- 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor
- 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM Single Channel RAM
- 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
- Windows XP Home (SP3), Over 3 Hours of Battery Life (3-Cell 2200 mAh)
- 10.1″ WSVGA CrystalBrite LED Display, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Product Description
Acer AOD250-1151 comes with these high level Specs. Intel Atom Processor N270, Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3, 10.1″ WSVGA Acer CrystalBrite LED Display, Mobile Intel 945GSE Express Chipset, Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM Single Channel Memory, 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM, Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader, Acer InviLink 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED, Integrated Acer Crystal Eye Webcam, Two Built-in Stereo Speakers, 3 – USB… More >>
Acer Aspire One AOD250-1151 10.1-Inch Black Netbook – 3+ Hour Battery Life
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Overall, this is a perfectly decent netbook. But the trackpad is really, really awful. Maybe its due to being a Mac guy, and used to Mac trackpad’s, but I really found this one almost unusable. Hard to control, overly sensitive at times, the button is way to hard to click… really, not a positive thing I can say about it. Right on the verge of shipping the unit back because of it.
Granted, overall its a pretty nice little netbook. Plenty light, decent form factor, etc etc. But in case I haven’t been clear enough, I just cannot get past the trackpad.
Rating: 2 / 5
I went to a local Fr*’s to play around with a bunch of netbooks before deciding on one. HP definitely had a nicer keyboard, and there are other brands like MSI with non-glossy screens (much better choice than the annoying glossy screens many netbooks come with, including this one).
But, I needed to go with an open standard device. I don’t really trust some of the big name companies to not do something strange with the BIOS, and since Acer tends to leave relatively “generic” settings for everything, I went for it. I have no proof of any of this, by the way. It’s just how I felt.
And why is that important? Because I need to run FreeBSD on it.
This is what I did after getting the device.
1) Boot, clean out as much junk as possible (useless games, antivirus, advertisement software, etc.) Note I did not register Windows since I am not going to use it.
2) Update BIOS. Mine came with version 1.03. Acer site had 1.07. I know they fixed some quirks with screen brightness not being saved properly and what not. Their BIOS update software is a Windows program. This is the only reason I bothered to boot Windows.
3) Remove the HDD completely! I don’t need it! It’s just an extra weight to me. Note mine was Hitachi. Apparently, many different brands were found to be used by Acer. I hoped for Western Digital or Seagate, but oh well.
4) Copied over a working a FreeBSD 7-STABLE environment from my desktop into a Transcend 16GB SDHC card. One needs to set up the boot sector, and just tar over important system files (/, /usr, /var, etc.), and modify system config files like /etc/fstab, rc.conf, etc. Note, I did not set up swap. Even fully loaded with software I use (gimp, Firefox, avidemux, wine & some Windows programs like Canon Digital Photography Professional, etc.), there’s almost 10GB worth of space left over for user files.
5) Put the SDHC card in the slot, go into BIOS (F2 at boot), change the boot order to point to the card first < - not necessary if you remove the HDD, and voila! Boots right off the SDHC card. It's pretty darn fast, too.
Note: FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE does not have alc driver needed for the Atheros wired network device. Wireless is fine (ath driver). I needed both, so I used -STABLE. 8.0 will also have all the necessary drivers. Even the USB webcam is detected, although I have no idea what to do with it. I don’t know if sleep works. I don’t really care. I just needed a light weight, low cost device to bring with me when I travel.
Rating: 5 / 5
It’s a nice. lightweight, small computer with a good keyboard and display. Performance is miserable if you leave the spurious applications that came with it. After uninstalling McAfee, the nonsense games and software sales pitches and resetting the browser settings, including the home page setting, it works very well. Of course, it would work better if it did not have Vista — October will show if Win 7 helps.
Good luck.
Rating: 4 / 5
I used my home network’s Ethernet buss to do most of the setup, and everything was working fine … until I came to the wireless network card. I moved the momentary-contact switch to the right and the on-screen icon and flashing led indicated the wireless card was “working”. Problem was, it wouldn’t detect my network wireless signal. The so-called instruction manual was of no use whatsoever. Just to make sure it wasn’t a network glitch I ran my Dell and Toshiba laptops right along side the ACER. They both came up and instantly latched onto the wireless signal. I wasted a couple of hours running the troubleshooting software that was onboard the computer … to no avail. Still wouldn’t detect my network. I took the cute little beastie back to Wal-Mart and got a refund. This was my first experience with ACER … and it will probably be my last.
Rating: 2 / 5
This is my second one(the first was stolen). Its light weight. The key board and screen are big enough for easy use and viewing. It does everything I need it to do.
Rating: 5 / 5