Originally Published 29 October 2008

There are many weblogs/blogs or websites out there reviewing products such as this. I wish to present it in a simple way and everything here is my view only.

Ever since I knew of Asus EEE PC, I have been noticing alot of netbooks being pushed by all major manufactures. I have noticed some UMPCs in the past but nothing at this level or fervor.

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More Pictures. See end of Article
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Introduction

Netbooks or Internet Companions are just notebooks, albeit in a smaller form factor. Small in size and weight and somewhat under powered. This necessary to keep power consumption down and last on the road longer.

Being small and light it is truly portable and mobile.

Specs in short

Let me do away with lengthy specifications.

• Microsoft Windows XP Home
• Intel Atom N270 – 1.6GHz, 533MHz
• 1GB DDR2
• 8.9″ WSVGA Screen
• 160GB HDD
• 6 Cell Li-ion battery

Lets Begin!

This little fella came in a small compact packaging, lovely!

As a standard in all laptops or notebooks, it comes with 3 USB slots. One on the left and 2 on the right.
VGA out, 1 USB, LAN port, and SD card reader

Headphone,Mic In, 2 USB Port, Muti-card reader

Display

The 8.9 inch WSVGA screen is big enough for normal mobile usage. I suggest not using it for too long as you could get eye fatigue.

Screen brightness could be easily adjusted with Fn key plus right or left-arrow keys on the keyboard. I used it a night with lowest brightness and i find no discomfort. Please note the brighter the screen the more power usage.

Keyboard

What do you expect from this small fella? A full fledged keyboard?

The keys are slightly cramped as in all netbooks. Typing on it is OK in my standard. It has good tactile response.

Touchpad

A little too small for my big fingers. I find myself moving often to track from top to bottom or side ways.

Power It Up!

Ok now, lets power this machine.

Windows XP Home comes installed in this little beast. Unlike most other netbooks which come with some version of Linux pre-installed, Acer Aspire One 150, comes with Windows XP. Most or almost all users are comfortable with this OS, and I think this is good decision by Acer.

Powering up, Windows XP setup goes through the final installation portion. Asking for your user id and regional settings and it is complete in few minutes. Then comes the Acer Aspire One setup, which installs/initialize softwares and drivers.

You are done!

Pre-installed Applications

All these pre-installed

• Google Desktop
• Microsoft Office 2007 60day trial
• Microsoft Works 8.5
• McAfee Security Centre Trial
• Acer eRecovery Management
• InerVideo WinDVD player

Conclusion

If you are mobile warrior, this machine is for you! I would recommend it anytime. In Singapore, you can connect to Wireless@SG where ever available and you are online.

With Mobile Broadband subscription becoming cheap, get your USB Broadband dongle and surf away.

Using it for few hours, I find it comfortable to use other than my complaint about the touchpad.

Battery seems to be already fully charged! Checking battery status shows 5 hours left. I am suspicious of this reporting. I am yet to calibrate the battery.

Memory and Hard drive is upgradable but with some difficulty. Only suggest the brave and adventurous to self-upgrade.
See video:

I would suggest uninstalling Google Desktop and McAfee. The screen is small, you dont want Google Desktop cluttering the space

Please leave your comment and Thank You for reading!

Acer One with Lenovo 13.3″

Power Button

Acer eRecovery Manager

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