Freena's Acer Aspire One reviewed

Freena, our Marketing & Sales Manager at nsquared Europe, won an Acer Aspire One netbook at TechEd Berlin.

She has been using the device for a month now, here is her review.












Specifications of the netbook:

1.6GHz N270 Intel Atom Processor
2 GB DDR2 533MHz
Windows 7 Ultimate
10.1" glossy LED backlit display
220GB Hard Drive
802.11b/g Atheros Wireless
Multicardreader (Pro, XD, SD,multitimediacard Sony memory)
SD expansion slot
3USB ports
Built in camera in display
6-Cell 23Wh battery

Design
"When looking at the design of my netbook, I find it very sleek with its softly rounded edges and a smooth glossy surface. The look is fairly basic, but it I like it like that. Glossy plastic is found on the top of the screen cover, as well as around the entire LCD. At times the reflective boarder does get on your nerves if you are in a brightly lit room with many sources of glare."

Hardware
"Build quality looks solid for a subnotebook and the construction feels strong enough to handle being tossed around inside a bookbag without much concern for its safety (well apart from the glossy surfaces). Holding it while it is folded in half is similar to holding a hard cover book, having a good amount of rigidity to resist flex and compression. The screen cover feels especially strong, which is important for protecting the relatively fragile LCD panel. I do have to say I bought a neoprene sleevecover for protection. Cause my previous netbook has had 4 new displays due to cracks…Better be safe then sorry..."

Touchpad
"I especially liked the multi-gesture touchpad! It's very Iphone-like and easy to use when designing and developing."

Performance
"My netbook came with1GB of memory, but I found that a bit too slow. So I bought a 2GB card and now its very speedy!"

Conclusion
For those looking for an even lower cost budget netbook, the Acer Aspire One is a worthy candidate to think about. This computer has solid build quality to handle being tossed around in a backpack or purse, and modest performance to handle common software applications with ease. Battery life is the best with the 6-cell and is highly recommended. While it is not the easiest netbook to upgrade, it does offer a large storage drive to start with and an SDHC expansion slot.

Pros
• Good performance (when upgraded to 2GB memory)
• Dual card readers
• Responsive multi-gesture touchpad

Cons
• Hard to take apart for upgrades
• Poor sound (without headphones)
• LED display has poor viewing in brightly lighted rooms or outside in the sun