By Darius Chang, CNET Asia
05/08/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,39050488,43666880p,00.htm

When the Aspire One was first unveiled at Computex Taipei, it brought about much excitement among those intimate with the Netbook segment. Not because it had ground-breaking features (though there is one particular technology which is unique to the Aspire at this time), but because a value vendor had finally entered the niche market.

While no one can accuse the S$798 Eee PC 901 for being unaffordable (that dubious honor remains with the HP Mini-Note), Acer's version comes at a pocket-friendly S$699, yet retains a competent feature set. Our only gripe lies with the puny 8GB solid-state storage, though the Taiwanese maker has a unique workaround which quite impressed us.

Design

It may be cheap, but that doesn't mean the Aspire One missed out on beauty school. It's two-tone color scheme is attractive and second to the HP Mini-Note only because the latter sports a full aluminum body. At 29mm thick and less than 1kg in weight, this Acer is both slimmer and lighter than the Asus Eee PC 901. Unfortunately, this increased portability actually decreases the mobility of the Aspire One, as we shall see later in the performance and battery life section. The unit is available in white or blue.

One of the best design elements, in our opinion, is the keyboard. With more real estate than the Eee PC 901, the Aspire One is definitely the budget Netbook of choice if you need a machine to do more than just typing URLs and short emails. The gold standard in Netbook keyboards, however, still remains with the HP Mini-Note. The touchpad of the Acer is similar to the HP's version in that the mouse buttons are located at the flanks instead of the bottom. This may take some getting used to though we don't imagine it will cost too much grief to users.

There are no shortcut keys present on the Aspire One, though a wireless radio switch is available at the front of the unit. The rear is reserved for the battery and the ports have been positioned along the sides for easy access. A Webcam, along with a microphone, sits above the 8.9-inch display.

Features

We'll not keep you in suspense for long. The exciting bit of technology Acer built into the Aspire One to sidestep its puny 8GB storage is the inclusion of two memory card readers. What a yawner, right? But wait, there's more. While one of them is a standard 5-in-1 reader which takes SD/SDHC/MMC, Memory Stick and xD-Picture Cards, the other's sole purpose is to expand the primary storage using an SD/SDHC card. Instead of showing as a secondary drive, files will span between the in-built SSD and memory card seamlessly. This allows Acer to reduce the initial cost of ownership while permitting users to expand the main capacity cheaply. The SDHC format can reach a maximum of 32GB and, at this time, costs around S$50 for an 8GB card. Prices are expected to drop as higher sizes become available.

The 8.9-inch display has a maximum resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels, which is on par with other Netbooks in this size category. The underlying graphics chipset is an integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950 processor, so don't expect gaming to be a forte of this machine. The Aspire One provides a monitor-out port which allows larger displays to be hooked up. The audio quality is nothing to write home about, though it should suffice for casual music lovers and videos.

While the Eee PC 901 sports a Draft-N Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radio, the Aspire One has only a standard 802.11b/g wireless connectivity and no Bluetooth. Other features are respectable, with three USB 2.0, dual memory card slots and a 10/100Mbps Ethernet port. A 1.3-megapixel camera sits above the display for impromptu snapshots and video-conferencing.

Performance And Battery Life

Our S$699 review unit sports an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB SSD. The latter is replaced with a mechanical harddisk in certain configurations, though the availability of these models varies between regions. The Linux operating is quite easy to use but for those with a Microsoft fixation, they will be happy to know that the Aspire One supports Windows XP as well. Thanks to the new Atom chipset, the performance of this Acer is generally snappy and has no issues dealing with productivity tools.

In order to keep the weight down and retain a slim profile, the battery in the Aspire One is vastly inferior to that of the Asus Eee PC 901. The standard cell holds only 2,200mAh of charge, compared with the latter's 6,600mAh. With the screen at half brightness and downloading a file via Wi-Fi, the Aspire One gave up the ghost at 2 hours 23 minutes. The Eee PC managed an impressive uptime of 6 hours 20 minutes on the same test. Fortunately, a larger 4,800mAh cell is available, though it will add to the weight and dimensions significantly.

Service And Support

This notebook comes with a one-year warranty from Acer. Recognizing that mobile computing has become a key activity for executives, the Taiwan company promises to fix any hardware issued within 2 hours, or it will deliver the unit to your preferred location free. For DIY troubleshooting, a toll-free telephone helpdesk is available for assistance. Acer support Web site offers downloads of updated drivers as well as an email for notebook issues.