Acer Aspire One AOA110-1831 8.9-Inch Netbook - White

by Acer

Product Details

• Item Weight: 5.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001KAEEBK
• Item model number: LU.S020A.103
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 3, 2008

Product Description

Acer Aspire One AOA110-1831 8.9-Inch Netbook - White

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Little Machine, January 28, 2009

By 

Selden Deemer (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Acer Aspire One AOA110-1831 8.9-Inch Netbook - White (Personal Computers)

Sold as an "appliance," the built-in Linpus user interface and applications are fine for the casual netbook user, supporting basic web surfing, e-mail, Open Office, photos, and MP3 music files. At 1kg, the Aspire One is a delight to carry around; much less of a burden than a full size laptop.

However, for the person willing to learn new things, the Linux version of the Acer Aspire One is very rewarding. As delivered, Acer has locked things down very tightly, but a good support community exists on the web, and will provide tips for how to get under the hood and start tweaking things. Essential among the free offerings from the support community is a free backup program which makes a full backup to a USB flash drive.

With the solid state disk drive (SSD), the Aspire One should be pretty much bullet proof, and Acer has included a nifty feature that lets you expand disk capacity easily: The left SD card slot is treated as part of the built-in disk storage; just stick in an SD card and you instantly add to available disk space.

Battery life with the 3-cell battery is only so-so; consider springing for a 6, or even a 9-cell battery pack if you don't want to be tethered to a power outlet. The only real fault of the Aspire One is a small, twitchy trackpad with odd vertical buttons on either side. One gets used to it, but a USB mouse is another essential option. Every mouse I have tried worked without any configuration.

WiFi connectivity has been excellent. The built-in 0.3 mpx camera is so-so (frame rate seems very low). Tiny speakers are tinny, but output to earphones is actually quite good. The keyboard is about 85% of "standard" size, and doesn't require much adjustment. I was surprised that Linux automatically recognizes shared printers through my iMac -- this required no configuration.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great. The Solid State Drive is Fast, January 29, 2009

By 

Thomas J. Dolinski "ConfidentComputer.com" (Fort Lauderdale/Lake Mary FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Acer Aspire One AOA110-1831 8.9-Inch Netbook - White (Personal Computers)

Purchased on 12/29 been using it ever since. Have reviewed other similar models but this was best bang for the buck.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly Portable Laptop for the Impoverished Masses, February 21, 2009

By 

Cyberlaw Prof (OH United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Acer Aspire One AOA110-1831 8.9-Inch Netbook - White (Personal Computers)

I recently bought this Linux-based mini-laptop for $260 ($259.99, to be exact), and I put it through its paces today. It would be an amazing machine at twice the price.

It has a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 1 Gb of RAM, 8 Gb of indestructible (and non-crashable) flash memory, and a wireless card that is easy to set up. Establishing a secure connection to my five-year-old (and probably obsolete!) Linksys wireless router took about ten minutes.

You can buy plug-in cards that expand the flash storage transparently. The operating system makes the cards look like an extension of the internal storage (i.e., the flash memory, which takes the place of a hard drive). If you like privacy, you can store data securely on these cards and keep them separate from the computer. You can also use thumb drives in up to three USB 2.0 ports.

The operating system is a simplified version of Linux. The graphical user interface isn't as pretty as Apple's or Microsoft's latest, but it's simple and intuitive and works well.

The O/S settings are clear, intuitive and easy to use. The maker has given some thought to what people actually do in setting up and using computers and how to make that job simpler. Putting the machine to sleep and waking it up, for example, require just combining the Fn key with the F4 key, which is also marked "Zz" for sleep. The wireless card has a convenient on-off toggle switch at the front of the keyboard, and clickable icons for battery, wireless, language, machine status and date and time stay at the bottom of the screen.

The machine comes packed with a Firefox browser, an e-mail client, lots of media and fun software, and a complete open-office productivity suite. It took a few minutes to transfer my bookmarks from Safari, but then I was off and running.

The office software easily opened M/S Word (.doc) and PowerPoint (.ppt) files. Its save function promised conversion back to several different .doc formats, but not .docx (M/S's latest attempt to make the world dance to its tune, aka "Vista"). I haven't tested the spreadsheet program but assume it can read and write Excel files similarly, although maybe not M/S's latest incompatible offering.

The word processor had intuitive, simple and expected commands for basic select, cut and paste functions, as well as italics (Ctrl-i) and boldface (Ctrl-b). All the software seemed straightforward, intuitive, and easy to learn.

I've discovered only two downsides so far. Although well-lit and with good resolution, the screen is small and requires scrolling. And the touchpad is a bit touchy, with mouse clickers located inconveniently at the two sides, rather than the bottom (the usual place). I'll probably take one of our marvelous Logitech Marble (stationary) mice along with the notebook when I travel.

In addition to three USB 2.0 ports, the machine has an Ethernet port, a VGA port for an external screen, a port for memory cards (including camera types), and the usual connections for external mikes and earphones. (It also has a Webcam, but I didn't try it, and its resolution is reportedly low.) It has no optical drive, but you can get whatever you want in and out through the wireless connection, the Ethernet port or the three USB Ports---with a thumb drive, for example.

At less than two pounds with battery (which lasts two hours) the machine is perfect for travel. It's small and light enough to carry comfortably, without any fear of dropping it, in one hand. It should fit easily in a medium-to-large size ladies' handbag but probably not an evening purse.

The notebook has a full keyboard that is touch type-able but a little smaller than standard. I'm not sure I'd want to write a book on it, but the keyboard has good finger feel and works well for short documents and e-mail.

I plan to use the machine for reading news and doing e-mail at the breakfast table and on my favorite couch, and for bringing along the Internet, e-mail and my current work whenever I travel. It would probably be a good first computer for students and a first laptop for those who don't have one and are pressed for cash.

Called the Acer Aspire One, the machine is a powerful answer to our current economic catastrophe: a highly portable laptop for the impoverished masses. It's the first mini-laptop that appears to combine all the benefits of current technology (including open software) with the user uppermost in mind. If, like me, you are slowly gravitating toward "cloud" computing, which secures all your work and media with professional backup and easy Web access from anywhere, it may be the travel computer for you.