There are other reviews of the Aspire One out there, so I won't treat this as a basic review, but will focus specifically on how well it works for the way I intend to use it. Let's start on the positive side.
Keyboard: Speaking of the keyboard, the action on the keys is great and the keyboard is mounted firmly, giving it a good, solid feel as opposed to the squishy feel that people complain of on the other brands' netbooks. The biggest advantage, though, is that it has a REAL right Shift key, making the typing at near full speed possible. The little Shift key on the other brands just doesn't cut it for real typing from what I hear. Arrow key placement is also very good, and the inclusion of the F keys makes it possible to have easy sleep, mute, and monitor toggling. Lastly, the Home key in place of the Windows key is very useful since Acer programmed it to hide all windows and take you to the desktop. I also discovered that the keyboard has a good design for resilience when a friend knocked over his coffee nearby, sending several splashes of coffee onto the keyboard. With a napkin, I soaked up as much as I could, then let it sit overnight before restoring power to it. All the keys are working fine.
Trackpad: I thought the trackpad would be a complaint since the buttons are on either side, but the more I use it, the better I like it. I will admit that the buttons are stiff and loud (which is embarrassing when you try to sneak in a refresh of Gmail while sitting in a meeting). This actually caused me to reconsider trackpad tapping. For the record, I have always hated trackpad tapping due to the inevitable accidental clicks. So, I have always turned it off on any trackpad I was going to use for any period of time beyond helping someone with their new machine. I turned it back on, though, and adjusted the timing a little with the settings slider, and now it is perfect. No accidental clicks yet, and this has enabled silent use of the trackpad in meetings. Bonus. After using it for a week, the surface began to smooth a little and the feel is great now. There is also a handy slider to change trackpad sensitivity, which allowed me to get it just right for my fingers.
Screen: The screen seems to use led backlighting since it has a slight blue tint to it and because if I thump the side of the screen, I do not see the waver that is normal with standard backlighting. This is good, if so, as that means longer life and lower power drain. The vertical viewing angle on this is roughly equivalent to most other laptop screens, but the horizontal viewing angle is amazing at almost 180 degrees. The horizontal viewing angle is one of the best, if not the best, I've ever seen.
Hibernate: Hibernate actually works! Still not as good as a Mac, but better than what I expected based on my experience with PC laptops in general and linux laptops in particular. It takes about 15 seconds from hitting the power button to the point it is scanning for wifi signals again. Not bad. I carry it around everywhere in hibernate, just like I have always done with my Macs.
Wifi: Works great and has a good network connection manager that does a good job of switching to new networks when availability changes. It is miles better than what I have experienced from linux wifi in the past. There is one caveat mentioned below in the cons.
Speed: Despite the limited 512 RAM and slow SSD drive, the thing is surprisingly fast for most tasks. Opera browsing and OpenOffice loading blow the doors off my old G4 Powerbook. I really did not expect it to be as fast as it is. I am happy with the speed and may not even bother with the RAM upgrade.
Linpus Linux: While it can be a little restricting to an advanced user, I am finding myself resisting the temptation to switch the desktop to advanced mode. I am enjoying the simplified GUI as it makes it quicker to launch apps than a typical menu-driven desktop environment. Besides, one of the reasons for getting this was to advertise it to friends and family who I am trying to convince to stop using Windows. Having a simple GUI is a nice way to grab their interest. I think both Microsoft and Apple underestimate the demand for a truly simple to use computer. This is getting really close.
Battery: I am pleasantly surprised to find the battery lasting between 2.5 and 3 hours, which is what I had hoped for but not expected. This is a 2200maH battery, so when I get the 5500maH, that should equate to roughly 7 hours of battery. I have waited for that day for too many years. Now, if Acer would get off their butts and release the darn thing instead of just talking about it. With the retired 2200 as a backup, I'll be able to get roughly 10 hours of mobility. Awesome.
Speakers: Wow... no way no how did I expect something this small to have speakers that are as loud as these. They sound pretty decent too, considering the size. Perfect for pandora.com.
LVM card slot: The left SD card slot on the machine can be pooled together with the internal storage to create a bigger "drive". Not sure if I will use it, but the idea is pretty cool.
Fun: With all these factors combined, the machine becomes fun to use... almost addictive. I find myself wanting to carry it around with me everywhere and doing more reading than normal just to have the excuse to use it. It's been a while since I could say that about a machine.
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Cons
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Balance: Not a major con, but it can be a little back heavy if the screen is tilted too far. This is ONLY an issue when using it propped on a leg or in a hand. As long as it is on a flat surface, tilting the screen all the way back does not cause the machine to become unbalanced.
Wifi crashes: Sometimes, after waking from hibernate, the wifi driver will crash, preventing connections to wifi. A reboot, which only takes about 60 seconds, will fix it, but the quicker fix is to simply turn off the wifi card using the physical switch on the front-right of the machine, then turning it back on.
Updating: After running my first Live Update of the system, the Network Manager lost all my saved networks that I had recreated. It's not a huge ordeal for me to recreate them, but it makes me wonder what else got set back to default without my noticing. Speaking of defaults, I have found that some GUI tweaks, like adding a location to the left sidebar in the file manager, disappear after a reboot with a return to the factory default setting. There is surely a way to make it keep changes like this, but I haven't had time to dig that deep yet.
Right SD card slot: I just discovered the other night that the right slot is not deep enough for a card to go all the way into the body of the laptop, and leaves about a third of an inch of the card still sticking out. This is not the end of the world or anything, but it would have been nice to have the card all the way in, especially when carrying it around by hand rather than in a bag. As it is, the amount of the card that sticks out is not enough to create enough leverage to break the card unless you dropped it right on the card from several feet, and even then it might survive. Having been schooled by Apple design, though, this just bothers me a little on principle.
High gloss: High gloss plastic makes for ugly fingerprint smears. Not a big deal, but for someone with Aspberger's this can cause undue amounts of wiping with shirt tails. The plastic around the screen is high gloss, too, and can be reflective, making for ADD distractions depending on what is going on behind you. The screen is high gloss as well, but it is not bothering me due to the brightness of the screen, so that is good.
External resolution: Using the default external monitor port, Acer's screen manager will still use 1024x600 even if you switch to using only the external monitor. There is a quick hack which amounts to running the terminal command:
xrandr -s 1024x768
You could choose another resolution if so desired, but I have used this and it works fine. Of course, you have to remember to run it again and set it back to 1024x600 before switching back to the internal, but I can live with this for now. Hopefully Acer will update that in a software update.
Power brick: To be fair, Acer's brick is very small and includes a velcro strap for wrapping the cords together to try and manage the mess. Really, this con is leveled against the PC world more so than the Aspire One's brick specifically. I am spoiled by Apple's power bricks that roll up nice and neat, so I hate the way the PC industry does laptop bricks. The cables are a mess during transport. Oh well, can't win them all.
Got root?: It is entirely too easy to get root access on one of these if you have it in your hands. The sudo timeout is set too high, so all you have to do is reboot, open a terminal, and type "sudo -s". Bingo... what would you like to delete today? Or, simply click the network manager icon in the taskbar, disconnect and reconnect the network, then open a terminal and run the command. From a security standpoint, I'll agree that if someone malicious has your machine it is toast. In this case, though, even a prankster or a friend can quickly get root, so you better trust anyone you hand this over to for "trying it out".
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Final thoughts
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This machine is actually becoming my main machine, although I did not expect it to. The portability covers the minor faults, leaving the whole picture a very positive experience. The first thing I did was install Opera, then edit the desktop config file to show launchers for Opera and the terminal, and that makes life with the Aspire happy. The default Firefox was fine, but I love Opera. Anything I can run the full Opera on is fine by me.
Considering the current retail price is down to $329 (I ended up getting mine for $309 at Circuit City on sale!), this is the netbook to beat. No other netbook in this price range has a real right Shift key, and that is really the killer feature when compared to others. I feel like the addition of the 5500maH battery will finally give me the piece of hardware I waited many years for Apple to make. Well, I certainly am not waiting anymore and am happy with what I have. I can also easily recommend this to first-time linux users as a way to get their feet wet with minimal risk. After all, they could install Windows or OS X if they just couldn't stand linux. If they give it a chance, though, I am sure they will be happy with it for the uses it is designed for. If they basically just want something to get on the internet with, this will meet their needs and keep them safe from viruses since it is running linux. Score a win for Acer.
Todd Russell
September 12, 2008
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