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Article Index
Acer Aspire One Pro - Professionalism and style.
Specifications
Package contents
Physical aspects
Physical aspects continued
Benchmark
Conclusion
All Pages

The lid





The lid, on which the silvery logo is located, feels like pure quality. The material on this model is definitely alright. The feeling you get from drawing your fingers across the lid is a good one, something that Acer had sort of promised; you can clearly feel the texture of the material.



The hinges work really well and are not too tight, yet tight enough to uphold the lid. I don’t anticipate they will wear out anytime soon; they seem capable of enduring many openings and closings before getting dull.

In addition, the part where the hinges are attached is very elegant. Very refreshing to see that Acer has cared for all aspects of the design. So far, the design has prevailed over all the netbook. Everything is cut in elegant, smooth forms which is a very nice contrast to the slightly more professional black colour.



Here you get a good feeling of the texture of the material; it’s not just a faded black colour to be looked at, but a surface that should be touched.

The front:

No reason to say a lot about a little.
The front is kept simple and features little but a slider to open the lid and the soft, organic forms which generally pride this netbook. No nasty, sharp edges to make it cold and impersonal; it is a joy to the eyes…once you remove the stickers, that is.




The rear





At the rear we have the 6-celled battery, which takes up quite a lot of space. It does stick out a bit but that doesn’t affect the design too adversely, though it might appear a bit over the top at first glance. On the other hand it would be silly to sacrifice the larger battery for the design, because the battery life is really something you will appreciate in netbooks like this; they were practically made for longer trips on trains/planes and the like.

The bottom





Not a whole lot to say about the bottom. This is where you insert the battery, and where you find a slider to loosen it. It’s pretty easy to take in and out, and beyond that there is little of interest. Okay, the bottom will be where you’ll attach the extra RAM if you get the larger version of this Pro computer with XP Pro etc.

The right side



The left side



Overview



No particular comments on this. There are no unexpected inputs/outputs and none are missed; nice with enough USB ports and the option of connecting an external monitor. Simple and adequate.

Diodes







All the usual diodes are here. One for the on/off button and Bluetooth at the top by the hinges on both sides. A checkered stripe runs along at the top which looks very nice – an extra little touch that adds to the design. We also have diodes for capslock and numlock as is appropriate, as well as a system indicator.
Additionally we have a battery and WiFi indicator, both of which are always nice to have. There isn’t exactly any breakthrough in terms of diodes. That is not in itself a problem, for too many diodes can be annoying, so it’s nice the netbook isn’t plastered with colours and diodes, which would go against the design in any case.

Keyboard and touchpad





The keyboard is quite well done. The size is very fine and the keys do not seem too small or squished together for lack of space. However, there is ‘plasticky’ click sound when you press the keys. Acer could have worked a little more on this and given the sound the same touch as the rest of the netbook. Still, it’s good enough to type with and it doesn’t get annoying. The keys feel well enough, so the sole criticism is the sound.

In my opinion, the touchpad could have been made a tad wider…it is slightly narrow when you’re navigating around the screen. However it tracks your finger nicely and both it and the click-bar below not only work really well, but feel fantastic. The click-bar is a single unit, but it’s pretty easy to both left- and right-click on it.



Again a fine texture making the computer very nice to look at.
Some ways of utilizing the touchpad are illustrated when you receive the netbook. It’s nice to know how it works from the outset, and you can always take off the sticker once you’re comfortable with the mechanics.

You have to assume Acer prioritized a larger keyboard and cut off some of the space below the touchpad as a result.

The display



Not a whole lot to say about the display. It has a very fine size and colour reproduction. It does cause a bit of glare which you get used to fairly quickly, but it can be annoying in for example sharp lights. Just above the display we have the webcam, again accompanied by a nice little sticker. I guess it’s just a bit of advertising for a product you already bought.



The display is capable of running a resolution of up to 1024 x 600px, making it nice and easy to surf the web and view most websites. No complaints in this area.

Sound and speakers

The sound is acceptable but not much more than that. Never expect fantastic audio from a netbook. Investing in some good headphones or speakers is always recommended for a netbook, and really computers in general. It is capable of running Skype and other programs that don’t require much, but it will never be your first choice to play music on.

It does have fairly good audio compared to other netbooks, but that doesn’t say as much about the Pro as it does about the overall quality of audio on netbooks in general.

Noise, heat, and power consumption

It is very silent and noise is not a problem. This is also something Acer supposedly prioritized in this Pro version. Whether it’s true I do not know, but if so it worked out very well. You also have the option of 64GB SSD storage rather than a hard drive which, in theory, should lower the noise level even more. However, I’d like to stress that it’s already very silent to begin with.

A 6-celled battery is never a bad choice when it comes to power consumption, and it has a theoretical battery life of up to 7.5 hours according to Acer’s website. That should be plenty, and certainly enough for most flights across Europe.

The netbook never gets too hot to sit with, so you can easily keep it in your lap over an entire trip without getting annoyed by the heat. However, computers will always be better off on smooth surfaces in order to release heat, at least if their fan is at the bottom.

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