Acer AspireRevo is a nettop that would definitely attract you if you are looking for a miniature version of a typical desktop PC offering some strong features. Acer AspireRevo is now up for sale at Newegg only for $199. Well, the price tag may not be that much impressive until you know about what this small PC packs in.
First of all, Acer AspireRevo features Intel Atom 230 1.6GHz processor as well as NVIDIA’s ION GUP. No doubt, the both the processor and graphics are impressive considering the price tag. Given the ION graphics, you can understand that Acer targets entertainment savvy users who would like to enjoy high definition video. You can run high definition videos on this nettop via HDMI or VGA ports. Run on Windows XP Home edition, Acer AspireRevo also offers gigabyte Ethernet, 6 USB ports, card reader, and many others.
So, you can understand that Acer AspireRevo is an attractive package for the users. Now, let us see if Acer can make some good cash in through this PC.
On September 29, 2009, Toshiba introduced T100, a new series, of laptops that use CULV processors. Under the T100 series, there are two laptops- Toshiba Satellite T135 and Toshiba Satellite T115. The T100 series laptops will be launched on October 22, 2009.
Toshiba Satellite T135:
The Toshiba Satellite 135 is a sleek light weight laptop. PC Mag.com reports:
The design itself is sleek, with a warped diamond pattern on the outside and around the keyboard creating an interesting optical illusion. Unfortunately every surface is glossy though, making the laptop a giant fingerprint magnet. Even the keys are shiny, meaning the keyboard lost its sheen within minutes of use. Interestingly, the only part of the laptop that's textured is the touchpad. The mouse buttons below are actually one big button that activates the right or left click depending on which side you press. The middle of the button won't press down at all, which can be a bit of a pain if you're trying to navigate with one hand.
Display: 13.3 inch HD TruBrite LED Backlit display with a 1366X768 resolution.
Keyboard and touchpad: The keyboard of the T135 has a minor glitch. PC World reports:
……though shrinking the real estate around the keyboard would have allowed for slightly larger function and other special keys like and. What was noticable: A slight bit of flex in the keyboard. The left side seems to sink a little bit if you exert a modicum of pressure.
I/O Ports: VGA and HDMI video-out ports, three USB 2.0 ports including one sleep-and-charge port, a 5-in-1 flash card reader, one ethernet port, and headphone and microphone jacks.
Impact Sensor: Toshiba Hard Drive Impact Sensor protects the laptop in case it falls from your hand.
Webcam: Integrated webcam with facial-recognition software.
Communication: 802.11b/g/n wireless, 10/100 Ethernet, Bluetooth V2.1 + EDR (optional).
Battery: 6-cell battery provides 9 hours of backup.
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium operating system.
Price: Toshiba Satellite T135 will cost $ 599.
Toshiba Satellite T115:
Weight: 3.49 lbs.
Color: Nova red and black.
Toshiba Hard Drive Impact Sensor
Processor: Intel Pentium processor SU4100 or Intel Celeron processor 7435.
Display: 11.6-inch HD TruBrite LED backlit display.
On September 29, 2009, executives of Ford Motor Co., Continental Airlines Inc., Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., and Intel Corp., met with Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer at an event in San Francisco to talk about introducing Windows 7 to its employees. Bloomberg reports:
Microsoft needs to generate interest among corporate customers for Windows 7, which goes on sale Oct. 22, after Windows Vista was adopted by relatively few during its almost three years on the market. Twenty-four percent of companies surveyed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said they will upgrade to Windows 7 in the first 12 to 18 months, and 67 percent plan to switch eventually, a higher rate than Vista achieved.
Already Starwood introduced Windows 7 on computers in Sheraton hotel lobbies and on HP touchscreen computers, installed in Sheraton hotels in seven cities including New York and Seattle. Five hundred employees of Intel are running Windows 7 on their computers. Ford is planning to move towards Windows 7 as it wants to offer better computer technology to its customers.
The release of Windows 7 is coming close and for the last couple of days, numerous articles are coming out telling people why or why not they should upgrade their OS. After the miserable performance of Windows Vista, many people abandoned it and returned to Windows XP and still it is being used and netbook makers are still selling their devices with pre-installed Windows XP. Many people want to use Windows XP for indefinite period. Well, that is not going to happen because after 2014 Microsoft will stop providing services for Windows XP users. The Washington Post reports:
Supposedly, that date has already come and gone: Microsoft formally discontinued Windows XP on June 30, 2008, and it ended mainstream support on April 14, 2009. But the company has continued to permit PC builders to offer downgrade discs that let XP fans install the OS over Vista. It says that manufacturers can ship Windows 7 machines with XP downgrades for 18 months after Win 7's release or until it ships the first Service Pack for the new OS--whichever comes first. In other words, XP downgrades may be available until April 22, 2011 (assuming that Microsoft doesn't extend the deadline further; it has already granted XP so many stays of execution that refusing to grant any more would be a bit surprising.)
Well, my suggestion is, you should target for Windows 7. If you are under financial pressure and require major hardware upgrades then you should do it after few months or a year but do it. Why? Here are the reasons:
Because of the new OS, you will upgrade your hardware. You would not have to worry about running latest software on your PC. Remember, you do not upgrade hardware or OS regularly unless you are a hardcore gamer or high-tech worker who needs to use the latest hardware and software all the time.
There are many computer users who do not understand the technical nitty-gritty of computers. I am such a user. For people like us, it is better to switch to Windows 7 because, we would run into less technical problems.
Finally, the internet is also changing. In near future, Windows XP users, while surfing the internet will face problems because they would have to download and install various plug-ins and software to enjoy the features offered by websites. On the other hand, the Windows 7 will not have to worry about plug-ins as they are running the latest OS.
The leaked Winter 2009/2010 catalog of HP confirmed three new releases including- HP Pavilion dv3, a touchscreen ultraportable notebook; HP Pavilion dm1, a CULV notebook; and HP Pavilion dv8, a Core i7 based desktop replacement.
The HP Pavilion dv3 sports a 13.3-inch display with a 1,366 x 768 resolution. It also has a touchscreen interface and TouchSmart 3.0 software. The notebook also has up to 500GB hard-drive, 8GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce G105M GPU.
The HP Pavilion dm1 is the CULV notebook with pre-installed Windows 7, 500 GB HDD, and upto 5GB RAM. The notebook is claimed to have 9 hours of battery back up with optional external DVD burner. The notebook will be available in black or white.
Finally, the gigantic desktop replacement, the HP Pavilion dv8, sporting Intel’s Core i7 CPU. You can upgrade the storage upto 1 TB. There is also an integrated TV tuner, NVIDIA GeForce GT 230 M graphics processor, 1 GB video card, Blu-ray drive, remote control, integrated subwoofer. The HP Pavilion dv8 will be launched with Windows 7.
The catalog also showcased the new MacBook styled HP Envy 13 and HP Envy 15 laptops. Most probably, these laptops will become available post Windows 7 launch.
Earlier, I wrote about Dell’s upcoming notebook, Dell Latitude Z, which utilizes wireless charging technology. Well, the notebook is out in the market and is very much expensive. The laptop is targeted towards business executives who would like to get the best quality products and money does not matter to them.
The Dell Latitude Z600 is a beautifully crafted machine, written “elegance” all over it.
Despite sporting a 16 inch HD display, the laptop is a pound lighter than Apple MacBook Pro 15 inch laptop. The battery of the notebook pops out in the front which might appear a bit awkward to many but I do not find it to be much of an eyesore.PC Mag.com says:
The "Z" stands for Z-height, which means the Z600 will be the thinnest in the Latitude line. Imagine the height of a USB port: Dell basically designed the Z600 so that it's thin enough to graze the top of one. It measures just 0.55 inches thick, yet the length and width of the system aren't made for small carrying cases. Incredibly, it weighs just 4.5 pounds, about the weight of a 13-inch laptop, like the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch.
Technical specifications:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz SU9600 or 1.4GHz SU9400
Memory: 4 GB DDR3.
Display: 16 inch HD display with a 1600X900 resolution. Though it is not touch responsive, it has “touch functionality” built along the frame. When user slides his finger vertically along the frame, a tool bar pops up, offering various common functions like email, photos and camera.
HDD: Upgraded upto two 256 GB SSD.
Keyboard and trackpad: Isolated full size keyboard. The keys can illuminate which comes in handy during meeting presentations. Touchpad with left and right mouse buttons. Multitouch trackpad that supports pinch and zoom.
Camera: 2 megapixel camera that comes with face recognition. If you hold your business car in front of the camera it scans the card and saves the info on your Microsoft Outlook contacts. It can also scan hand written papers and save them as PDF documents. While you move away from your computer it automatically locks the notebook.
Security features: There is finger print reader and smart card reader which allows the reader to shut down the notebook by waving his office badge over it.
Latitude On mode: In the Latitude On Mode, the computer may not be in use but it will always have internet connection and users can instantly start up the computer. Wired.com says:
In the ‘Latitude On’ mode, users don’t have access to all of Windows applications such as word processing and PowerPoint. Instead they can access email and browse the internet with boot up times of less than a second. The trade off also brings with it extended battery life of up to 12 hours, says Dell.
Compare that to the idle mode of the laptop where boot up time can be a few seconds and emails are checked every few minutes. But then the battery life can extend up to two days. To switch back to Windows, users have to press a special power button on the laptop.
Battery: You can choose between 8-cell and 4-cell. The 8-cell battery runs for 9 hours.
Charging: For the first time, Dell used wireless charging technology in its notebook. The Dell Latitude Z600 utilizes Touchstone charger. You will have to pay $200 extra for the charger.PC World.com says:
The Latitude Z can be placed on a special stand that generates an electromagnetic field to recharge laptop batteries wirelessly. The technology, which Dell calls inductive charging, takes the same amount of time to recharge laptop batteries as an AC adapter, said Steve Belt [CQ], vice president of business client engineering at Dell.
"There's a coil in the bottom of the notebook and then there's a matching coil in the stand. You set them next to each other and it generates a current that flows and charges the battery," Belt said.
OS: Windows Vista.
Communication: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/g/n, mobile broadband connectivity through 3G or WiMax networks, and Bluetooth.
Price: The base price of Dell Latitude Z600 starts from $1999. It will be available in the U.S., Canada and certain countries in Europe and Asia.
I already wrote about Acer A1 android mobile phone which is now all set to hit the market next month. Now, interested buyers can make pre-order for the phone at online shop Expansys. This is the first android smartphone from Acer and Acer A1 offers some eye-catching features.
First and the foremost is perhaps its processor: 768MHz Qualcomm 8250- which is significantly speedier than other android based smartphones. Android 2.0 Donut has been used as operating system. You will also find a WVGA display in the phone. The price tag of €389 is pretty much attractive too. So, do not waste your time. If you are confident enough to own an Acer A1, then make your order right now.
Apple is known for its premium quality products with high price tags and consumers never complained about it. Unfortunately, the economic recession forced the company to rethink its strategy. Rumor is spreading over the net that Apple is going to release low cost MacBook laptops that are made of polycarbonate shells. Apple Insider reports:
As is the case with the upcoming iMac makeover, little is known about the revised industrial design of the new MacBook models, other than hints towards a thinner, sleeker enclosure that will embrace Apple's cutting-edge internal battery technology.
That said, one person familiar with pre-production units indicated to AppleInsider several weeks ago that models awaiting certification were seen in white polycarbonate shells, consistent with the sole $999 model currently available from the Cupertino-based company.
In early 2009, rumor spread out that Apple is planning to bring out netbooks but Apple officials including Steve Jobs, said that his company has no interest in rolling out cheap products. In June, at the World Wide Developers Conference, Apple not only dropped the price of its MacBook Pros but also released a 13.3 inch MacBook Pro. At the end of the day, Apple learned its lesson and is ready to roll out lower priced notebooks.
At the Intel Developer Forum MSI unveiled a new type of mainboard that will support two different graphics card. At present, you can use multiple graphics but they have to be from same manufacturer that are linked by SLI cable but MSI Big Bang does not have this problem. It can run two graphics card (ATI and NVIDIA) at the same time. This is very good news for gamers. SlipperyBrick.com reports:
The mainboard is called the MSI Big Bang. The board uses a Lucid Hydra 200 real-time distributed processing engine to serve as an intelligent graphics load balancer. That means that the Intel P55 based mainboard supports any video card.
The best part is that not only can you choose to use ATI or NVIDIA cards with the board, but you can use one ATI card and one NVIDIA card at the same time. You can also mix and match video card models as well and still get the added performance of multiple cards.
Not many details were unveiled at the IDF. The motherboard is based on Intel P55 platfrom that would run Core i5 or i7 processors. It has slots for three PCIe-based devices. The mother board will be launched worldwide on October 29, 2009.
Last week news reports came out that small system builders are going to get Windows 7 on October 13, 2009. Microsoft said that the news is a “mischaracterization.” Most of the news reports mentioned Puget Systems, a Seattle based system builder, who sells high-end customer PC for gamers and post production video-editing shops. It posted a note on its website which says that the company will start shipping new systems with Windows 7 on October 13, 2009, on first come first serve basis. PC MAG.com reports:
Microsoft spokesman said that Microsoft will allow its authorized replicators to start shipping Windows 7 to OEMs starting October 12. However, a "supply chain takes time," he said, and that date "represents our Release to Manufacturing (RTM) process for OEMs who purchase indirectly through distribution."
"So, while in theory a system builder could get Windows 7 product pre-GA [general availability], based on supply chain analysis, the intended timing for customers to receive Windows 7 PCs from System Builders should be close to GA, October 22,..
Jon Bach, president of Puget Systems, said that they will not get a fairly large portion of all the “pre-orders” and being a small company it does not have to through too many bureaucratic processes like those of large corporations. They can directly type the product key and ship it to its customers.
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project created a buzz in technology world when it announced that it would introduce a $100 laptop which will go for mass production and be distributed among the millions of under-privileged poor children in the third world countries. The project started its journey in January 2005 under the leadership of a MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte who set up a target of distributing 7 million $100 laptops among the poor school children through the governments of third world countries.
OLPC is a non-profit organization and it initially decided that it would sell XO laptops on a large scale only to the governments of the countries who are willing to provide free OLCP laptops to the school children. It is true that OLPC has not been able to reach the $100 price yet, and it has so far sold about 1 million laptops across 31 countries (according to Negroponte), way behind from its 7-million target. Well, does not mean that OLPC project has failed totally?
Success
To be honest, I think, OLPC’s idea of $100 laptop has become an epoch-making idea in the computer world. The very first idea of today’s increasingly popular netbook came from OLPC. Today, we know that netbook is the fastest growing computer segment globally, but when OLPC came up with the idea of a small laptop capable of doing the basic tasks, many were skeptical about the potential of such a laptop. However, now you can see that computer market has been flooded by netbooks from various companies. Giving the idea of netbook is perhaps the first and foremost success of OLPC.
Let us now come to the fact. I already mentioned that one million XO laptops are currently in use in the classrooms of 31 developing countries including Afghanistan, Haiti, Ethiopia, Libia etc. No matter what the initial target was; the fact is that about 1 million poor children from some of the poorest countries of the world are now using XO laptops. They are using internet and learning many other things. Most importantly, they are learning through playing without feeling the burden of traditional learning. I am not sure eve if the school children of all European countries are able to use laptop in the classroom. The idea of taking laptops to the children of the third world countries was beyond anybody’s imagination before the inception of OLPC. Now, those poor children who can not even eat three times a day are using laptops and internet. Don’t you think it is a big achievement for OLPC? If your answer is still no, then I have nothing no say.
Failure
The biggest failure is perhaps the price tag. It promised to deck out netbook with a $100 price tag, but at this moment, only the production cost of a XO laptop stands at $188 (not including the market and distribution fees as wells as taxes). This is definitely one of the failures if you only stick to what OLPC promised initially. Another failure could be that OLPC failed to reach 7 million children that it had targeted initially. In fact, they could reach only 1 million people.
To be honest, I do not think that OLPC is solely responsible for these two failures. First of all, world economy went through a recession over the last two years. Many rich countries faced unprecedented economic problems, many business organizations collapsed and many lost jobs. Naturally, the economic condition of the third world countries was not good either. Recession put its mark on many third world countries too as the amount of financial helps from rich countries were significantly decreased. This perhaps caused a problem for OLPC to reach its target of 7 million. Meanwhile, the price of many computer equipments increased due to lower sales. It was perhaps one of the reasons OLPC failed to reach its $100 price.
Can OLPC Grow More?
The answer is yes. First of all, the recession is pretty much over and I think, if OLPC can make good promotion of its laptop, it is very possible many other third world countries will be interested to provide their school children with XO laptop. The biggest thing is that there is no other viable competitor of OLPC in the market. Intel’s Classmate PC does not target the students of third world countries who are the only target users of XO laptop. So, OLPC can penetrate the market without having to think about what its competitor is offering. This is a big advantage of OLPC.
Moreover, reports out in the media suggests that OLPC is going to feature a more powerful motherboard and VIA C7-M processor in XO 1.5 which is ready to be launched. VIA C7-M processor is expected to be significantly more powerful than AMD Geode processor which is now powering XO laptops. The new version of XO laptop will also feature larger flash SSD storage and larger RAM. Overall, XO 1.5 laptop will reportedly be able to run on Windows 7 operating system. Negroponte said that the countries can choose between Windows and Sugar.
What is Sugar? Well, the current XO laptops provide a friendly interface named Sugar in order to accelerate child-learning. Sugar is totally free and offer automatic backup, built-in collaboration and many other features that are conducive for children. The most important thing is that the laptop can boot Sugar from flash drive which is not possible for any Windows operating system. Sugar Labs produce the child-friendly software.
If the media reports are to be believed, all these improved features will be available with XO 1.5 laptops without adding to its current price tag. The reason perhaps is that Quanta, the manufacturers of XO laptops, is going for large scale production for XO 1.5 laptops, and thus, reducing the unit cost.
I also read about a possible XO-2 dual-display laptop without any keyboard. At last 300 beta version of this XO laptop are now under testing. Though nothing details about the laptop has been released yet. However, I guess that it will feature touch screen and this way, it will not need to feature any keyboard. However, I am not sure about its specifications.
Media
Reports out in the media suggest that OLPC failed to make a good relationship with media. Specially, when it comes to effective interaction with media, OLPC comes short on making an effective interaction with media. In this age, OLPC people should make a very good workable relationship with media. Many times in the past, OLPC left media in the dark about any coming event of OLPC and this approach only backfired for the company. So, from now, OLPC should let the media know about their future products, possible release dates of the products and other things from time to time.
How Can OLPC Make a Significant Growth?
OLPC has taken up a great initiative of bringing the poor school children to technology. In order to reach their ‘7 million’ and ‘$100 laptop’ targets, I think, OLPC can seriously think about launching a netbook for the commercial market. If it can comes up with a commercial laptop for a price tag of around $200 and goes for mass production, then I think, it would be easier for OLPC to reach its original target of bringing out a $100 laptop. How? Well, OLPC can use all the profits of its commercial netbook segment in XO laptops. It can invest more money in research and development sector. If the commercial netbook works well, then OLPC can also think of producing a competitor of Intel Classmate PC for the European market. Overall, the commercial netbook segment would only help OLPC reach its original goal.
In August 2009, Lenovo announced IdeaCentre Q100 and Q110 nettops. Now, they are available for sell.The Q110 costs $400 and Q100 costs $300. The main differences are: the former comes with NVIDIA ION GPU and 250GB hard drive while the letter is without NVIDIA and 160GB hard drive.
Lenovo IdeaCentre Q100 dimensions:
Width: 6"
Depth: 0.8"
Height: 6.80"
Lenovo IdeaCentre Q100 technical specifications:
Processor: Intel Atom processor
OS: Windows XP Home original.
HDD: 160GB
Memory: 1GB DDR2
Port: VGA port
Lenovo IdeaCentre Q110 dimensions:
Width: 6"
Depth: 0.8"
Height: 6.80"
Lenovo IdeaCentre Q110 technical specifications:
Processor: Intel Atom 230 single core processor with 1.6GHz clockspeed.
HDD:250GB
Memory: 2GB DDR2
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA ION
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit.
Ports: 4 USB ports, HDMI port, Ethernet and headphone output port.
You know that Intel has recently released its much-waited processor codenamed Core i7 which is dubbed as world’s fastest ever laptop processor. Laptops boasting of Core i7 processor have already started coming to the market from various laptop makers. Asus has recently launched two gaming laptops powered by Intel Core i7 processor alongside very powerful graphics. The two Core i7 powered laptops are: Asus G60J and M60J.
Both the laptops have come from Asus G Series and feature 16-inch display with high resolution. Asus G60J will feature NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M GPU and high quality audio functionality, while Asus M60J comes with NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M graphics and large storage capacity.
Though I could not find details about the two gaming laptops, but it is pretty much understandable that both the laptops offer some strong features and come with high price tag.
Taiwan based notebook producer, Quanta Computer, is going to supply about 2 million all-in-one PCs which will be released by three laptop makers: Acer, MSI and Fujitsu. Very soon, Quanta will start shipping the all-in-one PCs for its clients and the PCs will be available in the market later this year.
All these all-in-one PCs feature optical touchscreen technology of Pixart Imaging. The PCs will come in two versions: 20-inch to 23-inch.
Touchscreen all-in-one PC shipments in the fourth quarter will reach around 300,000 units per month, it thinks.
The all-in-one systems are based around Pixart Imaging's optical touchscreen technology and will be arriving in 20-inch to 23-inch models. This size range apparently gives the best size to profit ratio.
Well, reports have it in the media suggest that HP has also ordered Quanta for all-in-one PCs and the manufacturer would start shipping the HP all-in-one PCs in October. So, it seems that the PC market will be flooded with all-in-one PCs in the next few months as the major players are going all the way to release huge amount of all-in-one PCs. So, I guess, pricing will be very competitive and users will find the PCs available for affordable price range.
Featuring AMD Athlon Neo X2 L310 1.20GHz processor, Acer Ferrari One netbook is going to hit the market on 22 October 2009, the same day much-awaited Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system will also be released. So, you can expect Acer Ferrari One to feature Windows 7 OS alongside its other impressive features.
The most eye-catching feature of Ferrari netbook is that it offers ATI XGP (eXternal GraphicsPort) Technology. Thanks to this technology, you can upgrade your graphics to a very powerful GPU in what would make the modern games accessible to you. The netbook comes pre-loaded with ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated GPU, but you can upgrade it anytime you wish.
It also decks out 11.6-inch LED-backlit display at 1366 x 768 pixels. For memory, it offers up to 4GB DDR2 RAM, while the netbook features 160GB of Hard Disk Drive. Its dimension is: 85mm x 204mm x 24~30mm, and weights 1.5kg.
Well, AMD Athlon Neo X2 L310 processor with 1.20GHz speed may not be very impressive, specially on the speed. However, the thing is that it is a dual-core processor that would allow users to do multiple tasks at the same time. In fact, AMD Athlon Neo processors are expected to perform pretty well.
However, biggest disadvantage of the netbook is its price tag. It comes with a S$1298 (Singapore dollar) price tag and in US dollar the price stands at around 916. There is no doubt, it is very big a price tag for a netbook. It is true that the netbook offers some high quality features that we often see in the typical ultrathin laptops, but still, I do not think the price is anyhow attractive. However, considering the eye-catching ATI XGP technology, you can try it out.
Acer Aspire One 751h is another excellent netbook from the Taiwan-based company. Offering a display with high resolution, long battery life, spacious and well-designed keyboard, satisfactory portability, and most importantly a small price tag makes Acer Aspire One 751h and eye-catching netbook. It may not be a good machine for the high-end users, but for those who are looking for a netbook which is capable of doing all the basic tasks like word processing, web browsing, checking e-mail and other stuffs and costs less than $400, this is a more-than-attractive package. Let us now see what are the features Acer Aspire One 751h is offering:
Display
It features 11.6-inch widescreen display with a resolution of 1366×768. No doubt, the resolution is pretty much impressive compared to other 12-inch machines and the netbooks coming under $400. So, users will feel comfortable working on the laptop for a long period.
Acer Aspire One 751h is powered by Intel Atom Z520 CPU at 1.2GHz processor. In no way, the processor could be said to be GREAT, but given the price tag and other features, I am sure you would not mind comprising with a little slow processor. To be honest, you may not be disappointed with the speed of the netbook as long as you are not going to run high-end software or work on many things at the same time.
Memory and Storage
The netbook decks out 1GB of RAM which is upgradeable up to 2GB. For better performance, you should consider the memory to 2GB. When it comes to storage capacity, 160GB that runs at 5400RPM seems pretty much satisfactory. From storage point of view, I think, you should not have any reason to be complain about the netbook.
Graphics
Graphics is perhaps one of the few cons of Acer Aspire One 751h. It comes preloaded with Intel GMA 500 GPU. You can understand that with this graphics you can not expect to run high-definition video and games. However, the netbook runs typical youtube videos and general games pretty well without making you feel you are using an underpower graphics. So, the bottom line is that this is not a great machine for those who can not live without watching high-definition videos, but as long as your expectation is to run general videos, Acer Aspire One 751h is quite good.
Keyboard
Keyboard is one of the best features of the Acer Aspire One 751h. It offers a standard QWERTY keyboard with sheer amount of space to make you feel comfortable even after typing for a long time. The most attractive thing about the keyboard is that the shift and backspace keys are pretty much big, and thus, making it similar to a desktop keyboard. Normally, I type a lot, and having used a Fujitsu netbook with very small shift key recently, I could understand how difficult it would be to type for a long time with a keyboard featuring very small shift key. Moreover, the keys are also very comfortable for typing.
Mouse Trackpad
The mouse trackpad is not great at all, even though it features enough space. It can also recognize multitouch gesture. However, it takes longer time for registering and it takes away the advantage of the multitouch feature. There is no problem when it comes to scrolling and sliding, but the only mouse button is problematic. Functionality of both right and left clicks is given in the same mouse button, but the problem is that the placement of the button is not comfortable and it takes longer time.
Battery Life
Another advantageous feature of the netbook as it features an attractive 8-hour of back up thanks to its 6-cell battery. One charge at night would allow users to work on Acer Aspire One 751h throughout the day without having to plug it in. Battery life would indicate that Acer has made the netbook keeping the on-the-go users in mind. There is no doubt, you would not find many netbooks at the price range that feature 8-hours of battery life.
Portability
Portability is another strong point of the netbook. Even though most of the features are pretty much standard for netbook, you do not have to comprise with its weight and form factor. First of all, it is a very slim and its weight is pretty much comfortable to carry. So, you can consider the netbook to carry while you are traveling.
Networking
It offers 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and 10/100 ethernet. So, you do not need to worry about the networking part of the netbook.
Ports and Webcam
Acer Aspire One 751h offers three USB 2.0 ports, VGA-out and a memory card reader as well as headphone and microphone jacks. A built-in webcam is also available with it.
Operating System and Security
The netbook runs on Windows XP, but I do not know if Acer offers a free-update to Windows 7 for this netbook. Eve if it does not, you should not have any problem using Windows XP, which is much better than Windows Vista.
For security, it comes pre-loaded with McAfee Internet Security. There is no doubt, this software would make the machine significantly slower and you would feel you are pushing a car that has run out of oil or gas. So, the best thing for you is to delete McAfee and install any other reliable antivirus software like Avast. You should also delete Acer Game Zone, another software that the netbook features.
Design
You might think that a netbook worth $400 may not look good. However, the fact is that it features a stylish design with glossy exterior coating that makes it comparable with many other high-end, costly laptops.
Price
This is perhaps the strongest point of Acer Aspire One 751h netbook. It is now available for around $399 (though some say it is avaialbel as low as $379). PC World claims it starts at $400. Well, we can assume that it goes on sale for a price tag of around $400. There is no doubt, you would not find many netbooks offering the aforementioned features in this price range.
Overall, Acer Aspire One 751h is not for the high-end users who would like to execute complex tasks using high-end software. However, this could be a perfect buy for those who are looking for a portable netbook capable of doing basic computing throughout the whole day when they are traveling and is available for a price tag around $400.
