Hello Human
Beings!
Today I
wrote a review on a product that I have been using for more than one year. It
is not the coolest or most expensive product but it has one feature that I think
suites university students. Or 2009 university students.
Acer Aspire One Review
This a
review for the Acer Aspire One Netbook model D255.
The Acer Aspire
comes packaged with a one 1 GB ram stick, a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor and a
150 GB harddrive. These are very minimal compared to today’s standards. It also
comes with three USB ports, an Ethernet port, a VGA port, an SD card reader,
and headphone and microphone jacks. Add to
that the fact that the netbook comes with Windows 7 Basic installed on the
harddrive, not much of a help for the performance. And then you have the
manufacturer installed applications, they were annoying at best and I noticed
that the netbook’s performance improved greatly without them. In reality, the
performance is utter rubbish when dealing with software that is not from 2009. A
simple task such as rendering a YouTube video at 240p resolution is difficult on
the computer’s hardware. In addition to that the netbook’s performance drops
significantly when using multiple Java applets on one browser page (please do
your mastering Chemistry assignments CHEM-1050 before the last minute). The laptop struggles
to do anything without lagging or freezing, opening a new webpage or changing to
a different tab after not viewing it for a length of time is very slow and
unacceptable by today’s standards. For this category, the netbook gets a
3.5/10.
The new
technological devices of today are very efficient when it comes to power
consumption and don’t require big batteries. This is not the case with the
Aspire. If you hover the mouse over the battery button the computer should give
you an estimate on how much more time can you use your laptop before it runs
out of battery. On the Aspire, its way off the number of minutes given by the
computer, it feels as if the netbook defines a minute as 30 seconds. The netbook
should operate for two continuous hours in power saver mode, as it states, what
I am finding is very different. For instance the battery empties after a
slightly more than an hour of use. I was doing an online assignment once with
around 77% charge when I started; I finished it in a little more than 30
minutes, the battery reading was around 20%. Such power change while performing
a minimal task over a not too long period of time is staggering, in a bad way.
For power consumption the Aspire scores a 2/10.
One of
strong selling points of the Acer Aspire is its size. The size is very convenient
on the netbook, it is slightly smaller than a normal iPad with an accessory keyboard
attached (the netbook's screen has a less than 10" diagonal). It is actually slimmer than the iPad and accessory keyboard that I
used. The netbooks weight is also very light to the point of being able to move
it around with one hand. I found that using it, along with the tasks of taking
it out of and putting it back into to my backpack to require less effort. I don’t
have to close it and keep it shut or worry about scratching it, just close the
lid and put it in the backpack. The hinges on the screen are capable of handling
the weight of the laptop, which makes moving it around much easier than the
iPad with an accessory keyboard. It reduces your chances of messing up your
workspace due to not wanting to move the netbook. I personally like to rearrange
my papers, sheets etc. so I can use all the space on my desk. When I have a
huge laptop on my desk moving things requires additional effort that is better
spent on continuing my work. With the Aspire netbook I could simply put my hand
in between the hinge and the body and move it without any disturbances to anything
around me. In this category, the Aspire scored 9/10. The 10 is reserved to
devices the size of a smart phone.
All of this
adds to the equivalent score of 48%. As the score shows the netbook is not
recommended and I agree with that. But that only applies to the Aspire D255
model. This netbook is great if you are stuck in 2009, and I have nothing more to
say about this model. But truth be told, I will consider buying one that has
more powerful specifications.
Thank you
for reading! I hope that this harsh review did not kill your interest in my
blog.
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