Fantastic Netbooks » Acer

Acer Aspire One D255 Quick Review Roundup

Fantastic Netbooks — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:23:56 +0000

The Acer Aspire One D255 is available in many different configurations

The Acer Aspire One D255 is a popular netbook, stocked in many major retailers online and around the UK. It stands out, mostly because of its dual operating systems – Windows 7 Starter and Google Android. But is it any good? Let’s find out.

If you are looking to buy a netbook, the cheapest Acer Aspire One D255 available at the moment is just over £200, with the Atom N450 processor. Have a look at the best Acer D255 deals below.

Before we get into the Acer D255′s reviews, let us set out the Acer’s specification in full:

Acer Aspire One D255 Specification

Intel Atom 1.66Ghz N450 processor or Intel Atom 1.5Ghz dual-core N550 processor depending on model
1Gb RAM
160Gb hard drive or 250Gb hard drive depending on model
10.1 inch WSVGA screen
1024 x 600 pixel resolution
3 x USB ports
Wifi – 802.11b/g/n
Webcam – 1.3 megapixels
Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition & Google Android 2.1 dual-load
3 cell battery or 6 cell battery depending on model
3 cell – 4 hours, 6 cell – 8 hours (actual light use)
Weight – 1.25Kg

A specification only tells you so much about a netbook so what do the reviewers think? Let’s start with the good points.

Continue reading: Acer Aspire One D255 Quick Review Roundup

Related posts:

Netbook Rankings Updated – Contains Over 75 Models

Fantastic Netbooks — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:50:35 +0000

The Acer 533 netbook uses the newer Atom N455 processor - no performance inscrease but the ability to use faster DDR3 memory

Our first update to the Netbook Rankings of 2011 brings the total number of netbooks included to over 75 models. Let’s have a look at which netbooks are worth considering.

Individual reviews of netbooks by technology journalists and well respected publications still vary massively and so it is important to get the full picture of how good a netbook really is.

An example of this is the Acer Aspire One 533 netbook, released in the 2nd half of last year and added to our netbook rankings today. The average score for the 533 was 73.4% gained from 7 reviews, the highest of which was 84% from Notebookcheck and the lowest was just 50% awarded by PC Pro. That’s a difference of 34% and if you read the PC Pro review you would probably not consider the Acer 533 but reading the Notebookcheck review you might.

Our netbook rankings help to keep everything in perspective, one reviewer may not like a netbook but another reviewer might think it is great, over the course of 5 or 8 reviews you can determine which netbooks are consistently getting the best scores.

Continue reading: Netbook Rankings Updated – Contains Over 75 Models

Related posts:

Acer Aspire One Happy Specification

Fantastic Netbooks — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:02:54 +0000

The Acer Aspire One Happy presents us with not one but two operating systems

The Acer Aspire One Happy takes a pretty standard netbook specification and gives us not one but two operating systems. Let’s take a look at what the full specification has to offer.

Windows 7 Starter Edition is installed as is the norm but alongside this is Google’s Android operating system commonly found on smartphones and Internet tablets. This generally means that Android is meant for something with a touchscreen rather than a netbook and CNet found the combination of the Happy and Android a bit awkward to use.

Even with two operating systems, the latest in the Aspire One range of netbooks has a pretty standard specification. But there is one other aspect that differentiates this netbook from all the others and that is summed up in one word – pastel. The Aspire One Happy is available in 4 colourful shades of pastel – blue, pink, green and purple.

The Happy is lightweight, at just 1.1Kg with the 3 cell battery or 1.3Kg with the 6 cell, and feels robust although the finish is perhaps a little cheaper than something like the Samsung N220, although you will pay more for the Samsung.

Your 3 cell battery will deliver up to 4 hours of life on a single charge or the 6 cell battery will give you up to 8 hours of use. Even with intensive use you should be able to push nearly 5 hours from the 6 cell battery as CNet found in their review.

It is also possible to get the Aspire One Happy with a newer dual-core Intel Atom N550 processor although you will pay more for the extra performance.

We think that the Aspire One Happy is a pretty decent netbook, trying to be different in that it offers 2 operating systems for the price of 1 and is available in an individual set of colours (if you like pastel shades).

Prices for the Aspire One Happy are around £230 to £235 from a reputable retailer such as Amazon or PC World or you can pay £50 more and get the version with a dual-core Atom N550 processor. See some of the best deals for the Aspire One Happy below.

More reviews of the Aspire One Happy are floating in now and so we will add the netbook to our netbook rankings shortly.

For now though, here is the full Acer Aspire One Happy specification.

Continue reading: Acer Aspire One Happy Specification

There are no related posts yet for this article.

Acer Aspire One D260 Specification

Fantastic Netbooks — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:33:39 +0000

The new Acer D260 sports a new design and is thinner and lighter than many netbooks

The Acer Aspire One D260 netbook is the replacement for the ever popular D250 and is one of a raft of new netbooks released by Acer recently. Let’s take a look at the spec of the D260 and some of its features.

Of the recent netbook launches by Acer, the D260 is the cheapest and a Windows XP version can be picked up for as little as £230. The Windows 7 model shown in this specification is priced at around £250.

The same base specification is very similar to many netbooks available on the market at present with the usual Atom N450 processor, 1Gb RAM, a 160Gb hard drive and a 10.1 inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels.

Battery life is reported to be a reasonable 8 hours although Laptopmag found that they could only get 5 hours out of it.

Laptopmag loved the Aspire D260′s thin and light chassis plus its svelte design whilst it has a larger touchpad than other netbooks plus the sound quality is good. On the downside the performance is on the slow side and Laptopmag could not forgive the D260 for the poor battery life.

The reviews are starting to come in now for the Acer D260 and, once we have collated them we’ll add the D260 to our netbook rankings plus provide a review roundup to see this Acer stacks up against the competition.

For now though, here is the full Acer Aspire One D260 specification.

Continue reading: Acer Aspire One D260 Specification

Related posts:

Acer Aspire One D260 vs Aspire One 533 vs Aspire One 521

Fantastic Netbooks — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:00:57 +0000

The Acer Aspire One 521 netbook features the AMD V105 processor

Acer have been busy refreshing their lineup of netbooks recently launching a number of new models. We compare 3 of them – the Aspire One D260, Aspire One 533 and Aspire One 521 to see how they measure up.

First up is the Acer Aspire One D260, as the name suggests it is the replacement for the D250, which sits in the middle of our overall netbook rankings at 30th place in the standings. The D260 is a low cost and lightweight netbook tipping the scales at just 1.11Kg so portability is good but you can’t stray too far from a power source, as the battery will only give you up to 4 hours of use.

Next is the Aspire One 533, costs slightly more and for that you get the new N455 processor, which is practically the same but allows you to use DDR3 memory, which should be a bit quicker. You also get a bigger 250Gb hard drive and a slightly better webcam. The Acer 532H was not much of a hit with reviewers so let’s hope the 533 scores better when we start seeing some reviews for it soon.

The last netbook in our Acer Aspire One comparison is the Aspire One 521, which uses a completely different processor to the norm from AMD. This V-series V105 processor is clocked at 1.2Ghz and, whilst that is lower than the Atom N450 and N455 1.66Ghz processors we are expecting performance to be at least comparable if not slightly quicker. The V105 also supports DDR3 memory and its integrated graphics card should also be an improvement.

As with the 533, it will be interesting to see what reviewers make of the 521 and its AMD processor.

There are 2 things that stand out from this comparison, the first is that the battery life of all 3 netbooks is low when compared to similarly priced models from Samsung and Asus. Those 2 manufacturers seem to be pushing the boundaries of how much battery life you can get out of a netbook and, alongside MSI and Toshiba, they are regularly getting into double figure now. Acer does not seem to be trying to reach the same heights in terms of battery life.

The second is that none of these netbooks come with Bluetooth. Samsung have just relaunched their lineup of netbooks to include the new Bluetooth 3.0 standard, which is 8 times faster than Bluetooth 2.0. However, Acer has not featured bluetooth in these new netbooks.

We’ll update this post once we get some reviews in for these models and let you know how the new AMD processor performs in the Aspire One 521.

For now though, which one of these Acer netbooks do you prefer? Have a look at the full comparison below.

Continue reading: Acer Aspire One D260 vs Aspire One 533 vs Aspire One 521

Related posts:

Acer Aspire One 533 Specification

Fantastic Netbooks — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:00:05 +0000

The Acer 533 netbook uses the newer Atom N455 processor - no performance inscrease but the ability to use faster DDR3 memory

The Acer Aspire One 533 netbook is the newest is the hugely popular Aspire One family of netbooks, we take a look at the spec and some of the features.

The first thing to note is that the processor is the slightly newer Atom N455 processor, which allows you to use marginally faster DDR3 memory instead of the older DDR2 memory. Some more expensive models are fitted with the 1.83Ghz Atom N475 processor, which will be the first performance boost we’ve seen in netbooks for quite a while.

The availability for the N475 fitted Acer 533′s appears to be limited at the moment with the only online store we’ve seen with availability being Saverstore at a price of £311.

The design is similar to other Acer netbooks and slim although you do get a slightly protruding battery that causes the keyboard to be sloped although that is not too uncomfortable. The keyboard is excellent with the keys having a positive feel and the layout is very good. The touchpad is also easy to use and is multi-touch although the rocker buttons are a bit stiff.

You get the usual 10.1 inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. The glossy screen on this Acer 533 is pretty good, sharp and strong colours.

The battery life is quoted at 8 hours although likely daily use will be around the 5 to 6 hours mark, which is ok although not outstanding.

Other models higher in the Acer 533′s range have Bluetooth 3.0, which we have also recently seen in the newest Samsung netbooks, including the Samsung N230. Bluetooth 3.0 is around 8 times faster than Bluetooth 2.0 so does offer an improvement over the old Bluetooth standard.

The reviews are just started to trickle in now for the Acer 533 and, once we have collated them we’ll add the 533 to our netbook rankings plus provide a review roundup to see how the newest Acer stacks up against the competition.

For now though, here is the full Acer Aspire One 533 specification.

Continue reading: Acer Aspire One 533 Specification

Related posts:

Top 10 Netbooks For Going Back To School

Fantastic Netbooks — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:58:10 +0000

Rounding up the top 10 netbooks for students heading back to school or off to University – we’re looking for lightweight and stylish netbooks whilst making sure they have great battery life and are made from strong stuff – does such a netbook exist?

I know it feels like the summer holidays have only just started and there is a long time before school starts again in September. You don’t want to think about it but you need a netbook to help you with your school work when the new term starts. Or perhaps you are heading off to college or university in a month or two and need a portable computer for writing essays, reports and conducting research.

So if you are thinking about a new netbook to start the new school year in September then I hope this roundup of the best 10 netbooks will be as welcome as an A+ mark in your first test.

I reckon that the main features to look out for when choosing a netbook for a student at school, college or university are the following:

Good battery life – having a decent battery life is essential if the netbook is going to be used throughout the day, not always where there is a power supply close to hand.
Lightweight – nobody wants to carry a heavy laptop around with them all day. Having a lightweight netbook will ease the burden and have you skipping between lectures, lessons or lunch.
Good value for money, i.e. cheap – whoever is paying for the netbook will appreciate it if you get a lot of netbook for your (their) money.
Good design – nobody wants a netbook that looks like a brick or an old Amstrad from the 1980s.
Comfortable keyboard – if the netbook is going to be used properly to write essays, reports, conduct research and prepare for exams then having a comfortable keyboard to type on is pretty important.
Screen – we’re not so concerned about having a screen that looks good when playing DVDs whereas something you can view when outside or under bright fluorescent lights means that matte screens rather than glossy screens would probably be better.
Build quality – it is fair to say that a netbook carried around a school or college is possibly going to get knocked about a bit. This means a flimsy netbook will not be much good so we are looking for one with some sturdiness and good build quality.

So now we have an idea of what we are looking for, let’s have a look at the top 10 netbooks.

Continue reading: Top 10 Netbooks For Going Back To School

There are no related posts yet for this article.

Netbook Offers – Friday, 4th June 2010

Fantastic Netbooks — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:05:13 +0000

Netbook deals updated weekly - this week includes Samsung N210 with free accessories and software bundle worth £89

Throughout May there have been many great netbook offers and deals from cheap netbooks, big discounts, free netbooks with mobile broadband and even netbook and satnav bundles giving you great value and all available on our Netbook Deals page, updated weekly.

We started the month with an Asus 1005PE down to £269.00 and £100 off the Sony W Series netbook from PC World, which you can still get at only £299.99 inc. VAT. The PC World website says that deal ran out of 5th May but you can still grab it now.

The Samsung N220, a top 3 netbook in our netbook rankings, was reduced by Amazon UK down to £288.90 and you can still get it at that price. The Samsung N220 is pretty much the most popular netbook right now.

Then came another set of big reductions with £70 off a Dell Mini 1011 netbook from PC World and a massive £150 off the Acer Aspire One 751H from Amazon UK.

We rounded the month off with £40 off a HP Mini 210 at only £229 and the Samsung N150 down to £249.99 at PC World. Finally, the brand new Acer Aspire One 532H is just £259.95 at John Lewis, which is not only a good price but you also get free delivery and a free 2 year guarantee.

June has started off no different, straightaway we are presenting some great deals, including a Samsung N210 netbook with free netbook case and software bundle worth £89 from Amazon UK, a refurbished Dell Mini 9 (one of our top 10 ever netbooks) for just £179.97 and another top 10 netbook in the form of the Samsung N120, a Grade A1 (as new) netbook from Laptops Direct for only £229.97 inc. VAT when it is normally around £285. Go to Netbook Deals to find out more.

So have a look at our Netbook Deals page, updated weekly and sign up to our weekly netbook deals e-newsletter, which will be delivered to your inbox each week. If you are worried about the safety of your email address then please don’t, we will not sell or pass your email address onto anyone else.

If you have any feedback on our Netbook Deals section then please let us know in the comments, it would be great to hear from you.

Related posts:

Netbook Offers – Friday, 5th March 2010

Over 50 netbooks now in our netbooks rankings

Fantastic Netbooks — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:08:52 +0000

The Acer Aspire One 532H is a solid update to the popular 531H netbook model and is now ranked in our updated netbook rankings

A recent update to our netbook rankings section has seen the number of netbooks rated jump over 50 to a total of 56 individual netbook models including brand new netbooks such as the Acer Aspire One 532H and Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3.

Divided into overall rankings, lightest netbook rankings and netbooks with the longest battery life – having over 50 netbooks rated and ranked means it has now become a lot easier to see which are considered to be the best netbooks.

Our netbook rankings are the clearest way to see which netbook is best. We take into account the leading industry reviews from top magazines and review sites around the world including Laptopmag, PC Advisor, PC Pro, Computer Shopper and CNet, amongst others. We add up the scores gained and divide by the number of reviewers to gain our overall rating for each netbook.

This time around we have added a succession of 2010 netbooks and one in particular has had an immediate impact, gaining the highest score seen for some time. The full list of netbooks added include the following:

Continue reading: Over 50 netbooks now in our netbooks rankings

Related posts:

Acer Aspire One 532H Specification

Fantastic Netbooks — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:53:58 +0000

The Acer Aspire One 532H is a solid update to the popular 531H netbook model

The replacement to the popular Acer Aspire One 531H was always going to be a tall order but here we have it, the Acer Aspire One 532H – is it up to scratch?

The Acer 532H brings us up to date with the typical pine-trail refresh of an Intel Atom N450 processor, 250Gb hard drive and Windows 7 Starter whilst retaining the customary 1Gb RAM. The 10.1 inch screen with 1024 x 600 resolution is also nothing new whilst battery life is claimed to be around the 8 hours mark.

Overall then, the Acer 532H looks to have very similar specs to a fair few netbooks released in 2010 and, whilst it is picking up some good reviews from the usual sources, there is little here to mark the 532H as anything other than a good netbook representing decent value for money.

The 532H is a solid update from the 531H, albeit with nothing revolutionary, in a well designed package that you can pick up for less than £300.

Here is the full Asus Aspire One 532H specification.

Continue reading: Acer Aspire One 532H Specification

Related posts: