Acer Aspire One

by Arthur
(Turin, Italy)

I chose this PC to have a lighter version to carry around and for the kids to use at home. It looked very nice, and was somewhat cheaper than the EE PC that initially got me interested in this type of small PC.

Like: It has an attractive design, is very light, easy to carry, and the screen has a good resolution. Software installed with no problem, and in terms of speed it is more than good enough for most of my applications.

Dislike: the keyboard turned out to be uncomfortable - fine for the kids, but for somewhat larger fingers it becomes a bit burdensome. Another thing that I had difficulty with (as yet unresolved) is with sites that have formatted their pages for a larger screen. This means that some buttons end up below the bottom of the screen, and I can't get to them. this happens, for example, with popups in Google Earth and Webkinz, to name a couple.

Furthermore, for some unexplainable reason, the touchpad stopped working about 3 months after its purchase - so now I MUST have a mouse which takes up space in the bag and makes impossible to use without a table (no longer a Laptop, I guess!)

Would I recommend it to friends? Probably not - the keyboard, the touchpad issue, and the fact that some websites are impossible to use properly override its strengths.

Would I buy again from Acer? Maybe - if the price is right; I am considering one for to replace my wife's PC (this time a larger "real PC". This first purchase has made me think that Acer is not yet a premium brand, and that there it still sells its products with a couple of quality and qualitative issues.

Again, the price would have to make it worth the risk.