301 of 318 people found the following review helpful:
A great alternative to a "Netbook"
I keep checking out the Netbooks that come into the hardware lab where I work, looking for something to replace a cheap one I bought for my kids to play with, but they all just seem too small. As a result I've been poking around the high-end of the Netbook spectrum / low end of the Ultra-portable spectrum for something more usable. The Acer Aspire 1410 series does a...
55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
Great features for the price but...
I purchased this laptop after a fair amount of research. I know that I wanted a smaller, portable laptop that we would use for general activities like web surfing, e-mail and the basics. This laptop is packed with an impressive set of specs. The screen was bright and sharp, it loaded up quickly and was quiet a cool running. However, I ended up returning it for a refund...
This review is from: Acer Aspire AS1410-8414 11.6-Inch Sapphire Blue Laptop - 6 Hour Battery Life (Personal Computers)
I keep checking out the Netbooks that come into the hardware lab where I work, looking for something to replace a cheap one I bought for my kids to play with, but they all just seem too small. As a result I've been poking around the high-end of the Netbook spectrum / low end of the Ultra-portable spectrum for something more usable. The Acer Aspire 1410 series does a great job of bridging the gap between small low cost "Netbooks" and more expensive "Ultra-portables" (which is what Acer classes this as). It manages to overcome many of the short comings of Netbooks without getting anywhere near the $1000+ price range of most ultra-portables. It has a few drawbacks, notably material quality: like a lot of Acer products the plastic molding is attractive and the tolerances are tight. However the quality of the plastic is more in line with what you would expect with a Netbook (which is to say it is lower density plastic and more likely to scratch or break). To me it's reasonable that the overall component quality is lower than what I would get if I spent $1000 (display not as nice, finish not as refined, buttons not as responsive, etc...). Still, overall this is a well put together computer with good build quality considering the price. While I didn't end up buying one myself if might be the right fit for you: if you are on a budget and you need a small laptop that can do more than browse web pages this would be a very good choice.
Let's go over the specs:
CPU: The Core 2 ULV SU3500 is a great CPU choice and far more powerful than the Atom CPU found in most Netbooks. This is a single core (as opposed to the two core "Core2 Duo") Ultra Low Voltage cpu running at 1.4GHz. Depending on the exact application this CPU is about 3-6x more powerful than the typical Atom Processor. It also has 3 MB of cache (cache is a form of on-chip high speed memory) vs the Atom's 512 KB. With 6x the cache of the Atom this CPU is going to spend a lot more time running instructions and a lot less time waiting on the memory sub-system. It also helps that the Core 2 ULV SU3500 memory bus is about 25% faster than what you will find on an Atom. The Core2 is technically more power hungry than the Atom but when running applications the difference isn't significant (5 watts for the Core2 vs 1.5 watts for Atom). The main difference happens when in standby or sleep mode where the Atom will use much less power than the Core2 (because the kind of transistors on the Atom "leak" less power than those used on the Core2 when in those modes). So if you need long battery life while carrying your computer around in standby with brief periods of activity you might prefer the Atom based Netbooks (say for sales calls on the road). I think most users will probably prefer the Core2 - I know that I do. Update: there may be a dual core version of this coming out soon. It's on the list to arrive where I work but that doesn't mean it will be sold in the US.
MEMORY: 2GB of DDR2 RAM is plenty and the 667Mhz memory speed is good enough (faster notebooks go up to 1066Mhz). This system runs Vista which is more memory hungry than the Windows XP or Linux found on most Netbooks so 2GB, while enough, doesn't go as far as you might think. Still, as long as your aren't planning on doing any really serious gaming 2GB will handle the typical office application with no troubles.
HDD: The 250GB HDD has plenty of storage given that most users don't use more than 50GB. Serious gamers and video encoders will need a lot more space than this.
DISPLAY: The 11.6" 1366x768 screen looks good and is a lot more useable than the 8-10" screens found on most Netbooks. The resolution is much better than what you will find on most Netbooks and it is reasonably bright (200 nits vs 300+ nits on higher end laptop). I passed on this model because the viewing angle is limited (the manufacturer list the viewing angles as 60vert/90horiz compared to 120v/140h on a high end display) and my sons like to sit with me and watch YouTube videos. The limited viewing angles might be a selling point for somebody traveling who would prefer not to share what's on their screen with others. So while Acer clearly saved some money here it's still a good display: unless you need a really high quality LCD I think most people will be pretty happy with this screen (again it's far better than what you'll find in most Netbooks). For those few who care it's made by AU Optronics and I think it's model B116XW01.
GRAPHICS: The Intel Mobile GMA X4500HD graphics won't impress any gamers but if you're running business applications it will do just fine. Update: they loaded Autocad on this thing at work and it wasn't pretty. It might have been a driver issue but the render times were terrible. It's not really a surprise but don't buy this to run your CAD software. Of course for most users this won't be an issue.
AUDIO: notebooks are not known for great speaker sound and this notebook doesn't break from that trend. Again it's better than most Netbooks but not by a lot. Update: With headphones on I found the sound to be fine.
DRIVES: Like most Netbooks and Ultra-portables this has no CD or DVD drive. I recommend buying an external CD Drive. The software industry may start to switch over to USB drives soon (Windows 7 will be sold on USB drives) so this may not be a big deal for much longer. Today it's a pain to not have a CDROM.
BATTERY: The 6 cell battery is perfect for this notebook (thanks to the low power components). This notebook is probably too small for an 8 cell to fit cleanly but the 4 cell found in most Netbooks just isn't adequate, even for an Atom CPU. This 6 cell battery will provide about 3-5 hours of real use though with aggressive power saving modes you can get over six hours. Update: we have two of these in our hardware lab and it was just pointed it out to me that one (which came pre-release) had a higher capacity battery than the release version (5600mAH vs. 4400mAH). I've adjusted my battery life numbers down to reflect the release version. Interestingly the non-US version of this laptop has the higher capacity battery. I can only assume Acer was trying to bring the price down to compete in the tight US netbook market.
WEIGHT: Coming in a 3.1 lbs this is tiny bit heavier than the typical Netbook but not by much (Netbooks will range from 2-3lbs). Most regular notebooks are 6-8 lbs.
WIRELESS: The usual Intel 5100 A/G/N supports the most common standards ("A" and "G") along with the new "N" standard. You should have no trouble connecting to wireless networks. This is pretty standard though a few laptops will support 3G out of the box.
In short: while this notebook isn't perfect it is well built and unlike most Netbooks, actually has a decent CPU. It's small and light but big enough that you can actually use it. If you've got 1K-2K to spend you can get a better Ultra-Portable notebook (I'm partial to Sony's and Apple's offerings in that segment) but in this price range there isn't much competition.
Also if you're outside the US this might be sold as the "Acer Timeline 1810T" locally and may have slightly different specs (such as a better battery).
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This review is from: Acer Aspire AS1410-8414 11.6-Inch Sapphire Blue Laptop - 6 Hour Battery Life (Personal Computers)
This laptop is just by far the best laptop for the overall features.
Pros:
1. Very thin and light. Just a bit bigger than today's netbooks
2. Much faster than Atom based netbooks
3. Bright and large screen with true HD aspect ratio. Very useful resolution.
4. 4g upgradeable memory cap.
5. Great webcam and good microphone
6. Amazing battery life even with Core2solo CPU. Last longer than my other netbook with the same capacity battery.
7. HDMI out! wow
8. Wireless N and Bluetooth
(Edited:8/31/2009) No Bluetooth! My bad assumption from the bluetooth switch and LED indicator on the laptop. Sorry...
9. Multi finger/gesture touch pad like iPhone
10. Very usable keyboard
11. Quiet fan and harddrive
12. It does not get hot like my other netbook
13. Great speakers!
14. Centrino architecture seems to be faster in network response compare to Atom based netbooks
15. Inexpensive for the quality laptop with all the features
16. (Added on 8/29/2009) Spacious 250G HDD
17. (Added on 8/29/2009) Free upgrade to Windows 7 from Acer. Nice! (However, it was little tricky to register using Chrome. I had to use IE. They may have fixed the issue though...)
18. (Added on 8/29/2009) The lid opens up wider (deeper?) than my netbook. This is kind of important to me while using it on my lap.
Cons (I do not really care about these cons, but here they are)
1. Vista. I like XP myself
2. Shiny LCD screen is too reflective. This may be just me.
3. HD movies from Vimeo and Youtube are bit sluggish (not because of network bandwidth. It is more like not enough CPU power for Flash based HD movies.
(Added on 8/29/2009) Even though the movies are cached all the way, the CPU hits 100% with Flash based HD movies. SD movies are just fine. I can kind of watch HD Flash movies better with this laptop than my Atom netbook though.
4. All the pre-installed applications that I removed.
5. My wish for the laptop design to be somewhat like macbook or HP Mini series.
6. I thought the CPU had hyper-threading like Atom. Task manager shows only one thread. I know it is "solo", but Atom shows two threads.
(Added on 8/29/2009) The CPU does not have HT (Hyperthreading). I had some wrong info there. Even without the HT, this little laptop performs much faster than my Atom netbook.
Although I listed cons, they are very least items that I wish for. Of course, It does not perform like Intel i7 CPU based desktops. However, for the size and usability, this is a champ of all laptops and desktop PCs I have ever owned. I will use the i7 desktop for Video and photo editing. That may be only 5% of all my computer usage. The rest, 95% of tasks can be done with this little laptop for me. I cannot talk about the durability yet, but it seems to be well built. Anyway, this is a great laptop with very reasonable price tag!
(Added on 8/29/2009) Some usual stuff that I did to make the laptop even better.
1. Usual Vista tune ups like turning off Aero and other graphic intensive features.
2. Removed many pre-installed apps mainly Office trial and Anti-virus software.
3. Turned off unused start up programs
(Added on 8/30/2009) Some tests
1. HDMI out to HD TV
1080p resolution worked perfect including sound with not much config. 1080 resolution gets everything too small to read for my setup. I switched to 720p. My TV does not adjust automatically, so I had to adjust the size using Intel TV wizard software (This app cannot be used with Dual monitor config. Switching to Digital TV only mode enables it.). I adjusted using the app to 720p. The app works, but the screen refreshes every time the adjustment button was clicked, I had to press the adjustment button very slowly and patiently. When I clicked too fast, the app froze with 100% CPU for a long time like 10 min. I had to restart. Other than that all worked perfect!
2. Web cam and digital microphone using Skype
I wanted a small laptop with webcam, so I can put it right next to my baby and show her to my parents in Japan via Skype. My other netbook kind of worked, but in low light situation, the video was so dark that they could see only my white eyes. Mic was also giving them echo. When I tried with this laptop, it was literary day and night. This laptop webcam is optimized for low light. They could see my baby clearly. The mic was clear and no echo. The only minor issue is that the image is bit white tinted with default setting. My wife thought I was smoking... haha. I had to tweak a bit in config. Nonetheless, the webcam and mic worked great for Skype. FYI: It does not perform like high resolution after market webcams, but the built-in webcam satisfies my needs very well.
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I purchased this laptop after a fair amount of research. I know that I wanted a smaller, portable laptop that we would use for general activities like web surfing, e-mail and the basics. This laptop is packed with an impressive set of specs. The screen was bright and sharp, it loaded up quickly and was quiet a cool running. However, I ended up returning it for a refund because after about a week of use, the touchpad started to become next to impossible to use. It was twitchy from the beginning. When I viewed web sites, it would occasional cause the brower's back button to activate, font sizes to increase or decrease and it almost acted like it had a mind of its own. Despite that we were planning to live with it but when it because next to impossible to use the touch pad, we returned it and will look for a slightly larger screen size. The cover was nice but showed finger prints immediately. Still a great machine for the price and wonderful features but not the right one for me.
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This review is from: Acer Aspire AS1410-8414 11.6-Inch Sapphire Blue Laptop - 6 Hour Battery Life (Personal Computers)
This notebook is one of those instances when you say to yourself, "Wow, it is as good as I expected, and more."
I have refrained from buying a netbook because the low resolution and poor performance prevents me from multi-tab web browsing, not to mention continuous scrolling with Office documents. When I first saw this notebook, I was very excited because it has something the older generation netbooks have lacked:
- Decent resolution (1366x768)
- Decent performance
- Even better battery life (6 hours)
Except, it actually exceeded my expectation.
LCD Screen: Very sharp, and very bright. I am amazed that Acer can squeeze 1366x768 into an 11.6 inch screen, and still keep it so sharp and clear. It is very comfortable to view, and I do not feel any different from viewing my old 14 inch LCD.
Performance: In terms of word processing, web surfing and installing software, it has been as smooth as my old dual-core laptop. This notebook has upgraded the CPU and chipset from the previous generation netbook, which contributes to the performance I am seeing.
Keyboard/touchpad: It's full size keyboard, and it's comfortable to type on. I am still trying to get used to some of the key placement, and the lack of home/end buttons. But it's definitely no worse than my other laptop's keyboard. Acer has also learned the lesson from Aspire 751h, so the touchpad is centered to the touch-typing keyboard, and has two buttons. However, the touchpad edge is difficult to distinguish.
Battery: From what I read, one Acer hour is usually shorter than one Asus hour. This notebook has proven me wrong. I run it on high performance mode, and it still gives me about 6 hours of battery life. Running company VPN and remote desktop seems to reduce it to about 5 hours.
Size: While slightly bigger than the prev-gen netbooks, I don't feel it's bulkier. At 3 lb, it's very light, but can still stand to lose some weight.
Temperature: It doesn't heat up much, you can use it on your lap the whole day.
Other Pros: 250 GB HDD, 2 GB RAM, 1 Gb LAN, 802.11n, webcam, microphone, no-latch lid
Cons:
- Lack of separate Home/End buttons. Unfortunately I think most netbooks have to make this sacrifice.
- Battery charging is slow (I estimate about 4 hours). On the flip side, the charger is small and light.
- Still requires a fan to dissipate heat, albeit quiet.
- Others: lacks bluetooth
As I said, the moment I started using it, all I could say was "Wow". I could not believe Acer could come out with something that outshines Asus (and the rest of the computer industry). For all the laptops I have owned (5), none of them have impressed me as much as this one does.
Update 2009-09-07:
I went on a business trip right after getting this laptop. It's proven to be very mobile. I charge the laptop at night, and take it to work with me in the morning, without the charger. The keyboard feels very natural, and overall work is smooth sailing.
At night I use this laptop to play demo games and watch a few videos (I had the foresight to rip a few ISOs). Most DVDs play great, but there was one that does not play smoothly, so I guess it depends on the DVD encoding.
Overall love this laptop's portability. The battery life ensures that the laptop is always ready when I need to use it.
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This review is from: Acer Aspire AS1410-8414 11.6-Inch Sapphire Blue Laptop - 6 Hour Battery Life (Personal Computers)
After using the Acer 1410 for a while now, I feel compelled to write a review.
USAGE: I am college student who takes meticulous notes via OneNote. I have been writing my term papers using Word 2007 on the 1410 and I also find myself using the internet as a supplement to my classes. In short, I use the 1410 constantly. .
SCREEN: The 11.6" inch wide screen is large enough to be usable without long term eye strain, but still small enough to allow the overall size of the laptop to be less than my 5-Star One Subject Notebook! Even though it is a glossy screen, I have not encountered any scenario where it was unusable. Even under the bright fluorescent lights above my desk, the screen is crisp and clear. I imagine most people who find it hard to see don't know how to tilt the lid so the refracted light isn't shining in their eyes.
WEIGHT & SIZE: The overall dimensions of the 1410 are just a fraction longer than a piece of standard paper and also a fraction narrower. As I stated in the screen section, it is smaller in length and width than my notebook. It is also almost as thin as my 5-Star Three Subject Notebook. It weighs less than most of my text books. I find there is no extra strain to carry this in my backpack.
KEYBOARD: The keys are easy to press, however they are not raised much. I found it at first to be a tad difficult to touch type. But, I have since mastered that skill on the 1410. I am torn over the need for the keys to be raised more and the fact that the overall keyboard uses clean and sleek lines. The actual placements of the keys is just fine.
TRACKPAD: I don't use it. I prefer to use a mouse.
PERFORMANCE: I didn't bother to boot into Vista. Instead, I opted to install Windows 7 from a USB thumbdrive. I wiped both partitions and reformatted upon install. From start to finish it took less than 20 minutes, almost completely unattended. After shutting down the Media Player Network Sharing Service, and the Microsoft Search/Indexer Service, the 1410 breezes through everything. Not to sound over dramatic, but it is fast enough that it could easily serve as a desktop replacement for common usages. Obviously you can't do Photoshop, CAD, or 3D Modeling with the 1410, but for most usage, it will perform quite well!
BATTERY: I don't know. I have not had to run on battery yet. My classrooms have all been fitted with more than enough convenient outlets.
EXTRA: I noticed that there is a little led indicator nestled between the wifi, battery and screen ones at the bottom left. It is an indicator for Bluetooth! This would lead me to believe that this feature could be added at a later date with an upgrade.
SUMMARY: MY brother-in-law has one of those run of the mill Netbooks. You know the type: 10" 1GB Memory Atom processor, etc. He let me borrow it while I was "shopping". After using it, I was very much turned off of the Netbooks. They were almost too tiny with no viewing room and worst of all.... uber slow. I almost decided to buy a full size laptop. However, after coming across the 1410, I decided to take a chance. I had hoped it would be a spirited machine that wouldn't leave me frustrated. But I admit, I was skeptical that it wouldn't be much better than the typical Netbook. Needless to say I was quite surprised that the 1410 isn't just a little bit better, but a whole lot better! I guess thats the true advantage of being able to do 4 calculation per cycle as opposed to just 2!
SUMMARY: Buy it. It is beyond worth it, if you are wanting a faster, easier to read, Netbook.
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This review is from: Acer Aspire AS1410-8414 11.6-Inch Sapphire Blue Laptop - 6 Hour Battery Life (Personal Computers)
Netbooks, as a rule, have cramped keyboards, small screens, and poor performance. I was an early adopter of the ASUS Eee PC 4G, and I found these trade-offs too hard to live with. The Acer 1410 solves all these problems and is simply a great computer by almost any measure.
True, it doesn't have the horsepower of a desktop or full-size notebook machine, but my standard for a computer of this class is that it should feel responsive and have no trouble playing video, either from the hard drive or the web, and the Acer 1410 passes this test with flying colors.
There is a full keyboard here, which makes a world of difference, and enough space on screen to get real work done. I am a software developer by trade, and I will not hesitate to use the Acer 1410 when I'm on the road or when I feel like spending a weekday morning at the local coffee shop.
I spent the first day replacing Windows Vista with a dual-boot setup of Windows 7 (the release candidate) and Ubuntu Linux. It would not have taken so long, but I tried various methods of installing Windows from an external hard drive before I gave up and bought an external USB DVD drive. I deeply dislike Windows Vista, so I highly recommend getting rid of it as soon as you can. This machine comes with a free upgrade to Windows 7 that Microsoft will send you once it's officially shipping.
I was close to buying one of the "conventional" netbooks (e.g. ASUS Eee PC 1005HA, Acer Aspire One, Samsung NC10, Lenovo S10) when I read the specs on this one. What it comes down to for me is that for only a hundred (or so) dollars more, you get:
1. a full keyboard
2. a more generous display (1366 X 768 vs. 1024 X 600)
3. twice as much RAM
4. a larger hard drive (250G vs. 160G)
5. several times more processing power (Intel Core 2 Solo vs. Intel Atom)
6. Windows 7 (via the free upgrade) instead of XP
7. 802.11n networking instead of only b/g
8. HDMI out
9. Optical audio out
10. A battery that fits flush with the case (rather than protrude back or down as in other machines)
That's a nice list, and it was an easy decision.
The Acer 1410 is not perfect, but my complaints are niggling details: It is difficult to see or feel the edges of the trackpad, the speakers are not loud enough to watch a movie or a TV show unless there is ZERO ambient noise, the hard drive activity light is needlessly bright and perfectly situated to distract you, and once I was spoiled by its performance, I started wanting more (Half Life 2 is almost playable, but not quite).
The extra screen real estate and compute power mean that you'll get a couple of hours less out of a battery charge than the longest-lasting netbooks, but five or six hours is still better than any notebook computer I've ever had, and I'll make that trade for all the other advantages I've mentioned.
For the value for my money, this is a solid five-star product. Until Apple comes out with a tablet, I won't be jealous of anyone.
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I echo all the great things people have been saying about this netbook. On paper, it has superior specs all the way through compared with Asus eee pc 1005, except battery, but the benefits more than outweigh it! I've been looking for a netbook for a year now, and this one has a check box on all my features wish list.
Now for the pain.
I got the netbook and everything is as I would have hope for, except it was having problems with its wireless connections. It kept dropping them and the range only works within 1 feet! I updated the driver, tried all the recommendations on the forums, nothing worked. I email Acer customer support and they kept telling me the problem is my router, which had been working for the last 3 years with 2 other notebooks in my house. I connected a USB wifi adapter as a test and it worked flawlessly. Acer refused to acknowledge that their product is defective so I was left in a bind.
I opened up the back panel and took a look at the connection between the wireless card and antenna. After unplugging them, I notice the metal contacts between them were smashed. Seems like whoever install this did not snap the connectors on the right angle and then brute force press on it. (they are like tiny coax cable) Took an hour with a magnifying glass, strong light and needle to re-adjust the metal mess, but was lucky enough to reconstruct it and barely fit it back in. Now wireless works like a charm. Also slap in 2GB so now I have 4GB, hopefully give the video a little more space to work with.
Other than that ordeal, I'm fairly happy with everything else. Touchpad is flushed and buttons are not too sensitive, for the most part they work and I plan to get a wireless mouse anyways.
Overall, great product, good quality, best bang for your buck. Similarly spec'ed notebooks at 13.3" runs around $700, this one is a no brainer if you're looking for a netbook.
****UPDATE****
Got my Windows 7 from Acer last week, so I upgraded the OS. Note that win7 Acer sent is 32-bit, so even after I upgrade the memory to 4GB, it's only taking advantage of 3GB. There were 2 disc, both DVDs. I'm sure many users like me do not have a portable DVD drive, so I put it in my other notebook and tried to copy them over to a portable harddrive (there are many other options but i was to lazy to think them through). The Acer upgrade Kit has problems - the setup does not run for some reason. I skipped it and run the Win7 disk - asked me to choose between upgrade or clean install. For whatever reason, I chose clean install, thinking that it will rid all those other junks that Acer put it in the first place. Well, install went very smooth, and everything old was copied into windows.old. But I also lost some of the acer apps and drivers, which I had to manually install from the Acer disc. Not too bad overall - the webcam, touchpad are the essential. The rest seems to work with Win7 drivers.
Win7 is FAAAST. All the videos on Youtube and hulu plays very smoothly compare to running Vista. Everything just feels snappier. Now I feel like this netbook is really living up to its full potential!
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I've had this computer for a few days now, and so far I am really pleased. We needed something super small and light, but just couldn't pull the trigger on a netbook because of their drawbacks, but this computer is the first of t next generation of reasonably priced half-netbook/half-ultaportable laptop, and it has satisfied all of my concerns:
First, most netbooks have an Atom-based processor, which can choke on anything flashed-based, and they get bogged down when you have multiple applications/tabs. This computer has the Intel Core 2 Solo processor, which is a rare step up usually only found on more expensive computers (it is the same CPU as the $700 MSI 340 http://www.amazon.com/MSI-X340-021US-Slim-13-4-Inch-Laptop/dp/B0028ACYKE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1251918611&sr=8-1). This makes it hugely faster than almost every other netbook. Combined with it's extra 1 GB of RAM (2 total) it is capable of running Windows Vista and is eligilbe to upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out. I watched streaming HD video on one half of the screen last night,and surfed in multiple tabs on the other half of the screen and didn't find it slow at all.
Next, I have also seen how the 10.1 inch screen can make you feel like you are constantly scrolling up and down to veiw websites. On this size screen, especially with the HD resolution, it just feels like you are seeing a slightly miniaturized version of the full site. It also has mouse gestures so it is super-easy to adjust your text size, if it seems to be to small on a specific site.
Next, most netbooks only have wireless b/g capabilities, but this one also includes draftN, so it is faster if you have a draftn wirless adapter. The inclusion of an hdmi port also is a relatively rare feature on a netbook, but something I was looking for.
The keyboard is just fine, it takes a little while to adjust, but all keyboards do. The touchpad is just fine, although it is the same color as the rest of the computer, so you have to find the edges of the touchpad by feel rather than sight (I actually like the way it makes it look though. Plus, it supports multi-touch gestures, which is really nice.
The webcam is also a little higher quality than in a traditional netbook - basically it can ahndle lower ambient light levels.
The speakers are actually pretty good - my wife was streaming pandora, and it was surprisingly loud and un-tinny.
Battery - this is the one area where it is not as good as the better netbooks. Running it hard, we've been getting about 4.5-5 hours on the battery. It comes with three power plans: "Balanced," "Power Saver," and "High Performance." We've been on "Balanced." The power adapter is super small and light, however.
My wife had a big issue making sure that this wouldn't be hot on her hands or on her lap, and this one is just fine.
We bought the red version, and the color of the picture in amazon is way off. The case is a pearlescent red, but definately not a jeweltone. I would say it is much more of an earthy red, with a bit of brown and maroon in it. If I could go back and do it all over again, I might switch to the blue.
So why did we choose this computer over all the other choices? Here's the other computers we considered, and why we chose this instead:
Vs. Asus Eee PC 1005HA - This is the next best other netbook (followed by the Asus Aspire Ones), but the 1410 is better in every way performance wise except batametery. Really it was the Atom processor and 1 GB of ram in these two that became the dealbreaker, and pushed us to spend the extra $60 for the 1410.
Vs. almost all other netbooks - all other netbooks beat out by the Asus 1005, and this beats that.
Dell 11x 11.6 laptop - this one isn't on amazon, but it's Dell's next step up laptop - but the processor in the Dell is noticeably less fast than the battery life is noticeably shorter. Dell also has a 4.2 pound 14.1 Inspiron that we looked at, but decided it was a bit too big, and too expensive.
We also considered going one more size up to the:
Vs. MSI 340 13.4 inch screen - The MSI is thinner, has roughly equivalent features, and bigger screen in a super sexy package, but +$250 and battery lasts much less.
Vs. Aceer Aspire Timeline. again, roughly equivalent performance, bigger screen, but +$150, and isn't as thin as the 1410, and really isn't as thin as the MSI.
Everything else that was more powerful was much more money.
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This review is from: Acer Aspire AS1410-8414 11.6-Inch Sapphire Blue Laptop - 6 Hour Battery Life (Personal Computers)
I have been impressed so far. I bought two other netbooks one from De** and another form MS**. They both use the ATOM processor and have 10" screens. I could not view HD on YouTube or watch TV on hulu. It was horrible. Now I can watch HD both (hulu & Youtube).
Ok I have to admit that as soon as I received the laptop I installed Windows 7. Vista was slowing down the system. I noticed improvements immediately in how HD videos played. Win7 is the way to go. Just for kicks I added 2GB of memory for a total of 4GB. Win7 recognized all of the memory which is great because the video can utilize more memory should it needs it. I noticed even better HD playback with the extra memory. I did nothing special other than install the memory and windows 7.
I am impressed with the quality, features, battery life, keyboard size, and HDMI output. I am having issues with the HDMI output under win7, but cannot complain since Acer has not released the drivers for win7.
For the rest of the people that are being super critical of this netbook/notebook consider the price tag of $460. I you expect this little portable inexpensive device to perform like a $1600 product, then what can I say? Delusional comes to mind. This netbook will cover any of your day-to-day computing needs, HD playback, it can also handle CATIA V5, matlab, AUTOCAD and Office with no problems. If you want it to play Crysis at full settings, then you are unreasonable to ask for this machine to perform especially for what it costs. Overall there is no product in this segment and price that can do its job better. I hope this helps.
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This review is from: Acer Aspire AS1410-8414 11.6-Inch Sapphire Blue Laptop - 6 Hour Battery Life (Personal Computers)
I use a lot of different computers. My main work machine is a macbook pro 15". My gaming machine is a core2quad q6600 w/ ATI 9870. I had a acer aspire one 8.9" atom based machine for travel that I sold when I bought this (which is a great machine in its own right). I also had an Inspiron 11z that I thought was great until I saw this machine's specs for the same price. I returned the 11z and bought this.
This machine is simply an amazing value for the money. The Dell is indeed good, but this one outclasses it in every way. All of the compromises of the 11z are gone. Battery 6 cell vs. 3 cell. Processor 1.4ghz solo vs. Celeron 1.2ghz. N wireless vs. G. I think it is amazing that Acer/Amazon can sell this machine and make any money.
Performance is great for general purpose computing and it can even play games (casual mostly). I hooked this up to my 1080p hdtv and the video and audio output is really nice. Overall, I'm very happy. Don't expect a desktop here.. that it is not, but it is a great travel companion and overall I am really impressed.
Review Update 12/16/09 - I just wanted to update my review after a few months of use. The more I use this machine, the more I like it. Battery life has been solid - about 4.5 hours on average with reasonable use (I would probably opt for the slightly improved 1810 at this point for a little more money just for the extra battery life and dual core cpu). The form factor is perfect for me and the keyboard and trackpad are very comfortable. Wake up from sleep and hibernation is fast as well. The windows 7 upgrade was smooth and everything works really well. Still a 5 star machine for me.
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