Acer Aspire One AOD 150

I have been wanting to get one of these irresistible netbooks ever since they have first launched. Am glad that I have managed to get one of these babies when I did a re-contract with my ISP… for free (the netbook of course)!

I have the Acer Aspire One AOD 150 model, which has Windows XP Home SP3 with a 160GB HDD and a 6-cell battery, The Acer Aspire One is lightweight as compared to normal notebooks, hence the term ‘netbook’ (Portmanteau of Internet and notebook).  Got this bundled free with my broadband internet plan.

The Good Stuff

• Battery Life – 6 hours with wifi use on a 6-cell battery.
• Portable – Small and really compact. Lengthwise, slightly smaller than the Apple wireless keyboard.
• Functionality – Basic I/O ports, 3 USB slots, sound ports, card reader and even a webcam!
• Usability – I haven’t tried using Photoshop or even gaming on it, but surprisingly Windows Vista and Windows 7 beta works fine on it!

The Bad Stuff

And of course there will be a bad side or weakness to every product.

• Keyboard & Touchpad – The keyboard makes a pretty weird “tack tack” sound when typing on it. The touchpad is unfortunately, really bad.  Hard to move the mouse and occasionally hit it by accident when I want to hit the spacebar instead!
• Cooling – For a small factor notebook used especially for mobile communications, I was surprised that the cooling grills were barely half a coin size in diameter. Have to use a book to place between me legs and the netbook in order to protect my dolphin ^^;
• Optical drive – Lack of optical drive (CD/DVD) but I can’t really complain given the purpose of portability, one shouldn’t be using discs.

Rest of the Stuff

I am overall pleased with the Acer Aspire One, as it is indeed a very useful and portable tool when on the go, or if you can’t live without the internets. I  was pleasantly surprised to find out there was a 3G model available (HSDPA iirc) which allows you to slot in your SIM card into the netbook itself. Great for those who are on a mobile broadband plan.

Folks like me who wants to use their mobile phone as a modem (a method known as tethering) can do so by connecting the phone to the netbook with a USB cable and use the available software that comes along with your phone and connect. This also allows me  to be able to answer phone called instead of having to swap the SIM card in and out whenever needed.

Video-playing wise, so long it isn’t any MKV or HQ stuff and you should be fine. Speakers are at the bottom of the netbook which is an absolutely bad placement. Get yourself a nice pair of earphones if you want some decent sound.

Wallpaper by tinkle

One thing I do want to try is to go on a vacation and bringing only the netbook along. Wonder how it would feel like.

Do you have a netbook as well? Or am looking into getting one in the future?