Acer Aspire One D255 Netbook; Portable and Affordable!

The Acer Aspire One D255 netbooks come in dual-core and single-core CPU variants. Today we have the latter with us, which offers everything that a good entry-level netbook should and the best part is, it carries an amazing price tag. Let’s see what it’s got.

Design
In terms of aesthetics, the netbook looks pretty neat, especially because of its slim design and light-weight form factor. The dull-burgundy and black combination isn’t very striking, but the overall look is sleek. The burgundy lid and the black screen frame have a glossy finish, and, the wrist rest, touchpad and black keyboard are matte, which is good thing. All-in-all, despite the boring color combination, the machine looks more business-like than sporty or casual.

The ergonomics are a stronger point in terms of design. The keys are large and well-spaced, and, despite of it being a 10-incher, typing is better than it is on many other netbooks. The touch pad is larger and the mouse buttons are good too.

Features
Looking at the features, there’s nothing extraordinary about this particular variant of the D255, mainly because it is powered by an Intel Atom N450, which is a single-core Hyperthreaded CPU clocked at 1.66 GHz with 512 KB L2 cache. This configuration is common to almost all entry-level netbooks. Also, this machine has 1 GB RAM and a 160 GB, a combination which was common to older netbooks models. The machine uses onboard graphics, the Intel GMA 3150, and is able to seamlessly play 720p movies, which is pretty good considering the price. Speaking of which, in a sub15K price there’s very little you can expect from netbooks, in terms of hardware.

The rest of the features include 3 USB and a VGA port, a webcam, audio jacks, a memory card reader and a Kensington lock slot. Finally, the machine comes pre-loaded with a Windows XP operating system and quick boot Andriod, which isn’t really useful, except for surfing the Internet.

Overall, we’d say that it is just another netbook offering very good portability, battery life and price.

Bundled Sleeve

Performance
In terms of power and functionality, it is as good as any other netbook which features similar hardware. For instance, if you compare it with the Samsung N150, N210 or the Acer eMachines em350, there is negligible difference in performance, but the prices of these machines are different, especially the Samsung N150 which is priced slightly higher for its looks and style. Now, in terms of looks this one might not be the best, apart from that, it is a sure-shot winner.

Personal take
Every product has its strong points and this one does too. Price being the strongest point here, even the form factor, light weight and overall looks are pretty good. I’d say that if you need a very portable netbook with very good battery life (7 hours 30 minutes), at Rs 14,999, the D255 is an excellent pick.