Monday, March 30, 2009
Acer Aspire One Review
Last week I picked up one of the new Acer Aspire One netbooks with the 10.1" screen. I went to the local Frys, as they seemed to have the best selection of netbooks in stock. I already had the 8.9" model, but I felt like I needed a bit more screen space. So, I went to compare the HP Mini, the Lenovo S10E, and the Aspire One.
The HP mini seemed like a solid machine, but they only had the SSD model (which, I understand has horid write times), not to mention they were also refurbs. The HP keyboard definitely takes the cake. However, it seems to have a wider and shorter screen than the others. Between the SSD model and the fact they were refurbs, the HP was out of the running.
I was really interested in seeing the Lenovos because, well, it's a Lenovo. But, after getting my hands on one, the keyboard was *really* disappointing. It really reminded me of the keyboard on the 8.9" EEE. I will say it had a very solid look and feel, and the screen was certainly the best of the three.
Now, to the Aspire One. Interestingly, Fry's did not have any out for display, and absolutely refused to open one for me. One of the things that was drawing me to it was the 6 cell battery, which reviews were saying could get anywhere between 6 and 8 hours of run time depending on which battery you got. Without being able to touch one, I was in a bit of a dilemma. It finally came down to these things:
Battery life. One of the main draws of a netbook is having it run forever without needing to plug in
My happy experiences with the 8.9" model
The rave reviews on Amazon
So, I bit the bullet and picked one up. I have to same I'm absolutely ecstatic about it! It still has a small form factor, it's plenty light enough, and the reviews on battery life were pretty much spot on (I'm getting anywhere from 5-6 hours on a full charge). Now, don't get me wrong, it's not going to blow you away with speed, but I've compiled Mono, and have used the 8.9" with the same specs for doing dev work, and it's plenty good enough. As far as speed, it seems to take a while to launch resource intensive apps (Visual Studio, Open Office, etc), but once the app is open, it appears to run just fine. The keyboard is the same as the 8.9" model, so I didn't have to adjust to anything, and the extra screen space is just what I wanted.
I currently have it dual booting between Windows (only for VS, given there isn't enough power to run it in a VM), and Ubuntu. The little guy only comes with XP home, and it will stay that way until I can get my hands on a USB CD-ROM drive and put Pro on there. Ubuntu was a bit more of a hassle than it has been in the past, but I did get it working. To start with, Wireless didn't work out of the box. After looking around, I compiled the latest madwifi driver, and that did the trick. The big sticking point was no sound. I read plenty of posts on ways to remedy it, and nothing worked. Finally, in desparation, I decided to try the latest Alpha release of Jaunty. I did the upgrade using Update Manager, and I was pleasantly surprised to see everything "just work!" Wireless: works. Sound: yep, got that too. Built-in web cam: of course.
If you are on the fence about whether or not to try a netbook, I really suggest you give it a shot. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I do suggest you try all of the options out there. The biggest key points to look at are:
Weight
Keyboard
Battery life
And in my opinion, the Acer finishes first in two of those three (with the six cell battery, it's the heaviest model at 2.8 pounds).
Stay tuned for upcoming posts where I'll discuss my experiences with Adobe AIR, C#, and Java.
The HP mini seemed like a solid machine, but they only had the SSD model (which, I understand has horid write times), not to mention they were also refurbs. The HP keyboard definitely takes the cake. However, it seems to have a wider and shorter screen than the others. Between the SSD model and the fact they were refurbs, the HP was out of the running.
I was really interested in seeing the Lenovos because, well, it's a Lenovo. But, after getting my hands on one, the keyboard was *really* disappointing. It really reminded me of the keyboard on the 8.9" EEE. I will say it had a very solid look and feel, and the screen was certainly the best of the three.
Now, to the Aspire One. Interestingly, Fry's did not have any out for display, and absolutely refused to open one for me. One of the things that was drawing me to it was the 6 cell battery, which reviews were saying could get anywhere between 6 and 8 hours of run time depending on which battery you got. Without being able to touch one, I was in a bit of a dilemma. It finally came down to these things:
So, I bit the bullet and picked one up. I have to same I'm absolutely ecstatic about it! It still has a small form factor, it's plenty light enough, and the reviews on battery life were pretty much spot on (I'm getting anywhere from 5-6 hours on a full charge). Now, don't get me wrong, it's not going to blow you away with speed, but I've compiled Mono, and have used the 8.9" with the same specs for doing dev work, and it's plenty good enough. As far as speed, it seems to take a while to launch resource intensive apps (Visual Studio, Open Office, etc), but once the app is open, it appears to run just fine. The keyboard is the same as the 8.9" model, so I didn't have to adjust to anything, and the extra screen space is just what I wanted.
I currently have it dual booting between Windows (only for VS, given there isn't enough power to run it in a VM), and Ubuntu. The little guy only comes with XP home, and it will stay that way until I can get my hands on a USB CD-ROM drive and put Pro on there. Ubuntu was a bit more of a hassle than it has been in the past, but I did get it working. To start with, Wireless didn't work out of the box. After looking around, I compiled the latest madwifi driver, and that did the trick. The big sticking point was no sound. I read plenty of posts on ways to remedy it, and nothing worked. Finally, in desparation, I decided to try the latest Alpha release of Jaunty. I did the upgrade using Update Manager, and I was pleasantly surprised to see everything "just work!" Wireless: works. Sound: yep, got that too. Built-in web cam: of course.
If you are on the fence about whether or not to try a netbook, I really suggest you give it a shot. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I do suggest you try all of the options out there. The biggest key points to look at are:
And in my opinion, the Acer finishes first in two of those three (with the six cell battery, it's the heaviest model at 2.8 pounds).
Stay tuned for upcoming posts where I'll discuss my experiences with Adobe AIR, C#, and Java.
