My wife’s been looking for a laptop for awhile, but instead opted to go the netbook route for the extreme portable convenience. I ordered her an Acer Aspire One that arrived yesterday, and just finished configuring everything over lunch.
So far, I’ve been extremely impressed with the Aspire. It’s amazing just how much they packed in this tiny package. The screen is obviously small but cranking up font sizes takes care of that pretty quickly.
The keyboard is very good given the size. I touch type around 120 wpm and substandard keyboards really annoy me, but I found myself typing at more-than-acceptable speeds after about an hour of using it. I hated the trackpad/buttons on the Aspire (the button placement on either side of the trackpad is especially onerous), but then I usually pack a trackball with my laptop anyway because I can’t stand trackpads in general.
The real test, though, was 3D gaming. Downloaded the World of Warcraft and Burning Crusade clients, went through interminable patch updates, and finally logged in. The result was respectable. I didn’t install Fraps, but I’d guess it was in the 22-24 frames per second. Wouldn’t want to go raiding with that, but easily passable for doing solo questing, logging in trick or treat on an hourly basis, or doing auctions.
And considering just how small and cheap this was, simply amazing.
I’m also getting a netbook, but am opting for the MSI Wind which while reviews say it has a couple other issue, does not have what I consider the major defect of not only the Acer Aspire One, but pretty much the majority of laptops produced these days — those goddamned glossy screens that add nothing but glare to the computing experience.
The MSI Wind has a matte screen and usually comes in fairly close to the Acer in reviews, so I’m opting out of the extra glare.