Review of Acer Aspire One A150

Acer has always released affordable netbooks and specially in the of global economy crisis, Acer’s netbooks would surely be everybody’s choice. Many find it easier to carry around an Acer netbook than a laptop. With the release of this netbook, we wonder whether it will knock out the Asus’ Eee range off the shelf or will it join the line of the ‘déjà-vu’ type of netbooks. This time, Acer offers this netbook into two versions. They have Intel’s N270 1.6GHz Atom processor and has 512MB or 1GB of RAM with either an 8GB SSD or 120GB or 160GB hard-drive. One has Windows XP Home as its operating system and the other has Linpus Linux Lite. The features that remain the same on both are the 8.9-inch LED-backlit display with native resolution of 1024 x 600, the integrated microphone, stereo speakers, webcam, WiFi b/g and a memory card slot. What we have is the Windows XP Home version. Read on to see how it fared at our netbook office ratings.

Specifications
Graphics Processor: Intel GMA 950 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 3.0
Wireless capabilities: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
Processor: Intel Atom N270/1.6 GHz
Display Type: 8.9 in TFT active matrix

Design
What we have here is a pearly white Aspire and it is also available in the color royal blue. It has an attractive look altogether with the cover lid and chassis. It measures at 9.8 x 6.7 x 1.1-inches and weights at 1.04kg.

Display
The Acer Aspire One A150 comes with an 8.9-in screen with a resolution of 1,024 x 600. It is bright as it can get but color reproduction could have been better.

System
The Aspire One A150 comes with Intel’s Atom N270 processors working at 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM, an 8GB solid-state drive and 802.11bg networking.

Keyboard
It’s got a bigger keyboard than the one found on the Asus Eee’s netbooks and it is slightly wider as well, which explains the wider keyboard with taller keys. Typing on this keyboard feels great. No cramps whatsoever. The trackpad comes with the mouse buttons which, just like the HP Mini-note 2133, are placed to the left and right side of the trackpad. The placing is rather disturbing at first but we slowly got used to it. Nevertheless, response from these buttons is fast unlike the response we got from the HP Mini-note 2133.

Connections
This netbook has connections for VGA, Ethernet, USB ports, an SDHC slot, headphone/microphone jacks and a 4 in 1 card reader.

Battery Life
Battery life disappoints at only two and a half hours. Changing the settings doesn’t help either in this case. Consumers can consider buying an extra battery that will help sustain the netbook if taken on a journey.

Conclusion
Acer has climbed one step higher with the Aspire One A150. What else could we want? There’s a really good keyboard, great screen, it does the basic tasks well plus when it’s priced as such, who wouldn’t want it.