Thoughts about my new Netbook
Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 4:01 pm
So I finally made a decision and bought a notebook/netbook. I bought the Acer AS1410-2801. It is a "midnight blue" 11.6" notebook with a 1.2GHz Celeron dual-core processor, the SU2300. It weighs only 3.08 lbs and you can look up the rest of the specs somewhere.
My thoughts so far are:
2 slots of RAM!! 4Gb makes any OS smoother
Dual Core processor built on Core 2 architecture! You don't really miss the Cache.
Video - Good enough for emergency gaming (Last minute invitation to play for a few hours at someone's house). No enough power to do high quality gaming even at the 1366x768 native resolution
Keyboard - Not entirely full sized, but all of the alphabet keys are full size including the keyboard so the majority of your typing will feel natural. Arrow keys are very small which can be a problem for people who use the arrows a lot.
Screen Size - Perfect, I honestly don't need anything bigger except for rarely when I'm trying to read full size PDF pages and don't like to have to do a lot of scrolling.
Upgrading - Computer has a lot of the very thin, snap-in ribbon cables, but the memory is very easy to access, the HDD is a standard 2.5" drive (using an adapter to a ribbon cable). I bought a $17 bluetooth module on ebay and installed it myself in about 15 minutes. There is a spot where I could solder in a connection for a 3G card, but that will almost certainly never happen because I don't have a 3G phone or data plan and don't plan on investing in that just yet.
If you are looking for a netbook, step up and buy my notebook (not mine, but one like it). The retail price is $400 and that comes with 2Gb of RAM and a 160Gb HDD. I can watch HD youtube videos, I can have multiple programs, tabs, videos open with no slowdowns at all. This notebook feels like a fully powered one.
My thoughts so far are:
2 slots of RAM!! 4Gb makes any OS smoother
Dual Core processor built on Core 2 architecture! You don't really miss the Cache.
Video - Good enough for emergency gaming (Last minute invitation to play for a few hours at someone's house). No enough power to do high quality gaming even at the 1366x768 native resolution
Keyboard - Not entirely full sized, but all of the alphabet keys are full size including the keyboard so the majority of your typing will feel natural. Arrow keys are very small which can be a problem for people who use the arrows a lot.
Screen Size - Perfect, I honestly don't need anything bigger except for rarely when I'm trying to read full size PDF pages and don't like to have to do a lot of scrolling.
Upgrading - Computer has a lot of the very thin, snap-in ribbon cables, but the memory is very easy to access, the HDD is a standard 2.5" drive (using an adapter to a ribbon cable). I bought a $17 bluetooth module on ebay and installed it myself in about 15 minutes. There is a spot where I could solder in a connection for a 3G card, but that will almost certainly never happen because I don't have a 3G phone or data plan and don't plan on investing in that just yet.
If you are looking for a netbook, step up and buy my notebook (not mine, but one like it). The retail price is $400 and that comes with 2Gb of RAM and a 160Gb HDD. I can watch HD youtube videos, I can have multiple programs, tabs, videos open with no slowdowns at all. This notebook feels like a fully powered one.