Acer Review, Asus Review – Netbook 10

The new Acer Aspire D250 has been getting good reviews and for good reason. It’s one of the newest netbooks out in the market plus its also one of the better performers and smartest buys for your money in the recent batch of netbooks.

Acer D250 Netbook Rating: 7.6 / 7 –

Netbook [Rating:7/7] + Bonus [Rating:.5/1]

Features

• Good Battery Life – With a 6-cell battery, you can get about four to five hours with all the bells and whistles running, meaning video, WiFi, screen lit up all the way, etc. Definitely more if you save your resources. Not a bad bet.

• Awesome Performance – This little guy can work out-of-the-box, and work really hard. It can handle videos pretty well, and works fast even with WiFi on, a lot of Firefox tabs open, with iTunes running, with a .doc file in the works. It handled pretty much anything without batting an eyelash. Very snappy.

• Price – It’s only the Ruby Red, Seashell White and Sapphire Blue variants are only $345.99, while the Diamond Black is $377.64 from Amazon.com.

• Portability – incredibly thin and amazingly light. It has a 10.1″ screen and 1.0″ thick (technically 1.25″ with a 6-cell battery) and weighs 2.8 lbs. (1.27 kg). You’d barely remember carrying that.

• Functional Design – The D250 is not the best looking netbook, but you gotta give it an A+ on how the netbook designers placed the slots and what have-yous. On the right side of the netbook, there are two USB ports, the power jack, and the memory card slot. On the other side, are one USB port, headphone and mic, VGA out and an Ethernet port.

• Tiny but Easy-to-Get-Used-To Keyboard – The keyboard is small with smaller than usual Backspace and Delete keys, but there are full-sized Shift keys. It’s not a hardship adjusting from a full-sized keyboard, and touch typing is a breeze.

• “Virtual Scrolling” – While the touchpad is very tiny, Acer includes a “virtual scrolling” function which allows you to scroll through your documents by making circles on the tiny touchpad.

• Brilliant Display – Brilliant and crisp display, and you can read what’s on your screen from most angles. It’s also usable outdoors, thanks to the glossy display.

Drawbacks

• Speakers - The speakers are at the bottom of the chassis which makes it work fine if it’s on top of a hard surface. It’s a bit iffy when on your lap, so you might want to get some good external speakers if you intend to use it for music.

• Multimedia – Not the best in the market. It has minor problems with video playback, sure, but can handle HD videos. If you’re not nitpicking and won’t mind occassional screen tearing when you watch HD videos online, then you won’t mind the D250.

• The Very Glossy Coating – Okay, so the glossiness looks nice, but try touching the D250′s chassis and you’d feel like you’re in an episode of CSI. Can you say “fingerprint magnet”? You might also want to invest on a slipcase.

Rating – 7.6 / 7

Value for Money – 1 [rating:1/1]
Speed and Performance – 0.9
Screen – 1 [rating:1/1]
Keyboard – 0.8
Portability & Battery Life – 1[rating:1/1]
Looks and Design – 0.9
Extensibility & connectivity – 1[rating:1/1]

Bonus Point: For working amazingly well and having a great, long, solid battery life without going over the $400 price range.

Specs

* Processor – Intel Atom Processor N270 (512KB L2 cache, 1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB)
* Operating System – Windows XP Home Edition (SP3)
* Graphics – Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
* Memory – 1GB DDR2 533 SDRAM
* Storage – 60GB hard drive, 5400RPM
* Display – 810.1-inch WSVGA (1024 x 600) TFT LCD
* Connectivity – 802.11b/g WLAN, 10/100 LAN
* Ports – DC-in, RJ-45 LAN, VGA, headphones/speakers/line-out, microphone and three USB 2.0 Interface ports
* Battery life – 6 hours (6 cell battery)
* Dimensions – 10.1″ x 7.2″ x 1.0″
* Weight – 2.8 lbs. with 6-cell battery (2.4 with 3-cell battery)
* Colors – Ruby Red, Seashell White and Sapphire Blue variants for $345.99; Diamond Black for $377.64

The Bottom Line

It’s a great value for your money. It’s incredibly portable and works really well. It has a great battery life. It looks slick, and is very reliable. Sounds like a great netbook for less the price.

Related posts:

1. Acer Aspire One D250 Comes to Japan
2. Acer Aspire One 531, Acer’s Newest Slim Netbook
3. Acer Aspire One 751 Reviewed, Found Lacking
4. Netbook Review Format: A Guide
5. Gecko EduBook Review

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