Acer Aspire One Netbook

The performance evaluation of netbooks is a bit different from the usual battery of tests we normally deploy. Netbooks have been designed strictly for everyday work, internet usage and other mundane activities. They fall more in the 'content consumption' than 'content creation' category. So we have stayed away from normal synthetic benchmarks, choosing to focus on ease of use, battery life, software support, and multitasking capability.

The Aspire One, like all other netbooks currently available, is available in two formats. One is a fully loaded affair with Windows XP, and the other comes with slightly reduced stats and sports Linux. Our test piece was the Windows XP model, offering 1GB of RAM, an N270 processor clocked at 1.6 GHz, 120GB of HDD storage, and an 8.9 inch LED backlit panel.

In the usage test, the Acer passed with just a bit of a struggle. Though its touchpad was annoying at times, its excellent keyboard and well-made screen made working on it while travelling a pleasant experience: at no time was I tempted to stop my internet surfing or writing this article.

The battery life was pretty okay. It lasts around 1½ hours on a 3-cell battery, and roughly 4½ hours on a 6-cell battery. These are decent figures, and can be easily extended with judicious use. These figures were arrived after checking out two different settings. In the first I simply turned the brightness up full, ran music/video tests, used Wi-Fi intensively, and generally putting it under full load. The second test was a bit more sedate; I simply stuck to internet surfing over Wi-Fi and typing this article.

When it came to software, the Aspire One had no issues. Since it was loaded with Windows XP, it had access to every possible application under the sun! And I was not surprised to find that it excelled in the multitasking department. The Atom processor may not be designed for HD decoding, but it's fast enough to multitask smoothly without any kind of slowdown. I was able to simultaneously listen to music, surf with multiple Firefox windows, type this article, and do other activities without issues.

The only thing that greatly annoyed me was the lack of integrated Bluetooth. This is a technology that we have come to take for granted, and there was no reason for Acer not to include it. Considering how good this netbook is overall, it may have been prudent for them to put it in. In fact, modders have already figured out a way to introduce BT into the netbook, as can be seen here.

The Aspire One is a well-made machine. It retails for Rs 19,999 (Linux) and Rs 21,999 (Window XP). At its price point it’s easily one of the best choices available right now in the sub-10 inch netbook space. I can recommend it without any reservations.