There’s one thing that was clear from last nights live testing of the Aspire One 522 – I’m the worst person in the world to demonstrate 3D games. Interestingly though, that’s because I never have devices that can play games. In the last 5 years we’ve seen just a handful of mobile devices that can play games and the fact that I was thrown into Half-Life 2 and Unreal Tournament demos shows that the Acer Aspire One 522 is quite unique – and an indicator of where netbooks are going next. We tried hard to find showstoppers and major issues, design problems, heat and noise or anything that would confirm that this is a cheap device but no, after 3 hours, it was clear that the Aspire One 522 is a real bargain and a true upgrade option for those with first or even second generation netbooks.
Highlights and Lowlights
1080p playback via local or YouTube works flawlessly on-screen (1280×720) or via HDMI
In normal use, this is a 6 hour working device with a 3-hour gaming capability, 5 hours or more video playback and up to 10 hours with radios-off in low-power use as a text-entry device.
No heat or noise to speak of although the fan is constantly spinning and can sometimes be heard or felt through the chassis.
The Hard Disk seems to be a bottleneck in some situations
Mono speaker just about does its job
The glossy screen appears to be a little washed out compared to high-end displays
Wifi reception is better than average
No USB 3.0 or charging USB port
Plastics very thin
Access to memory and HDD is easy. Upgrade to 4GB is possible (Only 2GB available in Windows 7 Starter)
Gaming needs more testing but viewers on the live session seemed very excited!
Battery life / weight ratio is very good
A word of warning though, in terms of CPU processing power, there’s not a lot of difference here between the Intel Pinetrail platform in single or dual-core variants. in a pure-CPU video rendering test we saw the Aspire One coming in at 15% faster than a Intel N450 CPU which puts it between the N450 and N550 in terms of processing power. Compared to first-gen netbooks, that’s a great improvement but its far from mainstream.
It’s the ‘balance’ of CPU, HD Video and 3D that works so well with the Acer Aspire One 522 (and, we suspect, other Fusion C-50 APU -based devices) and if Intel don’t one-up the C-50 with Cedar Trail in a significant way, they will lose a good percentage of netbook sales. At €299, there’s very little room for beating AMD on price.
So here are the three videos we made during the 2.5hrs online last night. As usual they are captures of the low-quality stream but I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of them. Thanks again to everyone that joined and helped-out in the live session. Spread the word – this is how reviews should be done!
Part 1 – Overview and first impressions.
Part 2 – Heat, battery life, video performance, browsing tests
Part 3 – Video testing, webcam, high and lowlights, Crystalmark test
Sony- Netbooks are Here to Stay; Touch Enabled VAIOs This Year – Sony recently hoped into the netbook game after sitting on the sidelines since the genre appeared. Now they are recognizing the netbook as something that they need to get involved in. In addition to the release of their Vaio W [Portal page] netbook, they are planning on releasing touchscreen computers after Windows 7 lands.
Asus Finally Launches the Eee PC 1004DN – Another one that we’ve known was coming for a while: The Asus Eee 1004DN [Portal page]. Asus’ first netbook with optical disk drive and the Intel GN40 chipset. Asus has now released it in Taiwan.
Broadcom demonstrates video accelerator for netbooks – Broadcom has developed a part for inclusion in netbook platforms called Broadcom Crystal HD which works to accelerate video processing, apparently enough that a Mini 110 [Portal page] can play back 1080p video at full framerate, which is pretty impressive.
HP Mini 110 Netbook Gains $30 HD Display Option – Speaking of the Mini 110, Kevin C. Tofel from jkOnTheRun let’s us know that the unit can now be configured with a 1366×768 resolution display, up from the previous 1024×576 option. Along with the aforementioned Broadcom Crystal HD option, you are getting real HD playback (1280×720) from a netbook!
We’ve seen Woot feature quite a few netbooks in the past, but today they have gone over the top. Everyone’s favorite (US only, sorry!) deal-a-day website is offering not one, but two netbook choices today, both from reputable netbook makers.
Behind door #1 | Woot.com – Acer Aspire One D150 for $259.99 (+5 shipping)
Windows XP
1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU
1GB of RAM
160GB HDD
6-cell battery
1024×600 10.1” screen
Available in black, blue, or red
Condition: Refurbished
Behind door #2 | Shopping.woot.com (Woot/Yahoo partner site) – Asus Eee PC 900A for $169 (+5 shipping)
Linux
1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU
4GB SSD
1GB of RAM
1024×600 8.9” screen
Condition: New
Woot really seems to love netbooks. Head over an check out the two netbooks, and remember, if you are interested, you’ll want to buy fast because these deals will only be here for one day (and that’s if they don’t sell out!).
Jumping on the jolly 3G Bandwagon (the more the merrier) along with ECS and Asus are Acer. A positive review at Chip.de mentions the following.
Im dritten Quartal folgen weitere Modelle mit UMTS/3G-Modul und den Farben Pink und Braun.
My translation: In the third quarter follow further models with UMTS/3G and Pink and Brown colours.
This is excellent news because, apart from a lack of Bluetooth and touchscreen, the device is shaping up nicely as an Ultra Mobile solution. With the 6-cell battery you’ll reach 6 hours battery life (possibly more when Linpus switch over to the Moblin core) in a smaller package and 30% lighter weight than the MSI Wind with 6-cells. Chip.de are reporting a bright screen and quiet fan too. If the 3G version comes with 8Gb of fast flash then it’s even better!
