Acer Aspire One Review

My new backpacking best buddy.  I've found it to be the perfect traveling laptop to haul around in my travels.  That is.....if you don't actually have to do any work on it.  It's perfect, or close to it, for emails, net surfing, or utilizing GPS and mapping your route.  If you have to crank out a document, or fine tune a report, I'd go with something with a bit more size. 

A close friend from Switzerland first introduced me to the Acer brand.  He informed me that Acer has been very popular in Europe for years, and was surprised that the brand hadn't really caught on in the states.  During our visit to see our friends in Switzerland, he had several Acer brand computers at his home and I got to give a couple a whirl.  The brand had stuck in my head when looking at laptops back home, and with his recommendation coupled with the fact that he was an IT professional and computers were his business, I picked up the Aspire. 

Sporting Windows XP, 1 GB of RAM, 120 GB of storage, a video cam, weighs just over two pounds, and it's wireless right off the shelf, it's almost too good to be true.  It comes in a variety of colors, and I got mine for well under $400.00, but the really attractive issue is the weight to me.  Light and functional.  You can trek all over the city or up the side of a hill and hardly realize you even have it on board.

The 8.9 inch screen is very sharp and the keyboard is reasonably sized.  The right click/left click require some getting used to, and the lack of a DVD drive requires you to bring one with you should you require it.  I must confess, I find that a bit of a nuisance at times.  The battery is yet another issue.  A charge lasts for about 30 minutes.  Not a big deal if you have a plug handy, but if not, computer times are short.  The wireless feature I have found to work flawlessly. 

For work give me my 17 inch, but while traveling for play, I like this one just fine.