Customer Reviews

Acer Aspire AO521-3782 10.1-Inch Netbook (Antique Brass)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My wife bought one of these little Acer 521s and during the process of setting it up for her and installing the software she wanted I kind of fell in love with it. So I bought one for myself. The more I use it the more I like it. The display is positively brilliant and the touch pad is pure genius, giving you a lot of the advantages of a touch screen without the forever messy looks of a touch screen.

The processor seems speedy enough, I see no difference in performance between the Acer and our other laptops. The hard drive is enormous, for a net book, and considering my own needs have never filled much more than 60 Gig so it's kind of over kill but nice to have.

It is easily totable and it has very good battery life.

Do invest in a dvd/cd burner for whatever netbook you buy. After experimenting with a linux operating system the the boot sector of my hard drive was over-written rendering the computer useless. The restore disks got my Acer up and running again. Just a word to the wise.

I like this Acer and highly recommended it.

It is a good netbook, great value for money for the hardware. However, there are a few issues that Acer might want to look into.

The battery is said to last for 5.5 hours, but I got about 4. Not bad for a processor of it's calibre.

Windows 7 Starter came with it was fastooned with bloatware- all of them trial software that I didn't want. It took me straight two hours to get rid of all of them. I don't understand, also, why it is the 32 bit version whereas the chip is 64 bit. Overall, it's got bad software.

But I didn't want Windows in the first place. I bought this to run Ubuntu on it.

All my previous attempts to install Ubuntu on Aspire One series netbooks went flawlessly, and everything worked like a charm.

In this one, though, I faced a lot of difficulties. At first when I boot from a live USB stick, the keyboard stops responding. I found a bios update from Acer's support site, and that solved that issue (I don't get why they don't fix it before shipping it.) There still are ton of issues with the suspend mode, battery status, audio jack. Everything else works. Internal sound, wifi and all that.

Acer should fix the compatibility issues and have preinstalled Ubuntu as an OS option. I don't like be forced to pay for an Windows license.

The AMD Neo II processor in this machine is more powerful and efficient than the typical Atom processor that comes in most netbooks so in theory it should be a great performer. In practice, it takes a memory upgrade and a thorough cleaning of the crapware Acer loads on it to really unleash it.

Out of the box, Windows 7 Starter with only 1GB of RAM is fairly sluggish when multi-tasking or even when it is only running a browser with multiple tabs like Chrome. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB and uninstalled a lot unnecessary software which ships with the netbook. (Acer seems to be a bit worse with the crapware than Asus, the other big netbook maker.) I then used Ninite (http://ninite.com/) to quickly install my favorite apps. Finally I used the Anytime Upgrade to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. With this done, this netbook really flies and performs very well.

Speaking of Windows, Windows 7 Starter is crippleware, pure and simple. In addition to not being able to change the default wallpaper, this netbook could not join the Windows 7 Homegroup which I had set up between the computers in my house. While Microsoft's Anytime Upgrade worked flawlessly and really boosted this netbook's performance. But ultimately, I wonder why I even had upgrade when Win7 Starter is so mediocre that its mere existence feels pointless in comparison to the much better Home and Professional versions of Windows 7.

While I bought this machine for about [...] on Black Friday, I found myself spending an additional [...] on a 2GB RAM upgrade and on the Windows Anytime Upgrade. That brings its price beyond Dual Core Atom territory and into iPad territory. Now this comparison is perhaps unfair as this netbook's Neo II processor competes favorably with even a dual core Atom and its ATI graphics blow away the Intel GMA graphics that are typically found on Atom-based netbooks. And in comparison to the iPad, this netbook is a real computer with an excellent keyboard, USB, VGA, and even an HDMI port. But my point is that there has been a strong trend of tech pundits insisting that Netbooks are dead as a category and when I look at the work I had to get this otherwise nice machine to perform as well as it should have performed out of the box, I am beginning to see their point. Microsoft and its hardware parters need to wake up and stop trying to shovel crapware and crippleware down our throats.

This netbook works fine. It's pretty easy to upgrade, which is what I did, and after doing so, it could run Left 4 Dead 2 with medium settings, so I consider that pretty awesome for a netbook given current technology and the way low price of this netbook. Battery life is more than good enough for me at around 4 hrs on load, 6 if I work on not discharging it. Just don't strip the screws at the bottom if you do want to modify it. They are pretty weak, and if you do so, apparently that voids your warranty. Acer's customer service is not very merciful, apparently.

A lightweight way to be connected to the internet with a very bright screen. Easy to read the paper or do research without having too much weight. Functions well with "Skype".

Pros
- well built
- fast processor for a netbooks

Cons
- shorter battery life

This is has been a great netbook. I am surprised that AMD and acer have not done more of these. I have experienced several other netbooks with intel chips and they seem to not perform close to as well.

I did upgrade the ram to 2gb and the OS to Windows 7 Ultimate. I can play 1080p video with no hiccups. I have also played left 4 dead with default settings and it runs great! I did have to turn off the 3d acceleration on Plants vs Zombies. The hoards of zombies can be overwhelming.

This laptop is awesome. I can watch movies, play some pretty good games (Oblivion runs acceptably! I've been waiting years to play it on a netbook..) and get about 4 1/2 to 5 hours battery life depending on what I'm doing. It's got a good weight, not too heavy, comfortable to type on. It could definitely benefit from a SSD and more RAM but the price is right. Bought one in June 2010. Finally writing a review because of this: My motherboard up and died, kaput, a few weeks ago. I got it back from "repairs" earlier this week, and the case was scratched and scuffed, the speakers didn't work, one of the keyboard retaining tabs was broken, and the case was separated at the seam in at least two places and wouldn't fit back togethr properly. That's just the stuff I've noticed so far. I had to raise hell to get them to agree to pay for shipping back to the "repair" center, and the scuffs THEY caused aren't "covered under warranty" as they're purely cosmetic. This is like taking a car in for repairs to the engine and getting it back with a dinged door, then the mechanic says "sorry, it's cosmetic, can't fix it." So I'm happy with the operation of the laptop in every way but I hope I never have to send it in for repairs again. This is my third or fourth Acer computer in a row I've bought but maybe in the future I'll go to Asus or somebody else. I hope your experience is better!!

Great little netbook. Very good keyboard, battery lasts 4-5 hours with nomal use, could do with an extra gig of ram.

I spent months looking at various netbooks while I was searching for one to buy and I chose the Acer Aspire One 521 based upon customer reviews and the recommendations of a good friend who's getting his master's in networking. I also felt that the Aspire One 521 gave me the biggest bang for my buck, and as a college student on a budget, that was a big selling point.

When I got my netbook I did run into a few issues when I downloaded a different firewall and antivirus than what comes pre-installed, which caused the internet to freeze up and the computer not to work properly, but as soon as I removed the pre-installed software, things returned to normal and began working perfectly. I haven't had any problems with my Acer since then.

It took a little time to get acquainted with the smaller keyboard, but now that I've been using it for a while, I don't even have to think about where the keys are--I just go for it. Since I'm also a fiction writer and maintain an active blog, I write a lot, and 90% of my writing these days is done on my Acer--it's the perfect size for portable writing, and with some free software downloadable online (Q10, WriteMonkey), it's the perfect companion for a serious writer like me.

The internet connection is fantastic and the webcam is great, a little white-washed at times, but I'm sure I could fix this if I ever tried to find the settings. In either case, both my wifi connection and my Skype connections are better on my Acer than on my notebook, and YouTube videos have never looked greater or loaded any faster than this! The battery life is also incredibly excellent; I can usually get about four to five hours of use if not more between charges, using primarily text editors but also the internet and some computer programming software. Nonetheless, the battery life is unparalleled.

One lovely bonus that came rather unexpectedly was the inclusion of Acer Games, which has more full games than I could count (I think it says there's over a hundred), from Insaniquarium to Fate: The Traitor Soul, to many others that are as equally distracting as they are fun. For someone who enjoys video games this is an awesome extra, but for a student, it's probably not as favorable, considering all the homework time I've lost to it--but that's no fault of the netbook's, mind you!

Overall, I would recommend this computer to anyone interested in buying a netbook. It's sturdy, easy-to-use, and does everything I need a netbook to do.