I finally gave in and bought the Acer AspireOne. I had my eyes on this machine a while back, before it came out. It has undergone several changes (SSD + XP was not a good combination), and I think the one I have is pretty good.
Likes
The screen. It is suprisingly bright and clear. LED backlight means instant full brightness. The color on it is wonderful. I think it is better then the Presario V2000 and the LG P100 tablet. Actually, the text on it is slightly bigger than the tablet, so I have no problem with it.
The size. I wanted something small and light. After using the tablet for a while, I can’t stand bring my Presario around anymore; it’s just too heavy and bulky. The tablet is small and light, and I have no problem bringing it around. The AspireOne is even smaller and lighter.
The speed. It definitely beats my Presario. Using it to basic and general task is more than sufficient. When comapared to the tablet though, it is slower in my opinion. It does boot faster to a usable desktop. However, after the machines finished booting, the tablet is faster in almost every way, from general usage to lauching applications. The tablet is better at more intensive tasks. That’s expected though, as the Atom processor in the AspireOne will not match the Core 2 Duo in the tablet. Plus, the tablet has a dedicated graphics card as compared to integrated in the AspireOne, so CPU is not responsible for the graphics duties.
The looks. I think it looks nice. Better than the EeePC. It’s almost beautiful in some sense. But the tablet looks gorgeous too, and also more classy. Both blows the Presario away.
The dual card readers. It comes with two card readers – one for SD only, the other is multi-format (SD, MMC, MS, etc). Not that I really need it with a 160GB hdd, but it’s something cool to have.
The touchpad. It has the newest pad from Synaptics, which supports multi-touch (multi-fingered gestures and ChiralMotion). It was something I read about and wanted in my other notebooks, and was surprised to find it in the AspireOne.
The webcam and mic. It comes with a built-in webcam and mic. I have never had one – the Presario has neither, the P100 has a mic but no webcam. I actually wanted a Dell Mini 9 before, but webcam was extra and there is no option for a mic, which to me was pointless.
The wireless. It comes with b/g/n WiFi. Surprising for this price point. Note, though, the reception is not as strong as the P100.
The bulid. The build quality and finish is better than what I expected. The screen is tight and has no wobble.
Dislikes
The popularity. Everyone has one. Given the price point and the fact it’s sold everywhere, everyone seems to have one. It’s the major thing that deterred me from getting one.
The keyboard. Actually, it’s not too bad. The size is smaller than the P100, which is smaller than the Presario. I’m still getting used to it, but it’s already as large as it will get (the edges beside the keyboard are very thin – no space wasted). It looks messy, with blue and green alternate characters marked on it. Also, it’s a bit too soft. I keep getting extra characters when typing. I like the feel of the keyboard on the P100 a lot more. Also, there’s flex in the middle-top part of the keyboard, which shouldn’t occur in a machine this small. Then there’s the shift key. The left "Shift" key has another key beside it but that key is also repeated beside the "Enter" key. What’s the point of that? Fortunately, I have remapped it to the left "Shift" key, so it’s almost like a big "Shift" key (as is the case with right shift key, the way it should be).
The brightness control. There seems to be 8 or 9 levels, but only the top 4 work. So if you pressed brightness-down 9 times, you have to press brightess-up 5 times before you get anything. Also, the brightness resets to the highest level every time power is disconnected. However, I didn’t put the battery in yet, so I hope this will be fixed if the battery is in place.
The touchpad. I don’t like where the buttons are placed (left and right of the pad), nor the pressure required to press them (they are stiff), nor the loud click they make. It is actually one of the turn-downs that kept me away from buying it earlier.
The power adapter. Although it’s small, it’s a traditional cable-brick-cable type, compared to the all-in-one type as with the EeePC (and Macs). Also, it requires a three-prong socket, which is somewhat inconvenient.
The bloatware. The first thing I did was to uninstall most the of preloaded software (eg. Microsoft Office Trial, Microsoft Works, McAfee Antivirus, etc). And why does it come with InterVideo WinDVD? It’s not like there is a DVD drive. One of the good things about the P100 (and LG machines in general) is that it doesn’t come with preinstalled software.
Other Thoughts
I haven’t used the battery yet (it’s charging for the first time at the moment), I don’t know what the battery life is like. I expect 2-3 hours as most other people report.
Overall, I love the AspireOne. I don’t regret getting it (yet).
AY Boy 