Customer Reviews

Acer Aspire One AO751h-1885 11.6-Inch White Netbook - 8 Hour Battery Life

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this product (AO751h-1885) on 08-05-2009 and used it since then daily for email, web surfing etc. Here are my opinions on my unit:

Pros:
+ long battery life (i never drain the battery after 5+ hrs of use but don't know how long exactly the battery will last)
+ sharp & clear screen resolution even for my 45+ yrs old eyes
+ keyboard size (easier and better than my previous 10" netbook sub size kb)
+ light weight & thin body construction. easy to carry from room to room even when the screen is open.
+ does not generate a lot of heat when use it on the lap
+ i like the touchpaid, easy to use and sensitive. It does not get those un-intended touches while typing on the KB.
+ larger screen shows the web page in full size without needing to scroll side ways (much better than those 10" screen)
+ It's Windows XP installed not Vista so the 1GB RAM is sufficient!
+ pretty good wireless G download speed (my test shows 9.97 Mbps)

Cons:
- Won't wake up from standby mode, i have to remove the battery to power it off. I disabled the Standby to work around this.
- Get MS blue screen (Windows OS crashed) when connected to external monitor, send an email to Acer but no response for over a week now. Hello, Acer support! Microsoft web support says to either lower the resolution or disable the h/w accleration but I haven't try either one.
- HD is a little noisy when AC adaptor is used. else it wakes up once in a while that is not as annoying when not using AC adaptor.

Overall, I like this computer better than my previous 10" netbook except the standby mode issue. The external monitor is not any worse than those other N270 Atom CPU model since they won't work well (high CPU usage) when connected to a large external LCD either.

I have both this acer, the 11.6 inch with 8 hour battery life (reality: think 6ish if you have multiple windows open and in use), and also the little tiny 8.9" acer with extended battery life (reality for this one, think 41/2 hours battery life) as well.

I first bought the 8.9" acer for travel and portability and I had a bigger laptop at home that I used for writing reports and other, bigger, projects.

However, my bigger computer died, and while I love my tiny acer and use it 80% of the time, when it comes to using my word processing program, I am lucky to see perhaps one paragraph of text because 1/2 the screen is taken up by the WP program with it's various menus,selections, buttons and other options you use when creating your document.

I decided I needed a bigger computer again, in addition to my tiny acer and bought the 11.6 inch Acer. I love it almost as much as my tiny acer (and likely would have been completely happy with just it alone had I bought it first, as it is smaller than I anticipated, yet has a great screen size & good battery life).

In hind sight I should have considered the 11.6 inch acer when I first bought the 8.9" tiny acer, but 11.6" 'sounded' so big, and I was seeking maximum portability.

I'm very surprised by the mixed reviews I've seen for the 11.6" Acer - I have no complaints at all. However, I think folks don't realize as "netbooks" these are different systems than they were likely used to (with the standard laptops) and you need to be cognizant of that and have realistic expectations and adjust how you use the systems accordingly.

I've had no problems with waking from standby, blue screen system errors, or any of that as mentioned by others. I personally think issues such as that are dependent upon your settings, usage, programs on board and in use (both active and running in the background, etc.

One of the first things I did with both the 8.9" and 11.6" Acers was remove the McCaffe security program that came installed, and put on the kaspersky for netbooks security system. They have a program optimized specifically for netbooks and it makes a big difference in the performance of your system. Also, if you're a mouse loving person, go out and get a USB mouse for use at home, and pick up a USB DVD drive as well if you feel a burning need. However, now days you can download just about everything you need - I think the only time I've used my USB DVD/CD drive was to load a printer driver and a bunch of music CD's so I could synch the music to my zune.

The acer's are GREAT systems for the price, and for me, just as functional as my previous $1400 laptop (that conveniently died after 1 1/2 years...) With the price of the Acer's, so what if it ends up dying in 1 1/2 - 2 years? It's so inexpensive, and technology moves forward so fast, I'll likely be ready for the next generation of acers that are out when the time comes. However, should you decide to adopt my attitude, just make sure you do regular back ups to an external drive and/or to one of the online back-up systems out there. That way you still have all your stuff and don't have mental trauma from the loss of your data.

Someone had a comment about their inability to return their acer to Amazon. Obviously I don't know all the details, but you can return electronics within 30 days if it's malfunctioning (which to me, I'd have considered the skype problems a malfunction and returned it) - Perhaps they bought it from a 3rd party vendor through Amazon? Anyways, as a long-term Amazon shopper I've not had issues with returning items that didn't perform as needed and part of my reason from buying from Amazon has been their easy return policy.

Go buy the 11.6" Acer - it has a great size, still small enough to fit in a briefcase, messenger bag or big purse, yet a nice screen size that doesn't limit functionality.

GENERAL DAY-TO-DAY USE

I have been using this computer as my personal home computer for 3 months as of this review. I purchased a slightly different version from this one - mine has the 3-cell battery and 2GB of memory. I have since upgraded the battery to a 9 cell battery and get 8 hours of use per charge, which is very similar to this version of the Acer Aspire One 11.6". The product featured on this page only comes with 1 GB of memory. I highly recommend upgrading to 2 GB of memory. This is extremely important if you want to use multiple applications. It seems Acer wants to keep the price point at around $300-$350, so you either get 2 GB of RAM or the extended battery, but not both. You need both for the computer to be truly serviceable.

Overall, I find the computer to handle work applications very well. I usually have Firefox open with my Google Calendar and gMail, in addition to MS Word, Excel, and another application such as Adobe Lightroom, or PowerPoint. Like most people, I do a lot of multi-tasking. This computer does not have trouble managing all of this at the same time and it rarely bogs down. I love the small size from a portability perspective, and the 9 cell battery (this one comes with an 8 cell) provides a good grip to hold onto when carrying it around. I don't do any video editing, gaming, or high performance application use on this laptop.

SCREEN SIZE

If your considering whether to go with the 10" screen version or the 11.6" screen version, the difference between the two is fairly significant. My wife has the Aspire One 10" version, so I've been able to compare the two side by side. Instead of a 1024x768 screen resolution, you get 1366x768 with the 11.6" version, which basically gives you more room on the sides of the screen. This is great for allowing you to increase the zoom from ~80% to 125% of your document in MS Word, which makes the font appear much larger as you're working on your document. You won't have to scroll left and right to see the whole document at this expanded zoom level. My eyes aren't great, so this is very helpful for me. If you're worried about the screen on this computer being too small, the extra room on the sides actually makes a big difference. You can also see more of web site pages, which are noticeably limited in visibility on the 10" version but less so on the 11.6" netbook.

MOUSE TOUCH PAD

The mousepad is a little fussy and will often cause unwanted screen scrolling if you touch the pad the wrong way when trying to move the cursor. This is because mouse pad employs a circular motion with your finger to scroll, and it often misinterprets attempts to simply move the cursor as a command to scroll, which puts the user somewhere near the top or bottom of the page. I still haven't really gotten used to this. It would be nice if you could get rid of this effect and limit the use of the mousepad to moving of the cursor only. This would fix the problem, but you can't change the setting to limit the mousepad functionality in the Control Panel, at least I haven't been able to figure out how to do this. An external mouse could also fix the problem, but part of the beauty of a netbook is the portability, and I don't want to have to carry an external mouse around with me. Most of the time I use my netbook sitting in my lap where it would be impossible to use an external mouse anyway. If you use the mousepad, you will just have to get used to this scrolling feature and put up with the occasional unwanted scrolling.

VIDEO

As most others have noted in their reviews of this netbook, the 1.3 GHz Atom dual core processor and integrated graphics chip do not have sufficient power to view YouTube video. I have found this improves significantly with Windows 7 (see below). I have not tried to play DVDs on this laptop using an external CD/DVD drive, so no comment on how well this works.

OTHER OPERATING SYSTEM EXPERIENCE

BOTTOM LINE - Windows 7 is the best OS for this Laptop, but only by a nose over Vista

My laptop came pre-installed with Windows Vista (purchased July of 2009). I like playing with operating systems and thought it would be fun to try loading the following operating systems to see which one works best on this netbook:

a. LINUX Ubuntu / Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10
b. Windows XP Home Edition SP2
c. Windows Vista Homee Edition SP2
d. Windows Vista Dark Edition
e. Windows 7

In order to install other operating systems, you will need an external CD/DVD Drive that plugs in via USB and/or you will need a flash thumb drive with at least a 4-8 GB of space. The flash drive comes in handy if you want to install Linux, where the packages often come in flash-bootable formats. The BIOS on this netbook can be set to boot from the USB CD/DVD drive or from a USB flash drive by pressing F2 during boot to bring up the system BIOS menu and making the changes in the BIOS application directly - this is standard for nearly all computers.

WARNING #1: If you're not familiar with your system BIOS, please get a knowledgeable person to help you in making these changes. If you accidentally change the wrong thing, you may prevent your computer from booting altogether.

WARNING #2: The standard factory installed image comes with an application to create back-up bootable restore disks on CD or DVD. Make the DVD disks if you can; far fewer disks to create. Options include a full system recovery set of disks to restore the laptop to its original configuration plus a set of disks with the Windows Vista drivers and installed software. CREATE THESE DISKS BEFORE INSTALLING ANY OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS. If you don't, you won't be able to restore your computer to the factory install. There is no partition on the computer to restore the computer to factory installed settings and image - so you must create the disks!!!

LINUX (Ubuntu Standard / Ubuntu Netbook Remix v9.10) RATING: 2/10 BAD

I'm not a big fan of Microsoft products, so I've been carefully watching the Linux community to see when it will be ready for prime time for use on a home computer. Open Office from Sun provides a fantastic alternative to Microsoft Office series of products, and it runs on all platforms (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS). There are also many great distributions of Linux out there to choose from that are entirely free (the correct terminology is "open source")!!! I have had some success using and experimenting with the Ubuntu distribution of Linux on one of my home desktops, so I thought I would give it a try on this netbook to see how well it works.

I'm not an expert on Linux and this was my third foray into loading and using Ubuntu on a computer, but my first in loading Ubuntu on a laptop/netbook. I tried loading the standard Linux Ubuntu distribution, but it didn't turn out very well. I couldn't get a lot the hardware to work, such as the Wi-Fi and sound drivers. The Ubuntu Netbook Remix is optimized for an earlier version of the Acer AspireOne netbook, and it fixed most of these problems, but I was not able to get the hardware Wi-Fi on/off switch to work, but this is not a big deal. There is a software indicator on the desktop that you can use to turn the wi-fi function on/off.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix comes with a special configuration that displays commonly used elements of the operating system represented by icons on the desktop. The problem with this version (Ubuntu Netbook Remix v9.10) is that each time you click on one of the icons, the laptop lags for about 5-10 seconds before it moves focus to the next icon. This seems like an eternity and is totally unacceptable in terms of performance. Fortunately, you can switch to the standard Ubuntu desktop and it eliminates this problem. I used Firefox for internet browsing, which comes standard with Ubuntu and it was very sluggish and unresponsive. I was amazed at the poor performance. I think this is due to the fact that the Linux driver for the graphics chip is not as good as the Vista graphics driver that comes standard with the netbook. Overall lag and multi-tasking is impossibly slow and feeels really sluggish, not sharp. I had carefully researched the appropriate packages to install to try and fix this problem, but nothing improved the performance. Last, I could not get my printer to work in Ubuntu. Most printer manufacturers don't produce Linux drivers for their printers, so you have to be careful which printer you use. If you're like me, you already have a printer and you're not looking to buy a new one. I have a Canon printer, and there are no Linux printer drivers for Canon printers - period. Overall, Ubuntu was a failure for me with this laptop. It was too slow and I couldn't print - these are show stoppers for me. Please comment on my review if you are able to get it working better than I did because I'd love to eventually use Linux over Microsoft operating systems.

WINDOWS XP HOME EDITIION SP2 - RATING: 4/10 So-So to Poor

At first I thought XP would perform better than Vista, but again I was wrong. Vista is much better at memory management than XP is. After installing XP, I carefully installed all of the appropriate drivers. Be careful to install the correct mouse pad driver or it will be almost unusable. Again, performance was sluggish, though not nearly as bad as Linux Ubuntu Netbook Remix. For some reason, bringing up internet sites was very slow. Again, I used Firefox as I did with Linux Ubuntu for the sake of consistency. It doesn't come standard with XP, so I downloaded it. Trying to run multiple applications on this laptop using Windows XP is nearly impossible. Performance slows to a crawl and is basically unusable for a multi-tasker like me who likes to Alt-Tab across 4-6 applications while I'm working. Overall, XP was a failure for me with this laptop.

WINDOWS VISTA HOME EDITION SP2 - RATING 8/10 Very Good

As I mentioned above, this laptop comes preloaded with Windows Vista SP2 (as of my purchase date July 2009) and it is very apparent that the hardware drivers have been optimized for this operating system. Overall system responsiveness is quick and sharp. You can have 3-4 applications open with no noticeable performance hit. Once you have 5-6 open at the same time, you will notice some lag, but its manageable and depends on how much processor power you're using per application which is going to vary. All of the hardware works perfectly under Vista and you don't have to search for drivers. There is no way to create a basic Windows Vista basic install disk - the only way you can install Vista is from the full system recovery disk. This is bothersome if you want to install Vista but you want to create partitions for logical drives.

I have my own Vista install disk so I was able to create partitions and extra logical drives, but in the end I switched back to a single drive. This hard disk is only 250 GB in size and splitting it up into logical hard drives just didn't make any sense. Also, it is so easy to boot from USB drives that I am able to use Acronis image backup software to save my computer image at any given time from my external USB drive.

WINDOWS VISTA DARK EDITION - RATING: 8.1/10 Very Good

Vista Dark Edition is a special version of Vista that has some optimizations for managing files as well as some fun themes and backgrounds. Other than that, it's pretty much the same as Vista Home Edition. Overall, I found Vista Dark Edition to operate exactly the same as Vista Home Edition SP2 from a performance perspective. I just like the cool desktop backgrounds that come with Vista Dark Edition. The only reason for the extra 0.1 on the rating for this version is the cool desktop backgrounds, which many of you may not care about. If you don't care about the extra desktop backgrounds, then the adjusted rating for you would be 8/10, same as Vista Home Edition SP2.

WINDOWS 7 - RATING: 9/10 Excellent

I upgraded to Windows 7 from Vista Dark Edition. I installed Windows 7 directly from the Windows 7 DVD and it installed easily without any problems. It took about 3 hours to run, and I didn't have to intervene - I was able to just watch TV while it upgraded on its own. I've noticed that the laptop runs slightly faster, and that I can now view YouTube videos with minimal lag. This is probably attributable to the fact that Windows 7 is by far the best at managing memory use, which makes it actually better than Vista and XP on slow machines or laptops. I can still run 3-4 applications simultaneously; the navigation is very smooth going from app to app when using Alt-Tab. I am new to Windows 7 and understand there are better ways to navigate from window to window than using Alt-Tab, but old habits die hard. You also have the added benefit of being able to run YouTube videos without significant lag, which was just not possible when using Windows Vista. I highly recommend upgrading this laptop to Windows 7.

I bought this netbook at the same time I bought an EEPC 1005ha-p model.

It was because my girlfriend wanted something other than "black or blue".

When it worked, it was okay - noticeably slower than the EEEPC but for the price it was great. However, until the problems started.

It would just randomly crash with a blue screen. Sometimes it would just lose power and just shut off. EVERY time trying to use Skype it would just freeze up, and I couldn't even force a shutdown by holding the power button down, I had to physically remove the battery to shut it off and restart it.

I began to be concerned and typed the model number into Google and found a whole lot of similar complaints from other users on forums all over the net. I even found one on an Amazon review!!! (whish I'd seen it before purchasing). And the other poor guy who left the Amazon review didn't even receive a full refund when returning it.

Overall, it was dissapointing that it behaved in the way it did.

After two days of arguing with Acer, telling me its "not dead on arrival because it works". They tried telling me it was a software issue I'd created, even after using the rescue tool to restore the PC to out of the box condition.

After two days they finally agreed there was an issue and finally admitted that there had been similar issues from a whole lot of different customers with the same model and wanted me to send it to them to be fixed.

I'm from Australia and bought this from Amazon while vacationing in the US, I didn't have time to wait for these guys to "fix it", send it back to me, only to have it do the same thing - all while needing to make my flight home.

So I returned it to Amazon, with a lengthy letter inside the box explaining the whole ordeal and insisting it should be treated as a dead on arrival. I provided links to websites with other users saying they are having the same problems. I also gave a commitment should a full refund be processed, I'd purchase another EEE PC using Amazon. Which I did. And Amazon did provide a full refund.

In my opinion, pleeeasseee don't buy this machine unless you want to go through the same headache. It is not like this is a rare occurrance, especially from my investigations it looks like this thing actually working is the rare occurrance.

Save yourself the hassle and headache and get an EEE PC 1005ha-p - you will not regret it. Don't be put off by the smaller screen either, the different resolutions actually has the EEE PC easier to read than the Aspire One. Aspire One's resolution is too great that it is difficult to read. The EEE PC's screen is much clearer and the resolution is perfect for the screen size.

I just bought this netbook about 4 weeks ago and who says it cant run Vista or Windows 7?

I am sick of the Open Source Commie crew of capitalist hating Mircorsoft bashers and all their BS....

IN FACT.... Because the GMA 500 graphics in this netbook is capable of running DriectX 10 it actaully runs better with Vista than Xp and when you upgrade to Windows 7 it really shines having a noticable improvement when doing things like watching Flash vidos online! I know this because I used it for a wekk with XP, then installed a spare copy of Windows Vista Home Premium I had and after Windows 7 came out I bought a copy and tried it too. So I base this info on first hand real world testing. Will it replace a full size laptop? NO, yet no one ever said a netbook would....

For info on how to install Windows Vista or Windows 7 with a flash drive see this web page from Microsoft Tech Net with a how to video..

[...]

Now with that said, This netbook is my favorite portable that I have ever owned dating back to the mid 90's and my first notbook an NEC with Win 95. Is it the most powerful? Again No, so keep that in mind and if you do not have a desktop or full sized laptop I would not reccomend buying ANY netbook as your main computer. With that said, this thing is like an extension of myself and it's with me for most of the day. Fist thing in the moringin I use it to surf and listen to my local AM talk radio show. After that I throw it in my electricans bag, take off for the day and use if for anything from reading E Books and PDF files in the field, to watching youtube videos. Keep in mind it does get a little bogged down when watching video but that is comparing it to a 2.16 Mhz dual core Pentium Laptop or my Quad Core desktop.

Battery life is the reason I bought model and this is where it really shines!

This netbook really does provide all day computiing without a cord and from a fully charged battery it lasts from the time I get up in the morning till the time come home for dinner in the evening. In fact one day I did my own test, while doing some renovations to my bathroom. I used it to listen to Americas Anchorman on my favorite local talk radio station from a little after Noon till 3PM, followed by Hannity from 3-6PM, then my local guy from 6-7PM streaming over the internet with speakers at almost full volume. In total it lasted about 6 1/2 hrs under theese condtions with some battery to spare....

I got my Acer Aspire One Netbook in the mail yesterday, finally. I have to say, I am pretty satisfied. I'm really liking how big the keyboard is...I was worried that it would have been really cramped and very uncomfortable for typing. The battery life is amazing, it lasts up to 8 hours! I'm really glad that it has Windows XP as the OS instead of Vista. But the thing that really makes me happy about it is how light and compact it is. The ultra-portability makes it really easy for me to take it anywhere I want without it being an extreme hassle. All for $300...this is the ideal computer for someone who wants to participate in NaNoWriMo!

I love this little netbook! The 11.6 size is just perfect and it doesn't make my hands look too big or anything! Its quick and has a crisp little webcam.

Love it!

When I enlarge print to a readable size I lose page size and must scroll sideways frequently to read page content. Product was very niewly packaged and arrived sooner than expected.

I purchased the Acer 11.6" AO751h model for use while traveling. I have a total of five laptops and am a very experienced Computer user and programmer. This unit has been subject to lockups, freezing all operations randomly. It has been back to the factory, shipped at my expense, where they replaced the hard drive. That has not fixed the issue and the unit now freezes at startup and I am once again in the service que with Acer. Seven months later I still do not have a working laptop. If you search the internet you will find many such related freeze issues with this model. I strongly recommend against purchasing this product.

I really like this netbook. Its light and has the full resolution screen. I do find that I use a wireless mouse when I am doing Windows work. Its big enough to do real work on. The wifi works great and will latch on in most places. Make sure that you know about the slide switch on the lower left of the keyboard which turn on and off wifi. I find the screen nice, but would like a little more contrast at times. I have trouble seeing the vertical sliders of some windows apps. The battery really is 8 hours, and I don't take my charger with me on weekends--but I don't do videos.

I think its a home run. I will probably go for an iPad in a couple of months. I think its a step up, but of course at a significant uptick in price. I did opt for a Runcore SSD, which has made it a bit faster.

Gary