Acer Aspire One 751 notebook review

Comments

• "Overall, the design is rather nice, sitting together well, with the black of the inside, complementing the skin on the outside. The interesting angles and quirks make it an attractive, edgy, netbook - it certainly stands out."
  
  Ho-hum... beauty follows function -- that's all I'm going to say. Posted by DemonDuck, USA
• Good laptop , beautiful and powerful , at Tradestead there are many kinds of such good things , I like it very much! Posted by abby, CN
• Chris
  After giving an overall rating of 6 over 10 , you then say it is a nightmare to live with !
  
  You have sharply contradicted yourself . If I were to believe your later adverse comments, the overall raing shud be no more than 4 over 10 Posted by wizsurf, Malaysia
• That screen needs some HP/Lenovo style build quality and the AMD Congo platform, along with a flush-fitting six cell battery.
  
  That would be a winner! Posted by REMF, UK
• Damn had high hopes for this. In the market for a netbook and this seemed perfect (on paper...) for me. 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, near full size keyboard, decent battery life, integrated HSDPA, slim and light. The hunt continues... Posted by RobN, UK
• wizsurf - this expression ("nightmare to live with") is often used when talking about a boyfriend/girlfriend, which is what I'm alluding too here, and having a bit of fun with that analogy. I feel the score is fair, there are good and bad points, and looking good does count for something. Posted by chrishall, United Kingdom
• Thank you. And I like the review. However, and please take this constructively, the line "a nightmare to live with" damages your credibility as a reviewer. It's not in character with the rest of the article and it's not a good way to summarize what you describe in your review. If you are willing to take this criticism constructively, you might consider rephrasing that line or removing it. The message you obviously meant to convey (based on your comment to wizsurf) is not being conveyed at all (to your readers). Basically, tf your desire is to communicate what you say, then you have failed to do this here, and it is irking your readers.
  
  Anyway, good review overall and much appreciated insight into this new release! Posted by TrackSmart, USA
• TrackSmart - I'm happy to take constructive criticism and happy to accept that something might have got lost in translation. I'll leave the line in there because it has now been discussed and changing it would leave all the comments out of context.
  
  Thanks. Posted by chrishall, United Kingdom
• Actually, I found my way to this review from someone quoting the "nightmare to live with" line, and it made me curious. I think a short, pithy statement like that is eminently useful in reviewing, "professional" sounding or not, because the reader comes away with a strong impression of the product that is a lot easier to remember than a wall of text about it.
  
  It's a pity to hear the laptop wasn't up to par. I wonder, though, at so many netbooks that don't seem to manage Youtube HD when my Eee PC 701 seems to handle it just fine. Maybe others are more discerning about their videos? Idk. Posted by Leah, Canada
• Taking the review as a whole, the "nightmare" line seems out of place. After all, you are reviewing a very inexpensive machine - it looks like you are expecting it to be an ultra-portable costing 3-10 times as much. Putting a catchy line for self-aggrandizing purposes at the expense of Acer is not good reporting. Unfortunately, your catchy line will be repeated by a lot of other bloggers that won't even have seen the machine. Posted by Alex, USA
• Having had this machine myself for a couple of days now, I can safely say that the "issues" found by the reviewer are simply not there. The likely reason for this, is the fact that the machine ships with a bloated winxp install with things like mcaffee running on it. Simply uninstalling that,- as well as installing the latest version of the video driver for the GMA500, solves any issues playing HD video on this machine.
  
  Perhaps you would be so kind as to try these tips out for yourself and perhaps add an update to your original post when you see the results. Posted by zicada, Norway
• Zicada - thanks for your comments. We no longer have the sample model that we reviewed, however we have been in discussion with Acer about the problems we encountered, and might be getting one back in again to verify whether these issues have been resolved. Posted by chrishall, United Kingdom
• I own the european twin counterpart of this netbook: Packard Bell Dot M, and I'm very pleased with it.
  I installed Windows 7 RC (7100) and the netbook handles it very easily, even with 1 GB RAM.
  The small problems I found with video performance IMHO are related to Intel GMA 500 driver for Win7, which is still in preliminary state, available only via Windows Update, and compliant only with WDM 1.0 and not the new version 1.1 (for Windows 7). Posted by Andrea, Italy
• Andrea, where did you get your Dot M from, Italy? I would love to hear some more about it, please :) Posted by Peter, Bulgaria
• You can find it here on-line or in their shops:
  http://tinyurl.com/ko5nag
  
  However you can find it elsewhere on-line.
  
  I forgot to mention that P-B Dot M already comes with a 6-cell battery and that Intel Atom Z520 has Hyperthreading technology built-in (Atom 270/280 doesn't). Posted by Andrea, Italy
• Grazie, Andrea :)
  And what about this part here: "The screen only manages to make up 8mm of the thickness but it is also obvious that this isn't a premium product: the lid feels distinctly flexible - so much so that you can easily distort the screen by bending the lid around."
  Is it really that easy to bend it? Posted by Peter, Bulgaria
• I can only speak about Packard Bell which has a slightly different (and IMHO much finer!) case than Acer's.
  I coundn't find any problem in the case or in the lid: they are pretty solid and even the lid pivots appear really robust.
  
  A further consideration:
  the included 6-cell battery protrudes by a couple of centimeters from the rear side. Instead the 3-cell battery (optional) fits completely within the netbook profile.
  This should be taken into account when evaluating the netbook's size...
  Posted by Andrea, Italy
• I picked on of these up in Walmart with 2GB of RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive and Windows Vista. I was hoping to find an XP version, but Vista is all that's available right now . I love the machine. I disagree with the reviewer about build quality and the quality of the keyboard. This netbook feels solidly built compared to other netbooks and low-end laptops and has a keyboard that's a joy to use, aside for the tiny arrow keys.
  
  The build quality is at least as good as the MSI Wind I purchased for a family member last year and have used extensively myself. The keyboard shows no significant flex under normal typing and is a pleasure to use compared to many other netbook keyboards. You must be a heavy-handed typists to feel keyboard flex. Also, I see no distortion of the screen when moving it on the hinge. It seems quite solid. Maybe you are used to aluminum-clad MacBooks? This machine's build-quality compares favorably to netbooks and laptops in it's price range (i.e. under $399). Maybe you recieved a preproduction unit?
  
  This is not a good machine for video playback. But it's a nice travel companion for doing real work or normal web browsing. Streaming video plays fine when in a small window, but chokes at full-screen. I realize that's will be a deal-breaker for some people. I find this to be an acceptable trade-off for the extra screen real-estate and the low price. Size-wise, it's the perfect form-factor.
  
  The only significant flaws are:
  1) Terrible rocker-button on the touchpad. It takes too much effort to press, which is annoying.
  2) The Z520 processor and chipset can't handle full-screen streaming video on the high resolution (1366x768) display. So you can't take full advantage of all those pixels for entertainment purposes. If this machine had a typical 1024x600 display, I'm guessing full-screen video wouldn't be a problem. But that's a serious trade-off to consider for those of you wanting a netbook with a higher resolution screen.
  
  
  Major Advantages:
  
  1) Excellent screen for real work (MS Excel, Powerpoint, Word, email, internet research and browsing), unlike most netbooks.
  2) Superior keyboard for typing (aside for some very small arrow keys).
  
  Posted by Tracksmart, USA
• If using Flash player v. 10 uncheck "Use hardware acceleration" (right click on any flash video window and search for that option).
  Full screen wil be ok (still not for flash HD material).
  
  I tested some demo wmv HD (720p) material from MS and it has been played smoothly in full screen, so there is some problem with flash videos and the graphic adapter driver (GMA 500) Posted by Andrea, Italy
• I found typing on the larger keys on the 751 to be noticeably easier than on most netbooks, as I have pretty big hands/fingers (insert your favorite hand/gland size joke here ;)
  
  I agree that the two-way button bar requires way too much pressure (multiple stabs are often needed to make a left-click happen), and as soon as I get around to cracking this baby open, the ol' X-acto knife is going to be seeing some action to trim some plastic off a spring/supporting part that is probably a bit too thick.
  
  The display is beautiful and does provide a usefully-larger area for various windows, toolbars, palettes, etc., over the smaller-screened netbooks. The very power-efficient LED backlighting (and mercury-free, unlike fluorescent backlighting) is bright in any surroundings, even in a car, which is where I often use my netbook to display maps, check e-mail, surf mostly news/weather/tech sites, and look up reviews of newer netbooks (hey, they're so tempting, popping up in what seems like every store, nowadays ;)
  
  I also find it laughable when people complain about the performance of netbooks - I guess they're dyslexic, and read "netbook" as "notebook", and not just any notebook, but, a prospective competitor to a $3,000+ AlienWare gaming machine that weighs around 10 pounds and has a battery life of about 30 minutes when running a first-person-shooter game with tens of thousands of other players on-line, at 30 frames-per-second 1080p mode on an 802.11n wireless network (with a Bluetooth stereo headset sucking what's left of the battery capacity dry :)
  
  Now, I do agree that there could be some marketing misdirection being attempted in that it is a native HD aspect-ratio screen, and that might lure some unsuspecting typical Costco/WalMart customer to believe that they can watch movies at 720p without any issues (at least not without turning off Microsloth "features" and downloading up-to-date video drivers, etc.), but, I guarantee you that the first thing those prospective customers are going to notice is the prominent disclaimer that there is no optical media drive included, which means they won't be able to pop in even their 480i/p commercial DVDs, and they aren't likely to be sticking 16+ GB memory cards full of videos into the slot that I'll bet half of them won't even realize is there, unless their kids point it out.
  
  As for the "vast conspiracy to constrain the specs on netbooks to keep notebook sales from being cannibalized", I would direct your attention to who the manufacturers (not just the brand names of variants of the same underlying hardware) of netbooks are - they're the very same notebook manufacturers! Do you really think Acer is trying to cut off its notebooks to spite its Facebooks? (sorry, I just couldn't resist that one :P It's all about price, and you can't build a notebook at a netbook price, at least not a notebook that is meant as a desktop replacement (which is what the majority of notebooks are used for today - they started outselling desktops a few years ago, because they had gotten good enough for the average schmo).
  
  As for the 3/6-cell battery issue, more power means more weight, and when I'm not near a power socket in a wall or a vehicle (I always have a 12-volt car adapter in my airline roll-aboard bag), I have a nifty solar panel that can keep a netbook going literally all day long (although the starlight/moonlight/indoor-light performance isn't quite as good ... yet! :)
  
  Is the 751 perfect? Not by a long shot - the graphics subsystem prevents its being turned into a Hackintosh running Mac OS X (although Acer has committed to fully supporting the Linux standard for netbooks). If you're expecting a 2.75 pound, $349.00 netbook to support sledgehammer typing, maybe you're in the wrong business (maybe a rock quarry would work out better for you?), and/or need to lose some excess fast food flab (been there, done that, kept me from dying - highly recommended). If you're trying to run programs that were designed for 3.6 GHz multi-core servers, this is definitely not the computer for you (and I do that for a living - sometimes remotely via, you guessed it, the 751 :)
  
  For a complete review and specs of the 751 vs. all other netbooks (the 751 does better/best on battery life, WiFi throughput, and boot time, but, on graphics performance, HD video transcoding, file copy, and other intensive tasks it was worse/worst), check out:
  
  http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptop/acer-apire-one-ao751h.aspx
  
  You can have the charts toward the end of the review redrawn to compare any four netbooks they've reviewed - very handy.
  
  A nightmare? Hardly. Battery life, large keys, more bright-screen real estate, faster boot time, an extra year of Costco warranty, and WiFi throughput are more important for me, and, as they say, Your Mileage May Vary. That's what's great about an open market - there's something out there to trip everyone's trigger, and at various price points, to boot (pun fully intended ;)
  
  All the Best,
  Joe Blow Posted by Joe Blow (not related to The Plumber ;), Good Ol' US of A - Happy Birthday to US!
• I agree with Joe Blow. I'm really enjoying this little computer. Sure it's not perfect, but its large display, great keyboard , good battery life, and tiny size make it a winner. No "nightmares" here! And i've had one for over a month now and use it daily.
  Posted by TrackSmart, USA
• hi from holland.
  i had the asus eee 701 and the 900.and now the 751.
  yes he is not fast.yes no reel HD video, but stile better and faster from the asus.
  the screen is the best from any other netbook or even low end laptop.
  battery time, i have the 6 pack. and yes he does longer from my apple macbook.
  and what about the noise level. the acer is the lowest temp and no sound under any load,so no its not 6/10. and no its not 10/10. but 8-9 from 10 for what i bought. Posted by s.rosh, holland
• Netbooks are often used for entertainment rather than serious work. In this regards, not being able to play DVD-quality movies is a serious flaw. For many, this would be a deal breaker, unless Acer can show a way of remedying this. It has been suggested that updating the GMA500 driver might fix the problem but how and where this can be done is not clear, and why Acer has not incorporated this solution into the netbook before shipping puts a serious question mark on whether this can actually be done. Posted by Tianung, New Zealand
• Hi from Holland
  After reading all the comment I went and read/and test the hd issue.
  Intel didn’t like to have fast cpu on the 11”netbook(sales strategies always win the customer) .
  As result they under clock the cpu to 1244-1333.
  you couldn’t play HD or HD in youtube.
  Asus have resolved it by given a overclock option in the bios .
  Acer didn’t (I think they have no balls with intel, or they just slow thinkers)
  Problem solve. How? And for xpsp3 and vista
  Go to and read
  http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=15671&start=10
  download
  http://www.esoft.web.id/utilities/setfsb-2211788-you-can-modify-speed-data-bus-fsb.html
  
  only version 88 work with acer 751.
  Choose only the ICS9LPRS365BGLF
  Use the 210 and get 1410 speed.
  
  If you like to use the configure on start up go to
  
  http://www.n10user.com/viewtopic.php?id=766 read /download /install/its working
  
  after 12 hours working on 1410.temp doesn’t go higher. All hd video/demo/youtube work fast with no hiccups.
  
  Why does the customer have to find it by himself? Why does acer sale a great netbook with the ability to play hd but doesn’t give this option to the customer who bought it? This need yo be answer by ACER sale representative in Europe and the U.S . if I was the boss of them I should cut their balls.
  They took a great product and told the customer he can drive 120km but put the limit on 80
  Simply donkeys’.
  
  So have fun overclock it to 1410(no need for more)
  Posted by s.rosh, holland
• well...in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6jkOAOeWjs, the Aspire One 751 plays HD with MPC-HC Posted by Marta, Spain