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 On fast-growing market of small portable computers another “big player” put itself into play in the struggle for leadership. Acer’s trump card is Aspire One model A110-Ab. Term netbook came out as result of need for making boundary between these little guys and classic notebooks. Therefore, the most precise name of tested device should be Acer Aspire One A110-Ab Netbook (A110-Ab is just a model identification for certain region).
As people from Acer are aware of fact that they are a little bit late with launching of this kind of device on market, they tried different approach – attractive price and different design solutions from competitions. As almost all new netbooks have same hardware platform, it’s quite clear that in this field Acer didn’t have much maneuver space. So Acer focused on making Aspire One more attractive and visually as much as different as it’s possible. And they actually succeed in that but still remains the question: “Will these kinds of solutions be accepted on the market?”
Aspire One A110 is available in four colours: golden brown, coral pink, seashell white and sapphire blue. We decided to test sapphire blue, just for personal aspiration for this colour. This is actually dark blue that looks close enough to be alternative for expected black, for all ones that want netbook with touch of business looks. Despite the rumors on Internet, quality made is quite satisfactory and on this field Aspire One doesn’t fall behind the competition. Case is firm and screen is well protected with cover that doesn’t bent under pressure.
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Picture quality of 8.9-inch TFT LCD screen is something to wrangle about. This is the “glare” screen and colours are noticeably better looking than on matte screens, like Eee PC and Wind, but on sun light, because of reflection, visibility of Aspire’s screen is a bit difficult. It has LED backlight that reduces power consumption. Acer Aspire One A110 netbook has just a bit bigger dimensions than its rivals with same diagonal. The big plus of this feature is more space for keyboard. The keyboard is maybe the main trump of this netbook. Enter key is finally in full size (we really do like big Enter key) and keyboard’s dimensions 249(W) x 170 (D) x 29(H) mm are somewhere between those on Eee and Wind models with 8.9-inch and 10-inch. But the high price for this big and truly good keyboard is paid through small and not so well positioned two touch pad keys. These keys are positioned on both sides right next to touch pad, instead of being positioned below it. This position will certainly bother all users with previous experience with notebooks, while beginners will embrace this touch pad key configuration much better. Touchpad has smooth surface that, in generally, does its job quite well. During testing, precision of it was a little bit reduced because of sweaty fingers on hot summer days.
Operating system is adjusted Linpus Linux Lite. The basic screen is divided in four sections. Each section has three icons and pointer for selecting icons that can be displayed. In first section are icons for Internet applications and they cover all applications: from surfing through chat to e-mail client. In second section are icons for business applications with Open Office as base. Third section is attended for entertainment, so games and multimedia programs are located there. Fourth segment wears a name “Files” and it includes software for file manipulation. As expected, whole interface is very intuitive and even beginners won’t have bigger problems with it. On Aspire One A110 can be installed, with no problems, Windows XP and drivers are available at Acer’s official site.
One Heart for All
As we mentioned earlier, Aspire One A110 netbook has the same “heart” as most netbooks, which means Intel Atom processor at 1.6GHz. Although this little guy has big nominal clock, you shouldn’t expect miracles. It’s powerful enough to reproduce HD video material without stutter but it cannot carry out some demanding applications, which is normal because this netbook isn’t meant for that. Warming up is noticeable but Aspire One A110 is even in this segment in range with Eee PC competition. Built in 512 MB memory is enough for Linux but in case you install Windows you might want to increase memory. And that operation, unfortunately, can be performed only in certified Acer’s service centers. For data storage is provided 8GB SSD and for simple extension of capacity can be used “Storage Expansion” slot on the left side of device, where SD cards can be inserted.
One of ways that Acer used to low down the price is elimination some of, according to Acer, not so important parts, so tested model didn’t have Bluetooth module. On the other hand, some experiences are obviously inherited from bigger notebooks of this manufacturer. As result of that A110 has great wireless signal reception. One more detail of Acer notebooks that is applied on this little guy is integrated camera that stands out with its quality from cameras on other netbooks.
Very modest 3-cell battery can pull out up to three hours of work, which is nice result. Big plus of this netbook is definitely price for 8.9-inch diagonal screen. Of course, more expansive netbooks offer bigger disk, more memory and better battery, but still we get the feeling that main question will be: “Will you like this type of screen and touchpad?”
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NoteBooks 
