Let me first say that this is not my first Acer netbook, nor is it my first Acer computer. I presently own an older Acer Aspire One that took a pretty decent fall a ways back and has a broken screen, which I now just use to control my home automation and security system and cameras (everything else still works, just have to use an eternal monitor.) I also have an Acer desktop computer that I absolutely love and has given me zero trouble which I use for gaming and general computing.The beginning of May 2012, I purchased TWO Acer Aspire One D270s, one D270-1182 (Burgundy Red) and one D270-1410 (Espresso Black)
PRO:
Both are very light, comfortable sized, and easy to use. I found the price point to be attractive and overall felt it to be a good value. Battery life is good, the mult-gesture touchpad is nice, easy to use the built in webcam and microphone for Skype etc. I bought this pair mainly to skype with my mother while I travel, and for me to surf the web and listen to music as an alternative to my work computer while traveling. My mother has trouble with computers and all other electronics, so I was impressed that she was able to use it comfortably and learn it quickly. The large hard drive also makes it possible for this to be a primary computer for her as well.
CON:
Understandable for a netbook, it is relatively slow, stock from the box. The 1 Gig of RAM that it ships with is way too small to run windows 7 and browse the web quickly or play any large games. While it is passable, those who are used to working with a desktop or full sized notebook will definitely notice the difference. While a RAM upgrade is cheap in terms of parts, it is relatively complicated on this model netbook. To upgrade ram, you must remove the keyboard, many screws and it's a little tricky to get the case completely apart. (There are videos on YouTube that will show you how to do this step by step.) I am a moderate to advanced user, and I performed the upgrade myself in about 30 minutes total, it was a little more complicated than I initially thought it would be but not horrible. (My older Acer netbook has an access port to access the ram, and it was a 30 second, 2 screw upgrade.) This netbook will only recognize 2GB of ram with Windows 7, however I did install a 4GB module. I duel boot in Linux, and Linux does recognize all 4GB. The RAM upgrade made a huge difference, and now I'd say its pretty decently fast for a netbook. My mother was running hers stock on the 1GB of ram and didn't have any complaints.
Double Con, or maybe just my bad luck:
Right out of the box, I had intermittent issues with the screen flickering on BOTH netbooks. It occurs most noticeably and frequently while watching video. This includes while using Skype as well. My mom's D270-1182 also crashed several times while I was setting it up brand new from the box. Then, after she used the computer only a few times, and during a Skype call, her netbook inexplicably shut off and the hard drive died. It was a complete hardware failure of the hard drive, computer would not boot or power up the HD. My diagnosis is a total hard drive failure for an unknown reason. I contacted Acer and they were very good about setting up a warranty repair and sending me a return label for what they are estimating to be a 7-10 business day repair. I just sent it out today, so we'll see how it goes when it comes back.
When setting up the return for her netbook, I asked about the screen flicker issue on both of them, and I was told they do not know of it as a "known bug". I did do some research, and note that several other people are reporting this issue as well. They also gave me a return label for my D270-1410 to return it to investigate the screen flicker issue. So, after less than 60 days, both of them are going back to Acer for warranty repair.
While I'm not thrilled with the double whammy of issues that I had, I'm not going to write them off completely, maybe I just have bad luck... Acer seemed to be very helpful with setting up the warranty service, and I won't know how they do for sure until they come back from Acer. I will update this review once I get them back!
My overall rating:
It's OK, but I wouldn't recommend this model to my friends.
0 comments:
Post a Comment