Acer Aspire One (Linpus Linux Lite, White)

Pros: quick boot up time and amazing internet performance, reasonable battery life at over two hours. nice screen and quality keyboard. cheap entry into computing for any age.

Cons: no optical drive, small storage on budget version. not a laptop replacement

Summary: when i started looking for a budget laptop the acer aspire was the last thing i looked at. the only hook was the price. i needed a replacement for my elderly laptop and money was tight. after reading glowing reviews i thought it might do the trick. after £170 pounds and some worry changed hands got my hands on the beauty. my first impressions were this was serious not just a toy web browser. the keyboard is great, the screen nice and bright and the battery life is just over two hours. the linux operating system is a break from the norm but works great and has impressed me. there is enough software to surf the web, read emails, watch movies and play music, the pre installed games are amusing and the spreadsheet etc are functional. on a whole the installed programes are clunky but functional with the exception of the firefox web browser which is superior to internet explorer. the basic model comes with a paltry 8gb ssd hard drive and the os and software only leave you with about 6gb. the good news is there is a memory expansion slot on the left hand side for sd hc cards. you can pick a 16gb card up from ebay for under twenty quid or a 250 external hard drive for 40 quid. it also has 3 usb ports and another memory card slot among other ports. the web cam is crude but hey my old laptop didnt have one. there is a lot of speculation about fan noise but i havent noticed or been bothered by it at all. if your not happy with the battery life you can pick up a 5hr battery for around forty quid.
summary.
if your looking for a laptop or desk top replacement dont bother. no optical drive or lack of horsepower counts it straight out.
if you want a small, portable netbook that can be used for commuting or you work away and want to keep in touch with friends and family this is great. cheap price, good looks and a quick and eager computer with all the basics. what a winner.
remember the price and dont confuse this with a windows laptop