Aspire One is insanely cheap
Written: Jun 09 '12
- User Rating: Excellent
-
Ease of Use:
Pros:The Aspire One doesn't skimp on memory and storage and is priced well.
Cons:Battery monitoring is unreliable and battery removal isn't simple.
The Bottom Line: For
its price, this is an excellent system. It's half the price of an
Ultrabook and is responsive and capable of handling some demanding
tasks, such as photo editing.
You remember the Netbook and how it arrived at about the same
time the iPad did. The iPad crushed the Netbook market but not the need
for quality low cost laptops, such as the Acer Aspire One 722.
Let’s put the pricing in perspective. Two years ago, a Toshiba Netbook, the NB 205, with an Atom processor, 1 GB of RAM, 160 GB hard drive, cost me $349.
Today, Netbooks are sold in the $200 price range, but still come with only 1 GB of RAM, 250 GB hard drives, and the Windows 7 “Starter” operating system.
Is there still an argument for buying Netbooks? Probably not, especially when you can get the Aspire One 722 for $349 at Costco and maybe at a lower price online.
The Aspire One has 4 GB of RAM, 500 GB hard drive, and an AMD dual core processor, the C60, which claims a maximum speed of up to 1.33 GHz. Similar to the netbook, there is no CD/DVD drive.
(Note about model numbers on Aspire One: There are variations of the Aspire One being sold, some with 250 GB hard drive and less RAM, but they are also priced much lower. Before you buy any Aspire One, check the specifications carefully. The model numbers often vary by specifications. Some ship with the Intel Atom instead of AMD. This review concerns the AMD model.)
A Netbook without being a Netbook
Similar to the Netbook, the Aspire One has a small screen. My Toshiba was a 10” system, and the Aspire 11.1”, which is slightly more comfortable.
The reason why Netbooks only shipped with 1 GB of RAM, is because manufacturers didn’t want Netbooks to become too popular and take sales from more expensive systems.
The Netbook was constrained by unreasonable industry-wide rules that set limits on the operating system, RAM and hard drive size. But the Aspire One, because it is slightly larger than a Netbook, isn’t saddled by Netbook rules. It’s a much better system as a result.
About its design
There’s nothing elegant about the Aspire One. It’s not a sleek Ultrabook, but then it doesn’t cost $800 plus. The design of my system is basic black. It’s relatively thin. The keyboard is flat, meaning it isn’t Chiclet-designed which makes it a little more susceptible to catching crumbs.
The build quality feels solid. But about three weeks after setting this machine up, there was a disturbing ‘click-click-click’ noise coming from the hard drive. It was short-lived but alarming just the same. The hard drive isn’t supposed to make noise.
My first thought was to return this system, but I had just finished uploading and installing all the software I needed, and had transferred all my files. Instead, I waited. The noise never returned and whatever cause it hasn’t happened again. It did prompt me to run out a buy a Seagate portable hard drive to back-up the C drive, so add $100 to the cost.
Memory and processing power
The dual core chip is not AMD’s top of the line but it is very capable. If you are looking for a gaming machine, this probably isn’t it. But for my uses, photo editing via Photoshop Elements, Feed Demon, Tweet Deck, Word suite, and two dozen Chrome windows opened at any one time, this machine operates without any hiccups.
The Toshiba Netbook would max out on memory if too many apps were running and slow the system to a crawl, even though it was upgraded to 2GB RAM. That hasn’t happened once on the Aspire One since buying this machine in late February.
Let’s talk about the battery and its life
The battery is a little weird in a couple of respects.
Although this six cell battery is supposedly capable of 7 hours of life, I still have no idea how long it can really last because the battery indicator can fluctuate quite a bit if the system is connected to a wireless network.
Use of a cell modem (plugged in at USB) or wireless generally seems to drain the battery, but when traveling coast-to-coast I’ll finish a 5-hour flight with a decent amount of battery left. It does seem to live up to its 7 hour claim if you aren’t using wireless. But Acer’s battery management technology could use some improvement.
Removing the battery, assuming you buy a spare, isn’t simple. There’s a tiny hole and in it is an unlocking mechanism. You need a paper clip or sharp pencil to push it in. It’s a very odd design.
A note about the operating system
The deal-breaker for Netbooks is the Windows 7 “Starter” edition. As far as I can tell, Netbooks are the only systems shipping with Starter. The Starter edition is limited to 32-bits, won’t support multiple monitors, and many of its personalization features are turned off.
The Aspire One ships with Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit version -- although I would double check this before buying any particular unit because there is a 32-bit version available.
Something to keep in mind: Windows 8 is due out this fall.
Screen quality, ease of use and extras
The LED screen is very sharp and clear. Most of time the Aspire One is hooked up to a 23” Samsung monitor, and the image is very good.
There is an HDMI port as well as a standard monitor VGA connector.
There are three USB ports and an SD card slot.
The mouse pad doesn’t have a separate right/left click bars; it’s a continuous bar and you click on one end or the other.
The absense of a CD/DVD drive is not an issue for me. External drives, read only, cost as little as $20 and RW drives not much more.
Overall assessment
This is a very capable machine that manages its resources well. Adobe Photoshop Elements, the most resource intensive application on this system, is responsive even when multiple other applications are running.
The hard drive noise that surfaced shortly after buying this system has not returned. If you do a Google search you will find references to hard drive failures on this system. But if you do a search on Apple Macintosh for hard drive failures you will find an abundance of references. Hard drives fail on every system. Is the Aspire One more or less susceptible? There’s no way of easily telling.
After using this laptop for more than three months, I feel that, overall, it was a good purchase.
Recommended: Yes
Let’s put the pricing in perspective. Two years ago, a Toshiba Netbook, the NB 205, with an Atom processor, 1 GB of RAM, 160 GB hard drive, cost me $349.
Today, Netbooks are sold in the $200 price range, but still come with only 1 GB of RAM, 250 GB hard drives, and the Windows 7 “Starter” operating system.
Is there still an argument for buying Netbooks? Probably not, especially when you can get the Aspire One 722 for $349 at Costco and maybe at a lower price online.
The Aspire One has 4 GB of RAM, 500 GB hard drive, and an AMD dual core processor, the C60, which claims a maximum speed of up to 1.33 GHz. Similar to the netbook, there is no CD/DVD drive.
(Note about model numbers on Aspire One: There are variations of the Aspire One being sold, some with 250 GB hard drive and less RAM, but they are also priced much lower. Before you buy any Aspire One, check the specifications carefully. The model numbers often vary by specifications. Some ship with the Intel Atom instead of AMD. This review concerns the AMD model.)
A Netbook without being a Netbook
Similar to the Netbook, the Aspire One has a small screen. My Toshiba was a 10” system, and the Aspire 11.1”, which is slightly more comfortable.
The reason why Netbooks only shipped with 1 GB of RAM, is because manufacturers didn’t want Netbooks to become too popular and take sales from more expensive systems.
The Netbook was constrained by unreasonable industry-wide rules that set limits on the operating system, RAM and hard drive size. But the Aspire One, because it is slightly larger than a Netbook, isn’t saddled by Netbook rules. It’s a much better system as a result.
About its design
There’s nothing elegant about the Aspire One. It’s not a sleek Ultrabook, but then it doesn’t cost $800 plus. The design of my system is basic black. It’s relatively thin. The keyboard is flat, meaning it isn’t Chiclet-designed which makes it a little more susceptible to catching crumbs.
The build quality feels solid. But about three weeks after setting this machine up, there was a disturbing ‘click-click-click’ noise coming from the hard drive. It was short-lived but alarming just the same. The hard drive isn’t supposed to make noise.
My first thought was to return this system, but I had just finished uploading and installing all the software I needed, and had transferred all my files. Instead, I waited. The noise never returned and whatever cause it hasn’t happened again. It did prompt me to run out a buy a Seagate portable hard drive to back-up the C drive, so add $100 to the cost.
Memory and processing power
The dual core chip is not AMD’s top of the line but it is very capable. If you are looking for a gaming machine, this probably isn’t it. But for my uses, photo editing via Photoshop Elements, Feed Demon, Tweet Deck, Word suite, and two dozen Chrome windows opened at any one time, this machine operates without any hiccups.
The Toshiba Netbook would max out on memory if too many apps were running and slow the system to a crawl, even though it was upgraded to 2GB RAM. That hasn’t happened once on the Aspire One since buying this machine in late February.
Let’s talk about the battery and its life
The battery is a little weird in a couple of respects.
Although this six cell battery is supposedly capable of 7 hours of life, I still have no idea how long it can really last because the battery indicator can fluctuate quite a bit if the system is connected to a wireless network.
Use of a cell modem (plugged in at USB) or wireless generally seems to drain the battery, but when traveling coast-to-coast I’ll finish a 5-hour flight with a decent amount of battery left. It does seem to live up to its 7 hour claim if you aren’t using wireless. But Acer’s battery management technology could use some improvement.
Removing the battery, assuming you buy a spare, isn’t simple. There’s a tiny hole and in it is an unlocking mechanism. You need a paper clip or sharp pencil to push it in. It’s a very odd design.
A note about the operating system
The deal-breaker for Netbooks is the Windows 7 “Starter” edition. As far as I can tell, Netbooks are the only systems shipping with Starter. The Starter edition is limited to 32-bits, won’t support multiple monitors, and many of its personalization features are turned off.
The Aspire One ships with Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit version -- although I would double check this before buying any particular unit because there is a 32-bit version available.
Something to keep in mind: Windows 8 is due out this fall.
Screen quality, ease of use and extras
The LED screen is very sharp and clear. Most of time the Aspire One is hooked up to a 23” Samsung monitor, and the image is very good.
There is an HDMI port as well as a standard monitor VGA connector.
There are three USB ports and an SD card slot.
The mouse pad doesn’t have a separate right/left click bars; it’s a continuous bar and you click on one end or the other.
The absense of a CD/DVD drive is not an issue for me. External drives, read only, cost as little as $20 and RW drives not much more.
Overall assessment
This is a very capable machine that manages its resources well. Adobe Photoshop Elements, the most resource intensive application on this system, is responsive even when multiple other applications are running.
The hard drive noise that surfaced shortly after buying this system has not returned. If you do a Google search you will find references to hard drive failures on this system. But if you do a search on Apple Macintosh for hard drive failures you will find an abundance of references. Hard drives fail on every system. Is the Aspire One more or less susceptible? There’s no way of easily telling.
After using this laptop for more than three months, I feel that, overall, it was a good purchase.
Recommended: Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 349.00
Operating System: Windows
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