Acer Aspire One 522 (AMD C-50 Netbook) Unboxing, Overview, First Tests – Video and Report

Posted on 07 March 2011, Last updated on 09 March 2011 by

Update: Live Open Review is planned for today. More information here.

Update: Live Review report and recordings are now available here.

Sometimes gadget purchases go from zero to ‘own’ in a very short time. That’s how it was today as I assessed devices for the Ultra Mobile Video Editing series and checked out the Acer Aspire One 522. It’s an AMD Fusion device running on the C-50 APU at 1Ghz. CPU performance, as we’ve already determined, is lower than the dual-core Atom N550 CPU but there’s a trick or two up its sleeve when it comes to video playback and 3D graphics performance because the processing platform includes a Radeon HD6250 GPU. The whole AMD Fusion package is also tuned for low power consumption making it compete in the netbook power envelope but with better capability.

IMG_6853

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I’m not convinced the Aspire One 522 will help me achieve my goal of 720p editing on a lightweight, low cost computer but at €299 and with a need to research what AMD are doing with Fusion it makes sense to buy it. When your local store has it in stock and there aren’t many reviews out there already, it adds up to a must-buy for this blogger! Update: Liliputing is also testing the 522 right now.

Acer aren’t regarded as a high-end product builder as they tend to build to a price. Quality does suffer and I’ve experienced it first hand. Others will report similar experiences but out of the box, the Acer Aspire One 522 appears to be an absolute bargain. I seriously don’t think I’ve ever had this much computing power in my hand for so little money and it looks good and feels good too. It even weighs under 1.2KG which, for a netbook with a 6-cell battery, is class-leading. 1080p playback? No problem (*1). A hi-res 720P screen (1280×720) is included too. Long battery life? You’ll clearly have trouble getting less than 5 hours out of this and I’m sitting here now with 43% battery left after 4 hours of on-and-off testing. 3D performance will blow any Intel-based netbook out of the water. Even the build quality seems better that you’d expect for this money.

As I write this, I’ve had no showstoppers so far. BUT – I’m only into the 7th hour of ownership here so beware, there could be issues. Don’t get over-excited about the CPU or GPU power too. It’s good for a netbook but nothing like a low-end notebook. A 3D Mark 2001SE score of 5959 is good for a netbook but I seem to remember that my 5-year old Ti4200 graphics card would pull in 12K on that test. For 300gm and 200 Euro more you can get something much, much more powerful.

A glossy screen with less than 768 pixels in the vertical (important for some software installs) a fan (barely audible) and a disk that, like other netbooks, seems to slow down applications load times are the only things I want to complain about so far. In reality, that’s not a bad hit-list and I’m feeling confident that when I put this through our live, open review, it will come out looking good.

LIVE OPEN REVIEW of the Acer Aspire One 522 is planned for Tuesday 8th March at 2100 Berlin Time [Other times here].  Join us at UMPCPortal.com/live for video, chat and your chance to ask questions and watch everything happen live. Nothing is covered-up!

Live Review report and recordings are now available here.

(*1) initial test with an H.264 file. 1080P at an average 13Mbps bitrate was perfect on the 720p screen.

Update: Out-of-the-box Crystalmark test result is here.

25 Comments For This Post

  1. UMPCPortal says:

    Acer Aspire One 522 (AMD C-50 Netbook) Unboxing, Overview, First Tests – Video and Report http://www.umpcportal.com/?p=23362

  2. Gretchen Glasscock says:

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  3. Steve 'Chippy' Paine says:

    RT @umpcportal: Acer Aspire One 522 (AMD C-50 Netbook) Unboxing, Overview, First Tests – Video and Report http://www.umpcportal.com/?p=23362

  4. Josh's Tech Items says:

    Acer Aspire One 522 (AMD C-50 Netbook) Unboxing, Overview, First Tests – Video and Report… http://goo.gl/fb/Jgtkc

  5. Anuj Purohit says:

    Acer Aspire One 522 (AMD C-50 Netbook) Unboxing, Overview, First Tests – Video and Report… http://goo.gl/fb/RbQ7p

  6. tesaguy/freakyfred_ says:

    Looks good so far.
    I wonder if the Asus 1015B will have even better battery life. On CEBIT they stated 56Whrs and ~7,5Hrs battery life.
    Acer might have weighed battery capacity vs. weight. (48 instead of 56 whrs but only 1,17kg)
    The Toshiba NB550D is easier to modify with accessible rams an HDD ports.

    But I think I dig the matt screen and higher stated battery life of the Asus.

    I’m trying to make it to the live session.

  7. the_holodoc says:

    As far as i understand it, there are just different kinds of cells available which have the same size but different capacities. The lower capacity cells that are used in these 48 Wh batteries are the cheapest, but with the best available cells u can have capacities of up to 66 Wh in a 6 cell battery (HP Mini 5103) with little to no weight difference and exactly the same size. So in the end its all about money…

  8. tsog says:

    IMO for popular brands like acer and asus I’d care about features other than the battery more since you can easily buy after market high capacity batteries to address this shortcoming, whereas you can’t upgrade the 600p screen to 720p as easily.

  9. Chippy says:

    Good point. I guess the 522 is going to sell in bucketloads so the aftermarket is good. Does anyone know if the 6-cell is the same on other models?

  10. Ordelli says:

    I’m really thinking this might be the best netbook value ever created. considering the unbelievably low price – amount of power (real GPU), resolution, battery life in such a small form factor/weight is just amazing.

    what I really like about Fusion is the amout of “balance” it brings to the netbook category, too make it much more similar to full size laptops. unlike Intel which purposefully crippled GPU performance in order too make sure netbooks stayed niche “net browsing” devices without much extra uses.

  11. Chippy says:

    The word ‘balance’ is in my mind too but off-the-bat I have to agree on the value.

  12. tsog says:

    The 522 is definitely good for its price. You won’t find many laptops at this size with 720P and an HD-capable IGP, especially at this price.

  13. earl cameron says:

    great system, runs older games very well, web is good especially flash 10.2 but the cpu is slow…luckily there are two of them! my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/monstercameron

  14. Chippy says:

    Thanks for the info.

  15. Tina says:

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  16. Schugy says:

    The hand rest is bigger than my hole Everun Note.
    Thought his is U!MPCportal

  17. comscier says:

    buying a notebook/netbook this weekend.
    And after doing some research…
    Compare this to the E-350…
    Both uses APU Fusion with HD6310, but then E-350 has a higher bandwidth for graphic.

    GPU Clock Speed
    C-50(9W) 276 MHz
    E-350(18W) 492 MHz

    considering the gaming capabilities of E-350 and price difference.
    the E-350 seems to be a better bargain.

  18. Chippy says:

    In what device at what price though?
    The 1215B certinly looks interesting. $450 will bring some excelent performance and reasonable battery life. $150 more tho and about 300gm heavier.

  19. comscier says:

    :)
    Just ordered an Acer Aspire 5253 online…
    15″
    AMD C50 version
    2GB RAM
    250GB HDD

    and this version of C50 uses HD 6310

    Hoping it might perform better than HD 6150 @.@

    the rest of the specs are very much the same as the AAO522

  20. tesaguy/freakyfred_ says:

    Can it be configured?
    At notebookcheck I can see it isn’t the c-50 but E-350 APU.

  21. comscier says:

    only hdd and ram can be upgraded.
    i believe the mainstream laptop(15″) uses 6310.
    only netbooks uses 6150/6250.

    *I think its a new combination for low end laptop, I can find products from amd website that uses C-50 with HD 6310.
    But then, when I search for spec on amd site, its only shows E-350 with 6310
    AMD have not update their website for this… And couldn’t find review on it either…

    HD6250 > 270Mhz
    HD6310 > 500Mhz
    (official, but not sure is there any difference when combine with C-50.)

  22. tesaguy/freakyfred_ says:

    As far as I know, there are only these Combos:
    C-50 APU with integrated HD6250 (280mhz)
    E-350 APU with integrated HD6310 (500mhz)

    http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-C-50-Notebook-Processor.40960.0.html
    http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-E-350-Notebook-Processor.40941.0.html

  23. comscier says:

    C-50 which was designed for netbooks originally came with 6250
    but acer also making notebooks with C-50
    Notebook C-50 has HD6310 the same as E-350
    *I am not sure will other companies follows, but seems other company rather only release the E-350 version.

  24. comscier says:

    Just in case some one came back to this thread.
    The information that was on AMD products is a mistake.
    they never had a 6310 with C-50.
    And my freaking notebook has a wrong description too…
    damn… I should have bought the E-350 version…
    This thing is slower than Atom in everyday task.
    But way better for HD videos and games. (most games release on & before 2009)

    Tested Alien Swarm, Burnout Paradise, Dirt, Dirt2 and Colin McRae Rally 2005
    They all run pretty smoothly on low settings.
    *The performance for Dirt2 is actually better than Dirt 1… while having better graphics… strange.

  25. Nick says:

    I got mine last Friday and upgraded the OS to Windows 7 Professional 32bit. Runs quite decently. I played a 720p movie using VLC but somehow, the video stutters from time to time. Not that much of an issue but things could have been smoother. I can run Starcraft II in this device decently with everything low but I can run Age of Empires III at high settings smoothly. Good netbook for it’s price!

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