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8 out of 8 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"An Amazing Little NetBook"
Pros: Small, lightweight, bright LCD, nice keyboard, nice web cam quality, 2 memory card slots, 3 USB, nice audio, VGA, CAT 5/6, 120GB HDD
Cons: Small mouse pad, battery life needs work, shiny finish prone to finger prints, full of trash software (trials), no FlashCompact slot, noisy at times
Summary: I liked the design and look of this NetBook from the first day I saw it MicroCenter, but was iffy about buying cause its an Acer, and I've always been an Apple/Sony fan. I figured I'd give it a try since it only $400, and that I'd replace my 600MHz Samsung Q1 UMPC. I think I made a great choice, right out of the box this little PC crushed my Q! as far as performance. I expected to open the box and be greeted by a super slow PC that would get stuff done but no way close to a real PC, I was wrong! IT features 1GB of RAM and 120GB Hitachi hard drive, as well as a 1.6GHz CPU that feels like a real PC processor and pretty nice graphics with HD Audio quality. The PC gets all I would want done, it runs SQL and Visual Studio 2008 with no issues, Dreamweaver and Photoshop run smoothly, I can play Spore Creature Creator, and watch iTune video's with out issues. With the available VGA output, I can plug it into any LCD/HDTV, and it looks great!! The LCD is only capable of 1024x600, but when plugged to a Samsung 650 it adjusts to 1080P like quality, so it is a pretty powerful built in graphic processor by Intel. It has 2 memory card slots, one for extra storage, and one for reading a regular SD/MemoryStick card; I stuck a 16GB Class 6 SD card into the extra memory slot to run iTunes from, and it does a really impressive job. My only complaints are the small mouse pad, REALLY bright LCD with low contrast ratio (you need to sit in front of the PC, doesn't look good when viewing from an angle), short batter life (about 2-3 hours), and noise. The PC can be a bit noisy at times, I'm not sure if it's the CPU fan or the HDD, but it'll be silent at times, and sound doesn't bother me. Than what's pretty sweet is that you get all this for $400!! I got the blue one, and it is prone to finger prints, but that's ok. I'd hate to say this, but it beats my MacBook Air in that it has a 120GB HDD, 3 USB connections, and all in a 2.2lbs package (although my Air looks nicer). I'm super happy with this new little toy, and hapy I got it over the ASUS/HP or another UMPC. I can't wait to see Acer's new redesign when the new duel core Atom CPU comes out, and once they start using AT&T's 3G build in card (notice the Acer has a slot you can open on the bottom). ...so if you have $440 (taxes ...I know, sad) sitting around and need a not so advanced laptop, go ahead and give this PC a try!!
Updated on Sep 19, 2008I installed Windows Vista Business on the computer, since I needed to upgrade to either XP Pro or Vista to take full advantage of SQL. The upgrade to XP Pro would have been easy; however, the Vista upgrade causes drivers to stop working, and your ethernet/wireless stops working as well, which would be crucial to install the new Vista updates and drivers. If you upgrade to Vista, be sure you have a Sprint/Verizon usb wireless adapter, or even any USB wifi adapter would work, you'll just need a DVD drive to install the drivers for that wireless device. After all that is done, and you install all needed Microsoft updates and recommended updates, Vista works well. The only exceptions are you will loose your webcam, and of course start up takes about twice as long, but I'm ok with that though. The Aspire one handles the Aero interface well, and Vista gives the computer an overall of 2.7. Vista Scores:CPU gets 3.0, RAM 4.4, Graphics 4.1, Gaming graphics 2.7, hard drive 5.1
Updated on Oct 31, 2008Yesterday I opened up the Acer Apire One, removed the included 512MB stick of RAM and added a 1GB stick of DDR2-667, and it worked great!! The BIOS and Vista recognized it without issues. The motherboard will not support a 2GB stick, so keep that in mind. The task was fairly easy, but it might be a bit challenging for first timers, just type in "Acer Aspire One RAM upgrade" on youtube to get a video on how to upgrade. Now I really love this NetBook!!
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I recently upgraded to Vista Ultimate. It was very easy simply by creating an image file of the Vista DVD and mounting it using Daemon tools. Ran the Vista upgrade without trouble. Wireless worked fine immediately after the upgrade. Drivers installed manually: Intel video, Realtek audio, SD slot. Webcam worked.Vista scored a 2.8 total with CPU 3.0, RAM 4.4 Graphics 4.2 Gaming graphics 2.8 and Hard Drive 5.4 (160gb 5400hdd). Graphics card shares RAM from the CPU (only 4mb built-in), and only pulling 89mb additional (93 total) when I ran the performance test. Wondering if once I upgrade to 1.5gb it will use more RAM for video and score higher. Aero runs like a dream. Load times for most apps much better than anticipated. Apps running:Office 2007, Gimp, Steam, VLC. All in all, an easy upgrade and I am much happier with my VIsta Ultimate netbook than the store-bought XP. Runs 3d games pretty well too (as long as you have an external mouse, the touchpad button locations still suck...)!
