Acer Aspire one review

Ever since Asus launched the Eee PC 701 last year, manufacturers have gone cheap ultraportable crazy.

Asus is now on its third incarnation of the Eee PC (reviewed overleaf) but the big news is Taiwanese giant Acer's assault on the bargain laptop market: the Aspire one. Acer calls it a 'netbook', designed for accessing the Internet rather than creating and editing documents and playing media. Another way to put this is that you can't expect it to do everything a 'proper' laptop can - like run Windows Vista. However, it turns out to be capable of more than you might expect.

The Aspire one is available in five editions from £235 including VAT, comparable to the original and less ambitious Eee PC. We tested the base model, which has 8GB of flash memory in place of a hard disk, 512MB RAM, and a Linux operating system. You can also buy this version with an 80GB hard disk for £244, and add a full 1GB RAM for £264. The unusual blue finish is optional.

The 80GB hard disk seems almost an excessive amount of storage for the Linux version, with its compact operating system. It's necessary if you want to run Windows XP, though. An Aspire one with 512MB RAM, 80GB of storage and XP Home costs £297, and an upgrade to 1GB RAM is a further £20. All versions come with WiFi built in, and you'll be able to order an internal 3G modem to surf the Internet through a mobile phone network account at broadband speeds. We covered the various tariffs available last month (search for 198462 at www.computerbuyer.co.uk).

Perfectly formed

First impressions were excellent. This is a tiny laptop that weighs less than a kilo, and the sleek design makes it look far more expensive than it is. Acer has managed to squeeze a lot in. The left side has a VGA output for an external monitor, plus network and USB 2 ports and a storage expansion slot for SDHC cards, the same kind used in digital cameras. On the right are two more USB 2 ports, headphone and microphone sockets, and a card reader for SDHC, MMC, Memory Stick Pro and xD.

The 8.9 inch screen, matching the latest Eee PC, shows 1024x600 pixels, wide enough for most web pages. The image is bright, with vibrant colours, if slightly grainy. The keyboard is also excellent. The laptop has a broader base than the Eee PC 901, so its keys are significantly wider, and the layout is standard, with the tilde key to the left of the number 1. The Asus has the number 1 at the far left edge of the keyboard, which is confusing.

The keyboard is much more comfortable to use than the Eee PC 901's. The keys don't flex as you type, and have a surprising amount of travel and feedback considering how slim the base is. We weren't so sure about the touchpad. It's accurate, but very small, making it hard to select smaller icons unless your fingers are tiny. The touchpad buttons are also odd. Instead of being positioned below the touchpad, they're split up, one on either side. This means you have to use one hand to left-click and the other to right-click.

Small is beautiful

Like the Eee PC 901, the Aspire one uses a processor from Intel's new Atom range, which draws only 1.5 to 2.5 watts of power. The Aspire one has the 1.6GHz single core version, and 512MB of RAM. We tested the Linux model, so we couldn't run our Windows benchmarks, but the Aspire one certainly feels quick enough. It took 22 seconds to boot up, and applications took moments to start.