Acer Aspire One Slim, a minor upgrades to its predecessor

Monday, December 28, 2009

Acer end year invasion has been done. The invasion is done on its business netbook Acer Aspire One, a thinner series that comes with Windows 7 package. So what's the difference with the previous Aspire one?

Thinner Design
Generally, the body shape of Aspire One new version is almost identical to its predecessor, only thinner. It seems like Acer follow new trend of thin 10-inch netbook design, like their competitors.

Let’s take a look at the display. Following netbook trend, Aspire One comes with 10.1 inch wide-screen which is standard size of most netbook in the market nowdays. This upgrade size makes it wider than the 8,9 inch old version. This upgrade will make significant improvement, especially for those who works in front of monitor for hours.

There is a webcam applied on the top side while on the top left is equipped with Bluetooth button with 3 keyboard indicator lamps and power button on the top right. You will find WiFi in the bottom right. In general, there is no difference button position compared with its previous version. What makes it different is multi-touch gesture with click-button that is designed to conventional mode. It’s not like previous series where right-click and left-click is separated and located next to touchpad.

The same design can be seen on the keyboard. Both size and design is still same with older version. But compared to Toshiba NB 200 or HP mini note, it seems like Acer’s keyboard is less comfort.

Standard Features
Acer Aspire One Slim is bundled with Windows 7 package starter edition 32-bit. This already includes Microsoft Office 60 days trial. This netbook seems have no battery saving feature like on Asus Eee PC.

However good news for game lovers, this new Acer netbook has a portal game, namely Acer Game Zone. This is a feature that suit for those who addicted to mini games. There are many options of mini games in the portal, some of them are Chicken Invaders 2, Granny In Paradise, or Cooking Dash. Unluckily, all games mentioned are still in trial version. But don’t worry, if users like one of those games, they can register the games afterward. Acer also gives ranking to most popular games and new release games that available to download. So game lovers, be ready to download it.

Another small important feature that is often out of attention is ports. Acer has LAN port, VGA, and 1 USB and audio slot on the left-side of netbook. While on the right-side there are 2 power port, 2 USB port and card reader.

Poor Audio, Good Power Saving
In general, Aspire one is a series of netbook that using Intel Atom processor. If the earlier version is using Intel Atom N270 processor, now Aspire One is equipped with Intel Atom N280 and bigger RAM with 1 GB capacity. With this specification, Aspire One is suitable for normal activity such as browsing, typing, light photo editing and playing mini games.

Despite all benefit mentioned above, this netbook also has weakness, especially in audio quality. A Friend of mine said that the audio quality is poor. Perhaps, speaker position located in the bottom of netbook body reduces the audio quality. However, using headphones can help this problem.

For a netbook using 6 cell battery, Aspire One has quite tough power. You can use this netbook for work about 5 hours without charging the battery.

Specification:
- Processor Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz
- 1GB DDR2 Memory SDRAM PC-5300
- Hardisk 220 GB HDD 5400RPM
- 10.1 WSVGA monitor LED CrystalBrite
- WiFi IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
- Bluetooth, CardReader SD,MMC,Memory Stick/Stick Pro, xD-Picture Card
- WebCam
- Baterai 6-cell
- Berat 1.15Kg
- OS Windows 7 starter edition atau XP SP3
- Warna Hitam, Biru, Merah

Summary:
Light weight, thin and containing a lot of mini games collection. It has a competitive price, around Rp3.5 million for Windows XP OS and Rp3.8 million for Windows 7 OS.