Monthly Archives: January 2011

So, the iPad found its way to eBay and was eventually sold for £20 less than I bought it for, and that is after postage and charges. It shows how popular the iPad is and how much some people will pay for a second-hand one, even in near perfect condition. On a side note, the price of second-hand Apple products never fails to amaze me- old iBooks regularly sell for over £300 and 3 year old Macbooks still garner between £400-500 on average. I considered going for an older Macbook for my mobile needs when I realised that my Son’s Netbook was near the end of its life, but eventually decided that a full-sized laptop was too big and a Macbook Air was far too expensive for what I needed.

Two hours and a mere £150 later I was in possesion of an Acer Aspire One AOD260 which I bought on a whim from eBay. It was brand new and had never left its box and after picking it up locally I started to have a play when I got home. I knew nothing about the device, but was down heartened by the price of Netbooks in general and refused to pay £300 for something that included Windows 7 Starter and that did not come with a long battery life and decent keyboard. In my ignorance I ended up buying a Netbook that has an excellent battery life, decent keyboard and a very good screen, but there is much more to this story.

Once I had spent the first hour removing anything with McAfee and Norton in the title (oh how I hate every product these two companies have ever made) and installed my most needed and best performing software; Firefox, Thunderbird, AbiWord and Paint.net I started to have a look around the system. For a start I realised that the battery runtime is much better than I expected with a projected life per charge of more than 5 hours. As I write this the meter states that there is 32% remaining which equates to 3 hours 17 minutes. This seems very high, but from what I have seen does not seem unreasonable and that is my first concern done with.

The keyboard is flush which is how I like them following months marvelling at how brilliant the standard Apple keyboards are these days. I was quickly bashing words out at a fair old clip and would rate is as the best Netbook keyboard I have used to date. The screen is none too shabby either and is above par, but bright sunlight could potentially be problematic. If I ever see the sun again, has been raining for days on end, I will update this review with a more conclusive opinion.

The design of the AOD260 is somewhat business-like and far from emotional, but the build quality feels strong and there is some personality to the etched covering that subtely covers the front, back and inside. I feel that little attention has been paid to making the AOD260 look like a consumer product, despite a range of available colours, but it is far from ugly and does exude an air of quality from almost every angle.

I wasn’t expecting much from Windows 7 Starter because of the limitations imposed around customisation and the media functions, but it really isn’t too cut down for a Netbook. Certain elements are removed such as DVD playback, which you are unlikely to want to do on a Netbook anyway, and the inability to customise the main wallpaper is by far the most noticeable change. You can easily get around the wallpaper issue though with a simple program or you can pay approximately £70 to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. At this time I do not feel hampered enough to pay another £70 on the upgrade and I am still considering the possibility of loading up Mac OS to make my Netbook experience complete.

As I started to have a look around the system I noticed a familiar little green face on my desktop, the Android robot! In my ignorance I had never realised that the AOD260 comes with both Windows 7 Starter and Android which you can dual-boot as you wish. Android on a Netbook? Yes indeed and it’s there by default. Unfortunately version 1.5 in installed which is a bit of a downer as this takes away the options to install extra apps and all of the goodness of future Android versions. What it does offer, however, is instant-on and a surprisingly impressive experience. I expected it to feel like a budget Android tablet, but it actually felt as though it was built for a Netbook. I suspect that the limitations of the OS version are deliberate because of the compatibility of apps, but will take a look around to see if anyone has managed to make a later version run on the AOD260. If they have, and apps and games like Angry Birds and some of the more complex productivity solutions work, this could be a killer feature. As it stands it is a bit of a novelty that adds some curiosity to the product rather than an entire new operating system.

I need to spend some more time with this Netbook to really get underneath all of the features, but I can clearly say that I have been blown away by the quality, practicality and price of the AOD260 so far. My next purchase is a 3 MiFi to give me internet anywhere and then I should be all set. I loved the iPad and I dearly wanted a Macbook Air, but the realities of life meant that I still ended up with a device that cost me under £200 which is capable of almost everything I need to do when away from home.

UPDATE: Five days later and I am still waiting to charge the AOD260. It is amazing what a supposedly basic piece of technology can do when the form factor and the components work well together. I decided to buy a basic dongle from 3 for £31 (90 days mobile access @ 3GB) and my setup is complete. I am absolutely delighted by this device and never expected to be.