Posts by Greg Miller

Available now in PC World...:-)

My gf bought one the other day for £249.99 and I checked it out.

1. Reasonable build-quality;

2. Impressive sceen - quite awesome I would say;

3. Keyboard a bit flexy;

4. Battery life about 2.5 hours - maybe a tad more after time;

5. Linpus Linux is naff IMHO. Few apps and the usual hassle installing more/updating etc. Linux geeks will be okay with this though...if they can get a connection to the update server (which we couldn't);

6. Will run Win XP Pro SP2 fine (we tried it). Drivers from Acer Thai site;

7. Webcam is rubbish (only 0.3 megapixels);

8. Under Linpus neither the internal nor an external mic will record sound to local apps like webcam (apparently mics only work with Skype and Messaging services). An external mic works ok with XP Pro. But sound quality is awful. The internal mic still produces only a hissing noise. Even in the highest quality setting webcam video was dead jerky. So altogether webcam is pretty useless;

9. Connected effortlessly to local WLAN;

10. Easy to restore damaged installations. Will boot from a USB stick. Instructions included;

11. Documentation extremely sparse;

12. Acer UK support is virtually non-existent. No one there had 'even seen an Aspire One yet'. So they couldn't help. We were invited to call a premium rate number next day for more info. Although the hardware is guaranteed for a year, the software is not, apparently, guaranteed at all. So you has to pay plenty for help with it;

13. Sapphire Blue colour looks really cool.

In summary quite a dinky little unit and just about acceptable - to some perhaps - for the originally intended launch price of £199. But, given the above, way OTT at £250. So - back to the shop it went, and she's now saving for an Asus eeePc 901. A wise move methinks.