A great companion that you will want to take anywhere, March 26, 2009

By

T. Orkun – See all my reviews

I ordered my Acer Aspire One 10.1 Netbook (AOD150-1165) on Feb 28, 2009 from Amazon. Item shipped on March 2nd and arrived on March 14.

When I ordered only Sapphire Blue color was available but I am happy with Sapphire Blue. It looks very attractive. I would normally order either white or black model but I am glad they were not available The only thing I can complain is that it easily gets finger marks so I try not to touch the shiny surfaces.

When you unpack the box and hold it on your hand, you will realise how light this is (especially if you have been lugging a 17″ laptop) This is very transportable and ideal for those small airplane tray tables (or your lap)

The 1.6Ghz N270 Intel Atom processor is a single core processor but it is pretty snappy and certainly more than enough for most office type usage. The Netbook ships with Windows XP Home w/SP3 installed instead of Vista so to me it feels as responsive as (or better than) a Core 2 Duo based laptop running Vista.

The unit is rather quiet. The fan or hard disk noise is minimal. The fan does not kick in often during normal use. It might be more active with some heavy CPU/HD activity tasks.

The screen is 1024×600 CrystalBright (shiny) type LCD but very comfortable to read under various light conditions. There is an integrated 0.3M megapixel (640×480) webcam and microphone embedded in the screen frame. Ideal to use a video phone/conferencing software like Skype, etc. BTW, to gain some vertical space on desktop, you might want to set Windows XP taskbar to auto-hide and pop-up when you move the cursor to the edge of the screen.

The keyboard is actually pretty well designed. Unlike some models from competitors, the shift, control, alt, tab, enter, backspace keys are all in the right places. Initially, I found the keys a bit small but after a few days of use, you get used to and avoid hitting two keys. The arrow keys could have been a bit bigger as there is room along the lower right side of the keyboard.

The touchpad on this model is made by Synaptics and is pretty configurable. Like everything else it is a bit small but works acceptably well. It would have been better if it was made wider. Touchpad buttons is another story. They are correctly placed below the touchpad but instead of using two independent buttons the designers chose to use one bar over the two buttons. This made the buttons much harder to press. I would have preferred two independent buttons. I think this is the biggest complaint about the design of this netbook. Nevertheless, the buttons do get softer over time. I have softened the buttons out by pressing both ends of the button bar at the same time repeatedly. I do this a number of times before using the laptop each day. So, it is not that hopeless.

Well, I do try to get myself used to build-in keyboard and mouse but those that are doing extensive work can still attach a regular USB keyboard and a USB mouse. For example, Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000 is a perfect match.

Alternatively, you can tap on the touchpad instead of pressing the buttons. The synaptics touchpad is pretty configurable. You can configure a corner of the touchpad for right button and anywhere else would be left button.

The speakers for this netbook is under it. They are pretty loud and sound quality is pretty decent. However, since the speaker openings are underside of the netbook, if you are holding it on a soft surface such as carpet or bed the sound can get muffled as the openings will be blocked. It’s not a very good idea to keep it on the soft surfaces for a long time anyway as this will block the fan vents as well and cause the netbook to overheat.

There is 1GB RAM memory on DDR2 SODIMM module installed (mine was made by Samsung). There is no on-board soldered memory (the description on Amazon is incorrect and is referring to older 8.9″ model). The memory is easily upgradable to 2GB by replacing the SODIMM module. I upgraded the memory on 10.1″ Aspire One to 2GB by installing a “Mushkin 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Laptop Memory – Retail” module (Mushkin part #991618). It works great! Please note that this module has CAS4 (4-4-4-12) timing instead of more common CAS5 (5-5-5-16). In other words, it is slightly faster memory as it has less wait states

The hard disk is a Hitachi HTS543216L9A300, 160GB 2.5″ 5400rpm, Serial ATA, 8MB Cache disk. It’s pretty quiet. I think there is plenty of space for most applications. If you need more you can attach an external USB hard drive or the hard disk itself can be upgraded almost as easily as the RAM memory.

The wireless chip (AR5007EG) is made by Atheros and supports…

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An Aspire that Inspires, February 12, 2009

By

C. Ferretti “tech head” (Montclair, NJ USA) – See all my reviews

Acer made a nice mini-notebook into a better one. The screen is larger and just as bright. The keyboard is still great (for a small one). No weirdly placed right shift key placement (Asus, Lenovo, etc). The mousepad buttons are below the touchpad not along side (yeah). It is now easy to increase ram or replace the drive without entirely dismantling the unit and voiding the warranty. I have no complaints. I loved the first one, this one fixes all the criticisms of the first one. Nothing major just refinement. Someone is listening to its customers and it is Acer.

Addendum: the screen is glossy, and initial orders are getting the larger 5900ma battery. It stick out the back a bit, but the run time is amazing. It must be the longest running mini-laptop out there, including the new Asus 1000he and the Samsung 10nc, for much less $$. That’s a win in my book. Easy to touch type (for me), good looks, I need a xd-card slot and this one has a 7-1, there is a bit a bloat ware, just delete and put on what you need, the HD is large enough.

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Spectacular! Super Pleased!, February 16, 2009

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D. Erickson (texas) – See all my reviews

I was worried about getting one as I have had a 12″ laptop and was not happy with screen size. But this screen is SO bright it does not even become a issue, not to mention the 1064×600 really makes it seem bigger!

Another bonus, this baby runs 7.5 to 8 hours due to the 5800Amh 6 cell battery! Sweet. Very happy with that. I heard most were shipping with the 4400Amh 6 cell which gives your 5-6 hours. I can run this all day or two before recharge, very nice! I have to keep looking at battery indicator in dis-belief that the battery is still 75% or 50%, it just lasts forever!

This is super portable obviously, and really how laptops SHOULD be. You can put on one leg, it doesn’t weigh you down when actually sitting in your lap which is nice. I have had many laptops over the years, screen sizes and this one wins hands down for price, and performance. The unit is strong heavy duty case, compared to some newer thin plastic laptops.

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