Yesterday I shared five aspects of the Acer Aspire One that I wasn’t too fond of. It’s not all bad of course, so today it’s time to highlight a few elements that I do like for this $379 netbook. Bear in mind my standard disclosure: these are simply my opinions so use this information to form your own thoughts. A few commenters in the last go-around seem to have missed that part, so it’s worth the restate. With any device, there’s both good and bad; regardless of my opinions, there’s definitely an audience for this device.
Build quality. I’ll start with something that I mentioned during our video unboxing because I think it’s a key element to discuss for a $379 notebook computer. I was leery of the build quality due to some poor experiences with Acer products in the past. Combine that caution with a low-cost, low-profit margin netbook and it could have been a disaster. Nothing could be farther from the truth, however. I’m very impressed with how sturdy this little lappy seems to be. The keyboard doesn’t exhibit any of the “wiggle” I saw prior on my Asus Eee PC for starters. The screen hinges? Pretty darn solid at any viewing angle. No doubt that most (if not all) of the lower-priced netbooks will be plastic boxes, but this is one well-build plastic box.
Display. You have to like a glossy screen if you want to use an Acer Aspire One, but I’m used to that on my MacBook Pro and Samsung Q1UP UMPC. I thought Acer might have gone with a low quality display, but the LED backlit 8.9-incher is fantastic.
It’s bright and crystal clear with 9 steps of brightness. I find that I can set the screen to about half-brightness and be very comfortable. It also has one of the widest viewing angles I’ve ever seen as shown below.
