Laptops Arena

Small notebooks (netbooks) are selling out like hot coffee because most people are in need of a secondary computer which is cheap, very portable but can still help them get around with their basic computer needs. This means that people need a small gadget which is good for checking their emails, surfing on the internet, writing some documents or reading a good e-book. For these applications you don't need a big or powerful laptop. Acer 10.1 notebooks are part of the Acer Aspire One Series. One particular model is the Acer Aspire One D150, a small yet elegant mini notebook which has made Acer one of the most popular small notebook manufactures. This notebook is both good looking and reasonably priced. This notebook appeared as an extension to the previous Acer Aspire One 8.9. For $349 you can get a good deal as it has all the necessary features you need out of a real portable notebook.

The standard color for this notebook is navy blue but you can also find other versions in white, red and black. You will appreciate the round edges but you may be annoyed by the glossy blue lid which attracts fingerprints and you have to keep it clean all the time. Compared to the previous model, the 10.1 inch Aspire One is a bit longer and wider. If we compare it to its main competitor, the Asus Eee PC, you will see the Aspire One is thinner and smaller. It weighs 2.8 pounds. This means you can put it in your bag and carry it around with you and forget it is even there. Since this notebook is bigger than the previous one, we would also expect the keyboard to be a bit bigger as well. Even if the keys have the same sizes, it is easy to get used to typing on this notebook. However these small notebooks are not something we would recommend to people that have big hands. Of course, Acer could have taken advantage of the free space and made the keys a bit bigger. At least there is an improvement with the touchpad. Even if it has the same width as before, the touchpad is now longer and this gives us some extra space to move our fingers around. Below the touchpad there is a single bar which replaces the left and right mouse buttons. We would have preferred separated buttons.

The display has a 1024x600 resolution. The colors are clear and you can adjust the screen brightness. On the bottom front of the system you will find the two speakers which produce clear sound especially if you are in a small and quiet room. If you want to keep in touch with your friends from far away, you also have a 0.3 megapixel webcam plus an integrated microphone. The image is not exactly crystal clear but we did not expect to have a very good webcam on such a small computer. The microphone is better than the webcam and the people who are talking to will be able to understand you very well without having to scream.



Just like many other similar notebooks, the Acer 10.1 notebook has a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor with 1 GB RAM and Windows XP operating system. When we measured the total performance of the system, we found out this notebook is above average. Your applications will load up pretty fast even if there are other applications already running. Windows will boot in less than 50 seconds which is a good performance for this small notebook. As expected, the graphic card is an Intel GMA 950 which scored fewer points than the category average. The notebook has no overheating problems and it will stay under the normal temperature if you use it for browsing the internet with the wireless function turned on. We believe 160 GB of disk storage should be more than enough considering this is probably your secondary computer and you won't be storing a lot of unnecessary files. However, if you need more disk space you have to remove the back of the system so you can do all the upgrading you need. The battery life will depend on how you use the notebook. On the average you should get about 6 hours of battery life which is pretty good considering there is some stiff competition.



Overall, we like this notebook because we can throw it in the bag and take it with us at work, university, coffee shop, on the plane, bus or when we are visiting a friend. It is great to help you pass the time if you are on a long and boring trip. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to use this notebook. If you are in quick need of writing some e-mails and listening to your favorite song then the Acer Aspire One will help you get things done. As for the ports and connections, you get 3 USB ports (which is more than enough considering that most laptops have the same number of USB ports), an Ethernet port, VGA output, Card Reader, Kensington Lock plus the headphone and microphone jack. As for the preloaded software, we recommend that you don't delete McAfee Antivirus because, even if it is a 90 day trial, it will be useful until you purchase another antivirus software. Other than that, you will get a lot of software you don't need (like Google desktop, Microsoft Works and Acer Game Zone) so we recommend the first thing you do is to check out what you need and what you don't and then delete some programs to free some disk space. Even if you are into games, we should let you know that the Acer Game Zone only includes demo versions of the games and it's more frustrating than useful.



We would advice you not to use this notebook outdoors because if you expose it in direct sunlight the display will not be visible anymore. This is because of the glossy screen which will reflect things around it. In the end user reviews are very positive and the happiest people are the students that use this notebook to write down whatever the professor says in class and they can also use it in the school library to write their essays.