An Overview Of The Acer Aspire One Netbook
Posted on June 10th, 2010 in Blogging | No Comments »
Much work would be difficult to do if we did not have some form of mobile computing device, whether it be a tablet or a laptop, and because of this, we look for portability above all else when purchasing such things. The problem is, many people define portability as how easy the device is to carry around, but this isn’t the true definition of portability when it comes to laptops. When calculating portability, it is better to consider not just size, but also weight, battery capacity and type as well as hardware features, such as NVIDIA’s new hybrid power system that allows it to turn off pieces of hardware to save battery power. The abilities of a laptop improve over time, we’ll just be looking at one for the moment; the Aspire One netbook.
Let’s consider the power of the machine first. A desktop would easily beat this laptop in a straight race. It comes with a budget Intel Atom processor clocking in at 1.6GHz and many of the models come with less than 2GB, which is the recommended amount to run Windows Vista, thus resulting in potentially sluggish performance. In the more advanced models, the 250GB hard drive is provided, but the exceptionally small 16GB solid-state drives are definitely worth avoiding unless you wish to purchase an external hard drive. The wireless adapter is acceptable for most common networks and the ethernet port will do the work if needed.
While this is a very compact laptop, it has a couple of neat features. First of all, the monitor size can go up to 11.6 in, which is above average, though with the integrated graphics solutions, don’t do any gaming beyond a game of solitaire. Furthermore, every model of this laptop also supports a basic, integrated webcam and the advanced models support bluetooth.
Portability is the most important part. This laptop has no extra features to save power and it doesn’t come with any batteries bigger than a 6-cell. With the 3-cell models, you can expect 3 hours tops under no stress, perhaps half under stress and for the 6-cell, you can expect 6 hours under no stress and maybe 3 under stress. The degree of stress can vary, as word processing will likely make no difference, but running a DVD would run it down much quicker. Check out the Acer Aspire One 532h review for more details.
As the cheaper models come from a budget range laptop, it wasn’t designed for use with 3D modelling or huge computational power and as such, you should buy accordingly. If you wish only to carry out basic tasks, then this is the machine for you.
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