Acer’s Aspire One first look: too “budget” for a low-budget netbook?
Cisco Cheng got some playtime with the new $399 Acer Aspire netbook, er mini-notebook, uh… sub-note. Right. Call it what you want, but you can’t call it expensive when compared to others in this class. The lower price means potential for less features, but I’d more aptly say they’re "watered down". You’ll only get 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of SSD flash storage for the Linux OS and your data, which might be helping keep the price down. The smallish, 24W/hr battery is another eyebrow raiser. One feature I really like is the Smart File Manager. Using one of the two memory card slots, this feature "merges" the SSD storage with any SD storage you have, making the space look like a single drive. Nice to see, and something other small notebook manufacturers should look into.
Cisco says that an XP-model is expected in August for only $20 more, so if you’re interested in the Aspire and don’t have a spare XP license, you might want to wait. He’ll have a more detailed review in the near future and I’m interested in reading his final thoughts. My first take is that Acer cut a few too many corners to keep the price down. In a market where the pricing is relatively close, you need to differentiate your device by features. Maybe it’s too soon to say and I’ll change my mind if I get a look at one for any extended time.
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Interesting is the WWAN option for the Acer Aspire One:
http://www.ncix.com/products/productdetail2.php?sku=30747
WWAN8: UMTS/HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) at 850/1900/2100 MHz and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), upgradeable to 7.2 Mb/s HSDPA and 2 Mb/s HSUPA (for 3G models)
Supports receiver diversity and equalizes at 2100 MHz
Manufacturing option, with the GTM380 module (Gobi(TM) 3G module for the US market).
http://www.option.com/docs/datasheets/GTM380.pdf
Yup, all the cost cutting really overshadows the one cool feature to merge SD memory with SSD. Its too bad because if it had a larger battery and more ram built in I’d have already be out looking for ways to pre-order. Oh well I guess we’ll have to see how much an additional battery costs and if ram is upgradable on this thing (without voiding warranty that is)
But ya gotta remember that they arent selling this machine in only one flavor. This particular article is not very well written because it is not up to date. The author completely fails to mention that Acer is selling the Aspire One with different mixtures of the OS, ram, and hdd. I wouldnt want a machine with only 512 mb of ram, and i dont particularly want a system with only an 8GB ssd for a few reasons. I would definitely go for an Aspire One with linux, 1 gig ram, and the 80 gig hdd. The funny thing is, linksys is starting to open preorders for that exact machine in the UK right now! Check out their pricing…
http://www.expansys.com/tag.aspx?tag=aspire%20one&partner=umpcportal
Its all in pounds, but all aspire one models shouldnt even touch the EEEPC 901 in dollars when it hits the US.
Looking at the UK link posted by THE_K1NGsTER, the XP Home versions are 53 pounds more expensive than comparable configurations with Linux — that’s a 20% premium on the 80GB/1GB model.
Fair enough. Heres what it all looks like in dollars. I just happened to run across it right after posting on this site. All the machines are still relatively cheap(except for the high-end xp model). Its still only $438 for the 1gb,80GB linux model. WHo knows, i might not care enough for 1 gig of ram. I could probably live with 512, but i dont want to, lol.
http://www.expansys-usa.com/s.aspx?update=true&sid=15662675
From this page, just click on which one interests you and it shows the prices. I guess ya cant see them all at once on here :/ What would you guys pick?
Even though the feature of merging the SD card space with SSD sounds cool on paper, I really suspect about it’s reliability. Whatever be the quality of the SD cards, they are never that reliable. They can peter out at any time. It has happened many times with me.
Also, I don’t know how the performance of the overall system going to be. The file system can be writing anywhere: sometimes on SSD, sometimes on SD. And then, if something happens to the SD, boy, I don’t know what’ll happen. Heck, the user won’t be knowing what files were written to the SD!
Poor concept Acer :
@James+Kevin: did you receive any mail from me or has it automatically gone to junk folder?(gadgetmix)
From the expansys link:
80GB/1GB/Linux: $438.01
80GB/1GB/XP Home: $525.61
XP Premium: +$87.60 (20%)