October 2010 update:
The review is now woefully out of date.
Please look instead at the just-released Aspire Atom Dual Core Acer Aspire One AOD255-1549 10.1-Inch Netbook - Diamond Black which has a dual core instead of single core Atom processor. Same great battery life, but much better performance. It's slightly more expensive (at least during the introduction, expect prices to drop in 3 months) but should handle Hulu much better (less stuttering/higher resolution/bigger window size). Or if you don't mind a smaller Hulu window/lower resolution, the N450 single core version is an updated bargain - Acer Aspire One AOD255-2509 10.1-Inch Netbook - Diamond Black. For only $10 more, the "269" model has a much more useful 250 gb hard drive - Acer Aspire One AOD255-2691 10.1-Inch Netbook - Diamond Black. I recommend spending that extra $10 for the bigger hard drive. I store my music and video collection on my netbook, use it for travel, and quickly fill up the hard drive - 160 gb isn't enough for me anymore.
Also if video is your top priority, more than battery life, the recent Acers with the AMD Athlon II Neo chip and Radeon graphics are reportedly much, much better in terms of performande, but batter life drops to 3-4 hours (Acer may be winding this model down already precisely for this reason) - Acer Aspire AO521-3782 10.1-Inch Netbook (Antique Brass). I recommend searching for "netbook AMD Neo" to see what's available with this new generation AMD chip before you buy.
Please read any review of computers (especially in the rapidly evolving netbook market) more than 3 months old with a grain of salt. Also you owe it to yourself to investigate the Apple iPad, many potential netbook purchasers are buying them instead. A comparison of the two is beyond the scope of this product review, but you need to be aware of this alternative.
_________________________original review below, if you buy one used at a great price:
I deleted my first review which knocked this new netbook from Acer with a 3 Star review, for failing to accept a 2gb memory upgrade - I was told by Acer's overseas on-line warranty service this netbook couldn't even accept more than one 1gb.
When I posted my experience as the earlier, deleted review here, the Acer product manager from San Jose jumped into the discussion to affirm that this netbook IS designed to take customer installed 2gb upgrades, and that the warranty support line adviser was simply wrong. Since my particular unit wouldn't take memory modules that had already been proven to work in my other netbooks (including another N450-based netbook) it was concluded that my particular unit was defective. The Acer product manager reported that all of his production samples in San Jose accepted standard 2gb upgrades. One other reader later reported that his unit wouldn't take an upgrade either, also using known good memory pulled from another netbook. So basically it appears that there is a glitch in some, but not all, units that Acer is shipping. Based on my past experience with Acer (I've owned 5 or 6) and faith in Amazon's return policy, I would have no problem ordering this ao532h, with the caveat that if you intend to upgrade the memory, try doing it right away while your unit is still within the Amazon returns period. Please note that my sample ran fine with the included 1gb module from Acer, and that upgrading the BIOS per the warranty line instructions did not allow my sample to accept either of the two 2 gb replacement modules I had on hand.
So this review is to confirm that this netbook IS designed to accept a 2gb memory module upgrade, and to caution you to check your unit for compatibility. The 2gb memory module spec'd at Crucial dot com specifically for the ao532h is as follows:
Part #: CT1165194 * DDR2 PC2-5300 * CL=5 * Unbuffered * NON-ECC * DDR2-667 * 1.8V * 256Meg x 64 *
The crucial dot com price is about $6 higher than a similar spec'd module from Crucial which is shown by Amazon on this product page as a recommended accessory. Any generic DDR2, PC5300, SoDimm with 667 speed should work, but if you want to be cautious, make sure you get the exact same part number shown above (CT1165194) until Acer provides additional advice on this issue.
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So on to some more useful "user" comments about this netbook, based on my week and a half experience with it (using only the 1gb of memory it came with).
FIRST, this netbook is THIN and of course light. It may well be the thinnest one out there (although the Acer ao751h, now discontinued but still owned by me, was also quite thin). It certainly would earn that kudo if it came with a 3 cell battery like the ao751h, but then it wouldn't be getting 8 hours of battery life. Personally, I'd rather have the battery life even if the rear of the chassis is raised by maybe .25 inch.
Please note that similarly priced models from other manufacturers only come with 3 cell batteries.
Also note that some 6 cell batteries have longer battery life - at a slight increase in weight.
Since Acer netbook models only use two form factors for batteries (ao751h style or ao250 style) you should be able to pick up a 3 cell, 6 cell normal, or 6 cell high power accessory battery from Amazon later, should you desire a second battery.
SECOND, the power brick and cord for this netbook are SMALL and LIGHT. While the power brick itself is comparable in size to other makers, Acer has done something neat with the power cord runs - instead of having a super thick, 3 prong "toaster oven" size electrical cord to the actual power brick, followed by a thin, light second run to the netbook, they attached the plug directly to the power brick and just give you a longer run of the thinner, lighter cord coming off the brick to the netbook. YAY.
This means the whole brick assembly packs down smaller and lighter. Also, since the plug can now be safely set up as a two prong (instead of 3 prong) with no polarization, it will easily fit into plug outlets in Asia without an adaptor.
THIRD, the touchpad was the easiest yet for me to use. It wasn't hypersensitive (clicking accidentally when I meant to just move the cursor), and has raised dots to indicate the vertical scroll bar area on the touchpad, which worked really well. Some other touchpads let me scroll, but either require two fingers to scroll, or have an ambiguously defined right side area where I am supposed to scroll. The raised dots on the Acer let me find the scroll line and use it effectively.
Since I was forced to use only 1 gb on my defective unit, I got to see how well it performs, and was surprised by how well it works with even 10 browser tabs open at the same time. I still think 2gb is better, at least if you are going to try to run VLC with h.264 transcoded videos - on other netbooks I get stuttering with only 1gb. I didn't have a chance to try VLC on this model.
The only negative on this model is slight keyboard flex, which comes, I suspect, as a result of the thinness. It doesn't flex so much it feels like it is going to break, just feels a little rubbery. I have an HP Mini 210 that is more resistant, but not completely resistant, to flex, but it is also a lot fatter, so you will have to decide which you prefer. Oh I should also mention that the ao532h comes with the usual stunning, but glossy, Acer screen - if your preference is for a mat screen you will need to turn to some HP and Asus models. But iff you prefer glossy, you should love this screen.
JUDGMENT: If you carry the power brick around a lot, the redesign of the power cord alone is a big advantage of this model. If your budget is $300 and you can't live with the shorter battery life of 3 cell competitors, this is your best option. For about $40 more from other makers, you can get a more robust 6 cell battery and possibly a larger 250 gb hard drive. But this ao532h is definitely the one to beat if you are budget shopping.
A WORD ON PRICING AND ARCANE MICROSOFT & INTEL OEM REQUIREMENTS: Microsoft is loathe to charge small license fees on netbooks - the license fees are currently apparently much lower than on other laptops, a reflection of the small margins in netbooks - and Intel is loathe to sell millions of cheap Atom processors instead of more costly, and profitable chips. So the two have "conspired," to to speak, to limit the specs on netbooks if the manufacturers expect to get the lower licensing fees, and so far as I can tell that is why the new generation of netbooks are all appearing with only 1gb of factory installed memory and generally only 160 gb hard drives even though Acer's own eMachines 250, blown out at Walmart for only $228, came with a 250gb hard drive. 250 gb harddrives (but not 2gb factory memory upgrades) are available, but at a disparate increase in price considering the low OEM margin between 160 gb and 250 gb drives at this point - probably because (I suspect) in order to include a 250 gb harddrive, the license fee for Win7 also goes up.
The "benign" side of this "conspiracy" is that MS has apparently slashed Win7 Starter prices to the point where it is as cheap as, or cheaper than WinXP - which is why a lot of WinXP netbooks were announced for the N450 chip released in December 2009, but none seem to have actually made it to market.
A WORD ON WIN7 VS. WINXP: I like Win7, even Starter Edition, a lot more than WinXP - not for performance, but for its better interface. Reviewers claim that WinXP is still more efficient in terms of both performance and battery life, but I think the future life of WinXP is limited and that as MS releases updates and Service Packs for Win7, the battery life and slight performance penalty issues should be addressed - although I suspect the slight performance hit is related more to the extra goodies in Win7 than to any intrinsic superiority of code in WinXP (you can also revert to Windows Classic Theme in Win7 and turn off some services to save processing resources if you want to). Note that on benchmarks, Win7/Atom N450 setups have a slight performance edge on WinXP/N270 setups, so actually we seem to be making ever-so-slight performance gains in the rapidly growing netbook market. All in all, as much as I lust after every incremental increase in performance from these truly mouse-powered Atom netbooks, I would rather stick with Win7 than devolve to WinXP. And for those of you, like me, who are thinking about replacing their conventional hard drive in their netbook with a solid state (SSD) drive - Win7 has special features (TRIM) to optimize SSD performance - WinXP does not.
A WORD ON WIN7 STARTER: Win7 Starter works fine, although those MS won't let me change my screen color unless I revert to Windows Classic Theme (I like to run a black background to save a little power). There is not absurd limit on the number or programs you can run at one time under Win7, an early proposal gratefully abandoned. The only obvious "crippling" of Win7 Starter - other than that permanently green desktop color - is that it doesn't have the translucent Aero windows and other Aero desktop bells and whistles, features I would be disabling on a netbook anyway, for performance reasons.
A WORD ON LINUX VS. WIN7 STARTER: I tried installing dual boot Linux systems on my other netbooks, principally Ubuntu Netbook Remix which is supposed to be optimized for the Atom chip, but also Moblin and JolliCloud. Two observations: Linux is cool, but no faster than Win7 despite hints to the contrary (it is NOT a "lighter, faster" operating system); and hell hath no fury greater than a Linux dual boot install when you try to uninstall it. Guess what - there IS no uninstall option, and I trashed two hard disks trying clean out GRUB or whatever that parasitical dual boot manager is called. I finally had to order rescue disks on one netbook and use a really obscure, hellishly difficult to operate rescue tool just to access the netbook's rescue partition on the other. 5 hours down the drain in each case. And oh yeah, there is no iTunes for Linux, which pretty much kills the utility of Linux for 78% (just guessing) of the computing population. That having been said, Linux IS free, and is a lot better than it was in 2000, and I may even initially try it on the SSD I will install on one of my older netbooks, since that won't start life as a dual boot system. Then when I get frustrated again I will just install Windows over it. :-) I have gotten good at that! Acer AO532h-2588 10.1-Inch Onyx Blue Netbook - Up to 8 Hours of Battery Life - Long Battery Life - Netbook - Windows 7 - Acer Aspire One'
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