I have had my Acer Aspire One for about 3 months and it has never failed me. I will review everything that should be considered before buying.
Speed: Well this depends on the model you are going to buy, I own the Linux version with 1GB of ram, which is probably the fastest AAO you are going to get, it really does fly. Because Linux uses very little prossesing it means that all of the application will run with little effort. The ram is upgradeable to 1.5GB and I cannot even start to think how fast it would be with that.
Memory: Memory is a very personal thing, for example I have the 120GB HD version which is more than enough for me but some people might fill that instantly, other people would get the 8GB SSD and never fill 8GB so really it just depends on your needs but there are many different HD sizes available. So take your pick.
UI: As mentioned I have the Linux version and it is so simple to use. The
home screen is split into 4 sections,1 for "connect" this includes the browser,IM client, e-mail client, RSS reader, wikipeadia and others. The next section is for "Work" and this includes Writer, spreadsheets, Presentations, calender, calculator etc. I will review each of these individually. The third section is "Fun", in this section there is Media master, photo master, games, webcam and basically anything that doesn't go in the other sections. Finally we have "Files" witch is self explanatory.
Browser: The browser that is preloaded is Firefox which I think is great, much better that IE, what more can I say, its a browser.
IM: Well the IM (instant messaging) client in my opinion is pretty poor, You can use your current MSN, Yahoo or some other address and it will load your contact list and everything. But I have had a lot of problems with it, the most resent being that it tell me an error then takes ten minutes to load. I am going to try a different one.
E-mail client: Again I feel this is poor. I gave it my e-mail address but it only actually catches a few of my e-mails. I still have to check via the net.
RSS reader: This is great, I had never really use RSS before until I got my AAO. But now it happily tells me the weather and such. Again, there isn't much more I can say, its just an RSS reader.
Writer: This is very similar to MS word, it is very easy to use, I write essays on it all the time and the fact that it isn't MS is not a problem as you can save the document as a word file easily.
Spreadsheet: This is excel's long lost twin brother, they are identical. So if you have used excel then this will be a piece of cake.
Presentations: I am yet to use this but I have had a quick look and it is very similar to PowerPoint so I expect it will be just as easy to use.
Webcam: The web cam is not great at on 0.3 MP but really on a machine like this what do you expect. It takes photos and videos and works well with the IM client.
Keyboard: Well I think the keyboard is great. There is very little compromise because acer have cleverly made the keyboard go to withing MMs of the edge of the netbook. I am typing this with no trouble at all, and I get around the same tying speed on the AAO as I do on any other keyboard.
Screen: The screen is fantastic. It has bright vibrant colours and great depth and this is when it is on battery power, when you plug it in...WOW it comes to life. Although the screen is only 9" it is in a wide screen format and is great for watching movies and You Tube videos.
Networking: Well this is a tricky subject. It has awesome range considering it is only wireless G and once I had revealed my Network it had no trouble connecting to it and was on YouTube in seconds. It was when I tried to connect to a wireless hard drive that I have problems because the AAO simply wouldn't find it. I solved this problem by installing a program called Dolphin which found all the computers and my xbox and my HD on my network, It is great I would advise you download it if you purchase the AAO.
Battery: The batter life on the AAO is not very good from full charge with the Wi-Fi switched on it will give about 3 hours which is not very good considering it is designed to be taken out and about, however there is a battery available to buy for around £60 which will give about 7 hours.
Other features: Well the AAO is packed with them. For a start if you have a 3G sim card simply take to battery out pop the sim in and you have internet everywhere (at a price). It also comes with a 5 in 1 memory card reader which si great for transferring music form the AAO to your phone. It has another card read which allows you to put and SD card (up to 32GB) in ad the AAO with add it to the overall memory (expandable memory. And it obviously has all the other jargon like 2 USB ports, a VGA out, a kingston lock, a microphone, a headphone port and an ethanet port.
Please bare in mind that this is a reveiw of the Linux version which is very different to the XP edition. I hope this review helped.
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