If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I recently bought an Acer Aspire One. I’ve had it for a few days now, and so far, I love the little thing (but more below). My primary concern about purchasing it was the keyboard; I have ogre hands (okay, they’re not green), and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to touch type on it. This ended up being a nonexistent problem, as I can type just as quickly on it as I do a regular keyboard, with only a few more typos thrown in here and there.
While I’d love to say that it worked right out of the box, I can’t – in fact, it was DOA. I took it out of the box, looked over the quick start guide, and then followed the easy instructions: plug it in, open it up, and hit the power button. In the instructions, the picture for the next step showed a person logging onto Windows. Instead of being greeted with a booting computer, however, I was shown a black screen, a green power light, and no hard drive activity. Following rule number one of dealing with computers, I tried turning it off and back on again, but still just got a black screen. I tried increasing the screen brightness, thinking that perhaps it was set to 0, but that didn’t do anything either.
While I certainly wasn’t overjoyed, I also didn’t freak. It’s a computer, and DOAs happen. I poked around online to see if there was any information about the problem (beyond “It’s dead, Jim”), and came across a post about the Acer Aspire One’s BIOS occasionally becoming corrupted, causing the unit to not, well, do much of anything. Apparently, the Aspire One has a built-in BIOS recovery routine, which allows you to flash the BIOS even if the machine won’t boot up. Figuring I had nothing to lose – what am I going to do, make it not boot up? – I gave it a try. I followed the linked guide, and after a bit of tinkering, it actually worked. I had to try it multiple times because the computer kept ignoring my flash drive. When it started reading though, it took perhaps 20 seconds, then the computer rebooted, greeting me with the Acer screen followed by Windows. Success!
All’s well that ends well, however, and things didn’t end quite so well despite me being able to revive the little thing. While it works quite well, there’s something wrong with the sound. If music is playing while I’m typing, the sound often becomes staticy or cuts in and out. Last night it cut out completely. The “fix”? Lightly tapping on the unit below the keyboard. I found that if I had music going, I could reproduce the static / cut out problem by resting my hands on the unit in a couple of places. I’m not really sure what that means – a loose connection, maybe? – but I know that if tapping the device fixes it, it’s something I don’t want to mess with.
I’ve filed a replacement claim with amazon.com, as I really do like the thing – I just want one without any bizarre issues. I had the chance to use it once in class to take notes (the primary reason I bought it), and found it to be infinitely better than taking notes by hand. I caught every word, and my right hand wasn’t aching at the end of a 50 minute session. Other thoughts: The battery life seems excellent, and the screen is much clearer and crisper than I expected. I’m definitely not going to be playing Call of Duty 4 on it, but for the internet, taking notes, and other light duty, I think it’s perfect. Someone in my class remarked, “That may be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen – it’s so tiny!” While I don’t know if I’d say coolest, it is pretty awesome. For those of you who have been asking me via Twitter if I’d recommend one – most definitely. Assuming my replacement doesn’t have any issues, I’ll be very, very happy with the purchase.
One other little oddity about all of this: my original package wasn’t shipped from “Amazon.com”, but from “Amazon.com Returns.” I’m not really sure what the explanation for that is; in all my years of buying from them, I’ve never received a package from that address. Perhaps they sent me one which another customer had returned, which might go far in explaining some of the issues I ran into. Has anyone else ever received a purchase “Amazon.com Returns”?
Glad to see your positive impressions on it. I’ve considered getting such a device before, but “end-user feature creep” has so far kept me out. I go through a process something like…
“Hey, this $300 machine looks nice for being pretty cheap.”
“But as long as I’m spending that much, wouldn’t it be worth it to spend 33% more for this one with more features?”
“And hey, as long as I’m going that far, shouldn’t I go 25% further to get this even better one?”
“Hey, this $500 machine is not so cheap.”
I only took notes on a laptop for a semester and a half before the battery became an issue. These tiny laptops didn’t exist at that time unfortunately so I used my regular Thinkpad. However, as you said Josh, it’s great. The wrist doesn’t hurt, you get ever every word, and your notes are searchable at a later point (like before the exam). I loved it.
My classes now don’t really lend themselves well to such methods though. And having a second computer for “lite” use is also not something I can afford at the moment
. I too fall victim to Joshua’s “end-user feature creep.”
Joshua: I tend to go at it from a different approach. I don’t browse stuff to see what I like, but rather, decide what I want / need, and then go from there. Sure, having a laptop with a CD / DVD rom drive would be awesome, as then I could watch Stargate SG-1 and other stuff away from home. Sure, having a burner would be cool. Etc. etc. But I don’t *need* it. I needed something that I could type notes on while at school, and the Aspire One fit the bill perfectly.
Tom: Did your battery just lose the ability to hold a charge, then? Bummer. The 6 cell battery that I got with mine seems to hold up for about 5 hours, on average, with “average use” – wifi enabled, browsing the web, and typing stuff up in Word / Google Docs / whatever.
I have had my Aspire One for about a month and a half now, and I have fell in love with it! I read alot of things said about not being able to do alot of gaming on it but I have played GTA San Andreas, Vice City and GTA 3 on it as well as Call Of Duty 1 and 2 with an external mouse/PS2 controller usb adapter. Feels nice to make the time fly by on long car trips playing super mario brothers (I own the NES System and Games and NO I did NOT dl them from torrents, I have a multi system cart reader so neyh!) I too experianced the weird music/..sound thing but its only when I am constantly moving the system, but mine freezes the system up but its only sometimes.
I suggest them for just about anyone! My grandfather does alot of photo scanning and stuff like that with his digital camera, and he bought one and replaced his desktop with it….Don’t let some people fool, you these systems are FAR more than just note-taking machines, they aren’t power monsters but sure as hell more powerful than most state! GREAT ARTICLE THOUGH, I MUST SAY! HOPE TO READ MORE.
I had my Acer Aspire One two months before my screen mysteriously cracked. There are several who have posted about cracked screens on these, some of whom, like me, have no idea what could have happened other than manufacturing defect. I’ve posted what happened below.
http://crackedaspireone.blogspot.com/
I’ve sent it for repairs, but I’m not optimistic they’re not going to blame me. I’m out $350 at least, and another $200 if they repair it.
Crutnacker,
Hope you get your problem solved; I hate to see so many people reporting cracked screens! I’ve had mine for a little over a month now and it’s still working fine. Hopefully I won’t run into any problems.
My acer aspire one has been amazing it performes better then the majority of “regular” laptops I have had I have not yet experenced the sound problem I love it’s battery life and portability as well
My screen cracked, of course 1 month past the year warranty and that may not be covered anyway. I bought mine from Shop NBC at $600. the month before they hit the stores for $300. I called them about that too and they basically said, “Too bad.” I haven’t contacted anyone about my Acer Aspire One screen, but from what I’ve read, I’m not optimistic. I did nothing to damage the screen. Used it in the evening, shut it down and when I went to use it the next day it was cracked. No temp changes, no droppings, nothing on my part.
I love it otherwise. I just hope they’ll say, “Sure , we’ll honor you and fix this since you have a couple of other Acers.
Sorry to hear about your screen cracking, Cher’ley; hope they take care of it for you.
Knock on wood, I’ve had mine for about a year now and it’s still working fine.