
... I've really enjoyed using this little laptop for the past 1.5 weeks. The size is perfect. You get a full-size keyboard and a beautiful 11.6" high resolution screen. And unlike other netbooks, you never feel like you are viewing the internet through a mail slot.
It's not perfect however. Remember, this is still a netbook, not a full-powered laptop. Here's the rundown of pros and cons. For me, the pros outweigh the cons, but others may prefer to wait a few months for similar size machines from Lenovo, Dell, Asus, and others to hit the market.
Pros:
- Beautiful screen with great horizontal viewing angles
- Full-size keyboard
- Lightweight (2.7 lbs with three cell battery)
- Only slightly larger than many 10" netbooks and significantly thinner than many of those 10" models
- Very sharp looking machine
- Reasonably solid in terms of build quality
Cons:
- Slower 1.33 GHz processor
- Flash videos from YouTube and Hulu are choppy (dropped frames and stuttering). This is a problem with most netbooks, but a little worse here because of the 1.33 GHz processor.
- three cell battery only gives a bit over 3 hrs of runtime (the 6-cell would fix this, but would stick out of the rear of the case a bit)
- touchpad rocker button is harder to push than it should be
- touchpad surface has some drag (turn the pointer speed up to help with this)
- keyboard keys are very flat (I got used to this and grew to love the keyboard, others may object).
- arrow keys are tiny, despite full-size keyboard
- ships with lots of bloatware and trial software pre-installed
- Graphics chipset is not Linux friendly. Don't expect full graphics acceleration in Linux anytime soon.
- Fingerprints show easily on the glossy case
Overall: It's the first 11.6" netbook available in the U.S. and the *form-factor* is a winner! However, you'll have to live with a few quirks. For me, the benefits of the larger screen and keyboard outweigh the downsides. I can never go back to a 10" netbook again. It has enough power for me to play music while browsing the internet, while working in MS Word and MS Excel. That's my standard working situation. The only performance issues come with streaming media. Still a good choice for those who want a netbook they can do real work on.
(I purchased mine at Walmart with Windows Vista, 2GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, and 3-cell battery for under four-hundred bucks).
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Check Amazon Price and Read More Reviews on Acer Aspire One AO751h-1346 11.6-Inch Black Netbook - 4 Hour Battery Life
[9/15/2009
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