog monitor connections. The DE-9 was the older variant using the RS232 connection.

                        To clear up any confusion, if a netbook has a DE-15 connection (standard analog monitor connection) then you can hook it up to an external monitor.
                        Attached Files
                        Last edited by craigwatanabe; October 28, 2009, 11:02 AM.
                        Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

                          Originally posted by helen View Post
                          If it has 3 rows of it, then that's the VGA monitor port.
                          Yep, that's it.
                          Peace, Love, and Local Grindz

                          People who form FIRM opinions with so little knowledge only pretend to be open-minded. They select their facts like food from a buffet. David R. Dow

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                          • #14
                            Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

                            Well the Acer went back to Costco for a full refund last month - no questions asked. This netbook had many good attributes and features and another Netbook may be in my future. The screen was very bright, sound was great with headset, keyboard was a little tight but good for smaller hands, and very lightweight.

                            The big problem was speed. The thing was slooooooooooow. Frustratingly slow. This particular Acer model was packed with the lowest performance, cheapest Atom processor. Some of the newer netbooks are being shipped with a higher end processor and that might take care of the problem.

                            I'm going to keep my eye on this category. I like netbooks and the right one for me will come along eventually.
                            Peace, Love, and Local Grindz

                            People who form FIRM opinions with so little knowledge only pretend to be open-minded. They select their facts like food from a buffet. David R. Dow

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                            • #15
                              Re: Acer Aspire One Netbook

                              The fastest netbook I have seen so far have been 1.6GHz Atom.

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