A great choice for business travelers who like to travel light as well as those who need extra-long battery life, this affordable ultra-lightweight Acer Aspire One (LU.S050B.133) weighs just over 2 pounds and is packed with a 160 GB hard drive and Windows XP operating system. It has a vibrant 8.9-inch CrystalBrite WSVGA LED backlit display, integrated webcam for easy video chatting, an instant-on feature that powers up the notebook in less than 15 seconds from when you switch it on, and Intel’s latest mobile processor–the Atom. Offering a cool deep blue hue, the netbook’s smooth surface is comfortable to touch, and it’s accented with distinctive details, such as the attractive orange hinge ring.
The integrated webcam at the top of the screen’s bezel provides easy access to video chatting. Weighing just 2.17 pounds, the stylish Acer Aspire One goes anywhere with you. Designed especially for mobile devices, the 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor uses a brand new design structure new hafnium-infused circuitry–which reduces electrical current leakage in transistors–to conserve energy, giving you more time away from the wall outlet–up to 5.5 hours with the included 6-cell battery. Other features include 1 GB of installed RAM (1.5 GB maximum), 54g Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g), multi-format memory card reader, multiple USB ports, and built-in email, web browsing, and digital media applications.
It comes preinstalled with the Microsoft Windows XP Home operating system, which offers more experienced users an enhanced and innovative experience that incorporates Windows Live features like Windows Live Messenger for instant messaging and Windows Live Mail for consolidated email accounts on your desktop.
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Product Features
1.6GHz Atom N270
1GB DDR2 SDRAM
1.3 Megapixel camera, SDHC and multi-format media readers
One free mini PCI slot for WWAN, 160GB hard drive (2.2 pounds)
Customer feedback:
1. I’ve had mine for 3 days now, and it’s been really hard to put down and walk away from. Obviously the poratability of it is a big reason, but also because the 6 cell battery lasts so long that I feel like I can just leave it on for a while without feeling the need to keep powering it down or charging it all the time. Also, boot up and shutdown times are a lot faster than my regular laptop. The build is very solid. There is no flex in the screen or keyboard. I’m not sure how it would hold up if dropped on a hard surface, though. I hope I never have to find out. Keyboard response is nice. The keys don’t feel cheap or like they would snap off if more than a little pressure is placed on them. Keys are close to regular size so typing on it doesn’t take much getting used to, if at all. The screen is highly reflective and the outer coating has a glossy finish, which I don’t prefer because it leaves fingerprints too easily and makes it difficult to see the screen in the daylight. But I’m willing to live with this simply because the computer has so much else going for it.
This computer uses the 1.6 GHZ atom, which is the standard processor included with most ultraportables right now. I’ve noticed that I can run some moderately intensive software on it, but not smoothly for long periods of time. I tried loading some music software for which a 1.4 GHZ processor is recommended (Native Instruments Absynth 4), just to see how well it would run. I found that it was capable of operating, but it was easy to make the CPU spike if I played more than a few notes at once. Not that I was planning on using this a a music production tool, but I was interested in seeing what I could get away with in case I find myself stuck on an airplane or car trip with my Aspire One and a pair of headphones and want to play around with sounds a little bit. Native Instruments FM8 wasn’t so processor intensive and operated much more smoothly. In short, I got about the best response I could have hoped for with the processor and soundcard included. Fairly functional for light doodling.
2. This little gem is perfect for travel, or just taking from room to room of the house. My wife and I keep ours almost exclusively on our couch or under our bed for access pretty much at our fingertips. The weight of this thing is incredible. I find the boot time to be plenty fast (use MSCONFIG to reduce some of the startup applications). We also discovered that although it doesn’t have a CD-ROM drive, you can install CD-ROM based programs by networking another computer with this, so you can then access the CD-ROM drive of another computer using the Acer Aspire One. You’ll have to “share” the CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive of the other computer. After that, just insert the software disc and access it through the Acer. Presto, you can then install all your software on CD’s without actually having to buy an external drive.
My ONLY complaint about this thing is that it is extremely difficult to upgrade the RAM from 1GB to 1.5GB. You actually have to remove the keyboard, facia, to get to the bottom side of the motherboard. A huge pain. There are about 3 videos on YouTube that actually show tutorials of people replacing the 512GB removeable memory chip, with a 1GB chip. It isn’t easy, and unless you have some background in computer upgrades, I might forget about this upgrade altogether. That is the ONLY reason this computer didn’t get 5 stars. Why Acer didn’t do like every other laptop I’ve ever seen, and put a door for easy access to the memory slot is beyond me.
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