Best Buy stocking $349 Acer Aspire One with XP
As some commenters to the price drop news have already noticed, some retailers are already selling the XP version of the Acer Aspire One netbook for the new $349 price, which is $50 less than it was prior. I have to believe that Acer had planned the price drop at least a few weeks ago because when I opened up my weekly Best Buy flyer, page 22 reflected the $349 price. Note that I received the print flyer yesterday, i.e.: the day after the price announcement. There’s simply no way that the flyer was printed that night… some advance news had already hit Best Buy for sure.
These are the 3-cell units with 1 GB of RAM, Windows XP Home and a 120 GB hard drive. I actually returned my Linux-based AAO yesterday and paid the 15% restocking fee. After the abysmal write speeds of the SSD module, I felt that if really liked the unit, I’d be better off spending $20 more for the XP version to have the traditional hard drive. That model would give me the most flexibility without having to crack the unit open. At this point, I’m going to look further into an MSI Wind for my needs as that appears to be the only other new netbook (current or forthcoming) with a full-sized Right-Shift key in the proper location… something I personally don’t want to compromise on.
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So wait. You didn’t buy the AAO XPed? You’re looking for a Wind? No! Get the AAO. You’d be able to torment me with OS X on *that*, but the Wind? Nah. Old hat.
i’m holding out for the $399 160HDD/6-cell version
hopefully a white 1
I picked one of these up today (using it right now to type this) and am loving it so far. Battery life sucks but that’s the only negative I can see so far.
I went by the local best buy in Oklahoma City this afternoon and machine was sold out. This version is much more appealing to me than the one at Circuit City with Linux on it. We are simply to immersed in the Windows world to productively use something else.
How bad is the battery life? I was expecting at least 2-3 hours. May pick up 2 (from 2 different stores) for the wife and I tomorrow.
The HDD version is certainly better than the SSD model, it outperforms the SSD model handily, especially in writes.
It is of course slightly thicker and heavier to fit the hard drive but I think its well worth it. I don’t trust the cheap SSDs used in the netbooks, their mostly just too slow and unreliable.
I am also waiting for the $399 160gb 6 cell model, in white as well.
I too am looking for the 6 cell 160gb $399 model.
theres only 3 per store! that’s so little!
A pity there’s no option to get those specs for the Linux version, but understandable.
Leaving the shift key aside, what makes me look longingly at the Aspire is those page up and down keys… :)
Have you looked at the Lenovo S10, that one looks pretty awesome!