It's been less than 24 hrs since I unboxed the new toy but I thought I would post some first impressions.
The build quality is very good in my opinion. One of the reasons I held off from buying the EEE PC was it's toy like flimsy feel. The Aspire One feels more like a real laptop yet retains the ultra portable size and weight. I also have no complaints about the keyboard. It is obviously not as easy to type on as a full size, but in the short time I have had with it, I am getting quite used to typing on it. The display is bright with good contrast. The only thing I am noticing is slight color inaccuracy when I view my photos on it. There is a very slight blue/green tint to it which is only noticeable when I view photos. I didn't buy it for image editing so it does not really bother me.
After powering it up, the first thing I noticed was how quickly it boots up. Within 5 seconds I was in a configuration screen setting my locale and time zone, etc. After this was set, one reboot (aprox. 15 seconds) and I was up and running on the Linpus desktop. They have really made the interface bulletproof in the sense that I don't think you could bugger this machine up if you tried. Settings are limited to very basic things (trackpad sensitivity, volume, date/time, etc.). There is no facility for adding/removing programs so you get what you get. Firefox 2.0.0.14, Openoffice 2.3, a media player, some games, a mail client (very basic), a messenger program (supports MSN, Googletalk, Yahoo, and AIM). I would have liked to see Skype preinstalled, as well as a better mail client like Mozilla Thunderbird. Considering most people will by this machine for basic tasks like document viewing, web surfing, and email, I think the software is adequate. I wish the OS could be customized a bit more. It would have been nice to have an advanced mode for users who like to tinker a bit. I am hoping to install Ubuntu on it soon.
In terms of performance, it seems more than adequate. Firefox takes about 4-5 seconds to launch. Once running, websites seem to load quickly. It took about 12 seconds to open a large powerpoint presentation in openoffice. I was expecting the machine to be dead silent however there does seem to be a fan that runs almost full time. It is very quiet however and you almost need to put your ear up to the machine to hear it. The battery life is my biggest gripe. Acer claimed 3 hours for this machine however my battery lasted about 1:45 minutes during web surfing through wifi. With wifi off, working in openoffice yielded about 1:55 minutes. This really could have been better.
All in all, I am happy with the machine. I will likely get the 6 cell battery when it is available. I will also try and get Ubuntu up and running on it so I have more flexibility. I think this is going to be a good seller for acer.
The build quality is very good in my opinion. One of the reasons I held off from buying the EEE PC was it's toy like flimsy feel. The Aspire One feels more like a real laptop yet retains the ultra portable size and weight. I also have no complaints about the keyboard. It is obviously not as easy to type on as a full size, but in the short time I have had with it, I am getting quite used to typing on it. The display is bright with good contrast. The only thing I am noticing is slight color inaccuracy when I view my photos on it. There is a very slight blue/green tint to it which is only noticeable when I view photos. I didn't buy it for image editing so it does not really bother me.
After powering it up, the first thing I noticed was how quickly it boots up. Within 5 seconds I was in a configuration screen setting my locale and time zone, etc. After this was set, one reboot (aprox. 15 seconds) and I was up and running on the Linpus desktop. They have really made the interface bulletproof in the sense that I don't think you could bugger this machine up if you tried. Settings are limited to very basic things (trackpad sensitivity, volume, date/time, etc.). There is no facility for adding/removing programs so you get what you get. Firefox 2.0.0.14, Openoffice 2.3, a media player, some games, a mail client (very basic), a messenger program (supports MSN, Googletalk, Yahoo, and AIM). I would have liked to see Skype preinstalled, as well as a better mail client like Mozilla Thunderbird. Considering most people will by this machine for basic tasks like document viewing, web surfing, and email, I think the software is adequate. I wish the OS could be customized a bit more. It would have been nice to have an advanced mode for users who like to tinker a bit. I am hoping to install Ubuntu on it soon.
In terms of performance, it seems more than adequate. Firefox takes about 4-5 seconds to launch. Once running, websites seem to load quickly. It took about 12 seconds to open a large powerpoint presentation in openoffice. I was expecting the machine to be dead silent however there does seem to be a fan that runs almost full time. It is very quiet however and you almost need to put your ear up to the machine to hear it. The battery life is my biggest gripe. Acer claimed 3 hours for this machine however my battery lasted about 1:45 minutes during web surfing through wifi. With wifi off, working in openoffice yielded about 1:55 minutes. This really could have been better.
All in all, I am happy with the machine. I will likely get the 6 cell battery when it is available. I will also try and get Ubuntu up and running on it so I have more flexibility. I think this is going to be a good seller for acer.
