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Acer AOA150-1570 Aspire Review
27 Sept 2008Acer AOA150-1570 Aspire Review
The Acer A0A150-1570 comes with Intel Atom processor, running at 1.6GHZ. It has only single core but it supports hyperthreading. It has a 8.9" screen. This size is useful for most of the applications.
The unit weighs only 2.19 lbs. Very light weight for those who travel a lot. If you can get it for $350 it will be a nice bargain for the power that this tiny unit posseses.
Acer Aspire AOA150-1570 comes with XP and the 120GB hard drive. The good thing is that Vista in not compulsory with this unit. Since the unit has 1 GB RAM, it is not possible to run Vista in such a small amount of RAM. For those who love Windows XP and hate Vista this is another reason to but this small puppy. This small puppy also comes with a small charger and power cable. The documentation is minimal. There is no discs operating system disk. The battery is a 3 cell Li IOn battery. The battery life is 2 to 2.5 hrs in normal use.
Even with this small size The keyboard is very usuable. The key movement is very nice. The trackpad, which is equivalent to mose has botton on either side.
This Acer Aspire comes with 10/100 Fast Ethernet Network, Wireless Network. It does has a 15 Pin VGA Port if you want to give some demonstration on a projector. There are two USB 2.0 Ports which are enough for most uses. It also has a headphone port and a Microphone port that can be good for listening music and chat. The good part is the in built webcam, that can be used for chat or making small videos.
If you power it on for first time, Windows spends a fair amount of time discovering and setting up drivers for all the hardware. Once it powers up it searches for the wireless network. The wireless performance is moderately good. If you run the wireless in 'Power Save Mode', it will be a bit slow. Swithching it to 'Normal' using device's Advanced tab makes it faster.
If you are using it for mostly browsing, the web pages load pretty fast. The screen resolution at 1024 x 600 is good enough for most pages.
On the software side Acer comes with unwantd free trial of McAfee security softare. This can be easily removed. It also has a free trial of Office. It can also be removed if not required. It also includes a utility to restore the system to factory default, using a hidden partition on the hard drive. You may burn the restore Data CD or DVD. It will not burn a recovery disk using and external drive.
If you are a Linux literate you may like to explore the Linux version of the Aspire Line . The Aspire line is split into two parts, the first runs a version of Linux, not Windows. The linux version does not have a hard drive. Instead it uses a small 8GB solid state drive. The good thing about it is that, it uses less power and helps keep its weight down. The Linux version comes with 512 MB RAM
The other group of Aspire One's run Windows XP. They have a 120GB-160GB mechanical hard drive. These units have 1GB of RAM as compared to 512 MB of Linux version.
Pros:
- Well built. Nice fit and finish.
- Nice keyboard is very usable. All the keys are where they should be.
- The wireless connected easily with my home network.
- The LCD screen is sharp and bright.
- It runs Windows XP, does not need Vista, and has lots of room for applications and data
- It is nice to have webcam.
- It is not very expensive.
Cons:
- The fan is noisy and runs continuously, even when the processor is not running intensive task.
- The trackpad is poorly laid out.
- The 3-cell battery lasts only 2 to 2.5 hours. A 6 cell battery would have lasted 5 hours. It is expensive if bought separately.
Technical Specifications
Operating System:Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Processor: Intel® Atom Processor N270
Processor Speed: 1.60GHz
Level 2 Cache:512KB Level 2 Cache
Data Bus Speed:533MHz Frontside BusRAM
Installed / Max RAM Supported: 1GB DDR2-533 RAM
Hard Drive:120GB 5,400RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive
Display Type:8.9" Widescreen SVGA CrystalBrite Display
Video Card: Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Video Chipset
Internal Max Resolution:1024 x 600
Sound Card: High Definition Audio Chipset
Network Features: 10/100 Fast Ethernet Network
Wireless Network Features: Acer InviLink 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTFIED Wireless Network
Ports and Connectors: (1) VGA 15-pin Port; (3) USB 2.0 "A" Ports; (1) RJ-45 Network Port; (1) Microphone Port; (1) Headphone Port
Memory Card Reader: Multi-in-1 Card ReaderMemory Cards SupportedSecure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Reduced- Size Multimedia Card, Memory Stick®, Memory Stick PRO, xD-Picture Card
Built-In Devices:Stereo Speakers, Webcam
Input Devices: Keyboard, Touchpad
Included Battery: 3 Cell Rechargeable Lithium-Ion BatteryAverage Run TimeUp to 2.5 Hours
Included Software: Acer eRecovery Management, Acer Launch Manager, Adobe® Reader®, McAfee® Internet Security Suite (Trial Version), Microsoft® Office 2007 (Trial Version)
Dimensions: (WxDxH)9.8" x 6.7" x 1.14"
Weight: 2.19 lbs
Manufacturer Warranty: 1 Year Limited Warranty
If you are using it for mostly browsing, the web pages load pretty fast. The screen resolution at 1024 x 600 is good enough for most pages.
On the software side Acer comes with unwantd free trial of McAfee security softare. This can be easily removed. It also has a free trial of Office. It can also be removed if not required. It also includes a utility to restore the system to factory default, using a hidden partition on the hard drive. You may burn the restore Data CD or DVD. It will not burn a recovery disk using and external drive.
If you are a Linux literate you may like to explore the Linux version of the Aspire Line . The Aspire line is split into two parts, the first runs a version of Linux, not Windows. The linux version does not have a hard drive. Instead it uses a small 8GB solid state drive. The good thing about it is that, it uses less power and helps keep its weight down. The Linux version comes with 512 MB RAM
The other group of Aspire One's run Windows XP. They have a 120GB-160GB mechanical hard drive. These units have 1GB of RAM as compared to 512 MB of Linux version.
Pros:
- Well built. Nice fit and finish.
- Nice keyboard is very usable. All the keys are where they should be.
- The wireless connected easily with my home network.
- The LCD screen is sharp and bright.
- It runs Windows XP, does not need Vista, and has lots of room for applications and data
- It is nice to have webcam.
- It is not very expensive.
Cons:
- The fan is noisy and runs continuously, even when the processor is not running intensive task.
- The trackpad is poorly laid out.
- The 3-cell battery lasts only 2 to 2.5 hours. A 6 cell battery would have lasted 5 hours. It is expensive if bought separately.
Technical Specifications
Operating System:Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Processor: Intel® Atom Processor N270
Processor Speed: 1.60GHz
Level 2 Cache:512KB Level 2 Cache
Data Bus Speed:533MHz Frontside BusRAM
Installed / Max RAM Supported: 1GB DDR2-533 RAM
Hard Drive:120GB 5,400RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive
Display Type:8.9" Widescreen SVGA CrystalBrite Display
Video Card: Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Video Chipset
Internal Max Resolution:1024 x 600
Sound Card: High Definition Audio Chipset
Network Features: 10/100 Fast Ethernet Network
Wireless Network Features: Acer InviLink 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTFIED Wireless Network
Ports and Connectors: (1) VGA 15-pin Port; (3) USB 2.0 "A" Ports; (1) RJ-45 Network Port; (1) Microphone Port; (1) Headphone Port
Memory Card Reader: Multi-in-1 Card ReaderMemory Cards SupportedSecure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Reduced- Size Multimedia Card, Memory Stick®, Memory Stick PRO, xD-Picture Card
Built-In Devices:Stereo Speakers, Webcam
Input Devices: Keyboard, Touchpad
Included Battery: 3 Cell Rechargeable Lithium-Ion BatteryAverage Run TimeUp to 2.5 Hours
Included Software: Acer eRecovery Management, Acer Launch Manager, Adobe® Reader®, McAfee® Internet Security Suite (Trial Version), Microsoft® Office 2007 (Trial Version)
Dimensions: (WxDxH)9.8" x 6.7" x 1.14"
Weight: 2.19 lbs
Manufacturer Warranty: 1 Year Limited Warranty