03/19/09
 When I lost wireless capability in my laptop I had a wireless job to attend to and I sort of panicked. I have a couple of really old laptops and one of those saved the day. It was then that I decided I absolutely had to get a backup laptop. I have casually looked at a netbooks while walking around a couple of stores and had given some thought to the advantage of not having to pack around my 7.1 lb laptop. Follow up: I did some research reading reviews and comparing brands/models. I also checked out our distributor to see what I could get wholesale. I finally decided the Acer Aspire One with XP Home would work. I chose XP because it is my hopes to use this in the field and I have a number of applications that require Windows. The model I choose, the AOA110-1588 which includes:
 I was a little unclear how the 16GB SSD hard drive worked and I couldn't really find an adaquate description. In brief, there is a 8GB internal SSD (no, I didn't open it up and check) and there is a SSD reader on the left side that is labeled Storage Expansion which also has a 8GB SSD plugged in. Windows mounts each SSD device as separate drives. There is another SSD reader on the right side. There is also 3 USB ports, one on the left and two on the right. When I received the netbook it was very well packaged and the only thing I had to do after unpacking everything was to plug the battery pack in, plug in the AC power pack and fire it up. Windows went through the normal installation process that always has to be done with a new computer and everything worked when it was finished. After going through the Windows update process I was ready to go. It came with a 90 day version of McAfee which I kept as well as a trial version of Office 2007 which I immediately uninstalled. It is interesting in that it also came with Microsoft Works which I was surprised to see had so many applications. I kept it installed although it also may go away as I use OpenOffice. I installed Firefox Beta 3.1 just to give it a try as I also don't use IE much. I have heard Google Chrome is fast so I also installed it. Well, Chrome is fast out of the gate. I launched it and it was up in a blink of the eye. What I don't really care for is it doesn't go Full Screen (unless I missed something). The bookmarks bar can be turned off which frees up some window space (I have a 8.9" screen here so every little bit helps). Another thing Chrome doesn't have is a RSS reader. I have been using Firefox pretty much exclusively for the last few years and have gotten use to it. So the jury is still out on this one. I may be able to find a decent RSS client. I have also heard the next release of Firefox will be faster. I have just been having speed issues with Firefox lately. The keyboard is a little small but not uncomfortably so. It has a pretty good feel to it as well. The mouse pad is ok. I immediately went out and purchased a new Logitech V450 Laser Mouse for Laptops. The USB dongel only sticks out maybe a quarter of an inch so I can plug it into the USB port and leave it. Pretty cool although it is a little expensive. The mouse pad is certainly useable. The left and right buttons are a little flakey. They just are not very solid... they have a little play in them. They seem to work ok, I just wonder from the 'feel' of them if they might be subject to failure after use. Time will tell. Another thing I am not real excited about is the level of documentation that is provided / available. There is a Quick Start Guide and a Users Manual. Two CDs were delivered, one a recovery cd and the other a Windows XP cd. The manuals don't mention either CD or how they are used. My biggest impression is the weight a whopping 2.2 lbs. I can stand and hold it comfortably in one hand and type with the other. The screen, although a little small is clear and very easy to read. I am often awake in the middle of the night and get on the Internet. Last night my browsing experience was very pleasant. All in all I am very pleased with the Acer Aspire One netbook. I think it would be a great mobile laptop for any IT tech. Buy Online, Pickup in Your Local Best Buy® Store. Save 10% off anything not marked "special" at Geeks.com! Use coupon code GEEKBERT P.S. After using the Acer One for a few days now one thing that I am not real pleased with is the overall speed. At first I attributed it to XP home and I discovered it was configured by default to use No Paging File so I added 1516/1516 to the D drive and that seemed to help a little, but after doing some further research I have come to the conclusion that it may also be due to the speed of the SSD. So perhaps it would have been better to have purchased the model with the 160GB hard drive instead of the the SSD model. Something to consider if you are considering the purchase of one. |
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