Acer Aspire One AO722-BZ454 11.6-Inch HD Netbook (Espresso Black)

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Price: $435.60   

Product Feature

• AMD C Series Processor 1GHz
• 2GB DDR3 RAM
• 250GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
• 11.6-Inch Screen, AMD Radeon HD 6250
• Windows 7 Home Premium, 7 hours Battery Life

Product Description

Acer AO722-BZ454 comes with these high level Specs. AMD C-Series Processor C-50, Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit), 11.6" HD WXGA LED-backlit Display, AMD A50M Fusion Chipset, ATI Radeon HD 6250 Graphics, 2048MB DDR3 Memory, 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM), Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED, Built-In 0.3MP Webcam, 3 - USB 2.0 Ports, HDMI, 6-cell Li-ion Battery (4400 mAh), Up to 7-hours Battery Life, Microsoft Office Starter 2010, 3.21 lbs. | 1.46 kg (system unit only)

Acer Aspire One AO722-BZ454 11.6-Inch HD Netbook (Espresso Black) Review

UPDATE 8/23/11: For details on how to upgrade this netbook, check out the comments posted below. Just click 'Comments (#)' at the bottom of this review. The further you read into the comments thread the more in depth the questions get. Feel free to read through and post any questions that have not already been answered. If you have any new tips or tricks others might benefit from, please contribute. Thanks so much!

REVIEW: I was looking for an 11"-13" small laptop or netbook that could web surf, blog, and run MS Office. I also wanted to be able to handle basic, on-the-fly photo editing & design using Adobe CS5. Lastly, I needed something that could run for at least 6 hours on battery and had a full-size keyboard. Going with the Acer Aspire One 722 was a good choice price wise and provided a power efficient option that met my needs while on the road. Hopefully, you find this review helpful.

After testing it without any upgrades for a week, it was way faster than the Atom netbooks I've used in the past and faster than my old 11.6" Acer AS1410 Core2 Solo from last year. However, I wanted a bit more grunt power and speed. Upgrading the hard drive and memory seemed like a good decision, and it has turned this entry level PC into something on par with most mid-range desktops. Here are the upgrades I made:
* Crucial C300 2.5" 128GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
* G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 Unbuffered Non-ECC

Being that this is a review for the Acer Aspire One 722, it's only fair to give you the PROS and CONS without factoring in the upgrades.

PROS:
* Amazing keyboard - Huge buttons, nice click and very little flex. Buttons are where they should be.
* Dedicated graphics - Video streams via YouTube and Hulu in HD without stuttering. 1366x768 resolution means I can run Photoshop natively. 256MB of dedicated graphics memory, means I can flip through web pages without waiting for it to catch up.
* Battery life - With the original hard drive, I was getting 4.5-5 hours on the "balanced" power setting. 7 hours on "power saver"
* Windows 7 64bit with an AMD C-50 processor
* Brand name - This is my 4th Acer PC. There are a lot of great options out there, but IMHO Acer is the best bang for the buck.
* Charger cord - Something I've grown to appreciate is how compact the charger cord is. It is only one cord, as opposed to the usual two part cord included with most laptops. It's a whopping 8 feet long and comes with a Velcro strip pre-attached to neatly store the coiled cord. The charging block is at the plug-in end. Also, the prongs can be rotated 90 degrees so it doesn't block any more of a powerstrip or outlet than it has too. Nice job!
* Webcam - Very clear webcam. It's only a 0.3 MegaPixel, but when I'm traveling my misses says it's crystal clear on Skype.

CONS:
* Glossy black lid - Not a deal breaker, just a matter of preference. Wish it was matte. I do like the embedded ripple. Kind of groovy.
* BEEP - If you plug-in or unplug the power cord while the netbook is ON, the computer lets out a loud beep - just loud enough to make you flinch. It reminds me of my very first PC from 20 years ago. This can be disabled in Control Panel > Device Manager > click on the "View" menu at the top > click "Show Hidden Devices" > click the + sign next to "Non-Plug and Play Devices" from the list of devices > double click "Beep" > go to the "Driver" tab > choose "Disabled" in the Startup drop down menu.
* No Bluetooth - Using a mini USB Bluetooth adapter to resolve that.
* Trackpad size - You can kind of expect this on a laptop this small. I prefer a wireless mouse anyways. Other than size, the pad feels perfect and is very responsive. The trackpad buttons are the best I've ever used.
* Linux users - As of 6/14/11, the graphics card, web cam, and wifi drivers are buggy on Linux. I tested Ubuntu 10.04, 11.04, Mint 11 and Joli 1.2 and was experiencing system freezes and resolution issues.

AFTER UPGRADING THE MEMORY AND HARD DRIVE:
* Boot time - Before the upgrade: 1 minute 35 seconds. After the upgrade: 32 seconds.
* Battery life - I get about 5.5-6 hours with the power management setting on "balanced". 8+ hours on "power saver".
* Photoshop CS5 64bit - Opens in 7 seconds now as opposed to 16 seconds previously.
* Multitasking - I'm able to multitask a couple web pages, streaming music, Outlook, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Bridge and Camera Raw simultaneously without a prolonged hourglass. That's good enough for me.

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