Acer AO532h-2309 10.1-Inch Garnet Red Netbook – Up to 10 Hours of Battery Life
Posted by admin | Posted in Computer | Posted on 13-05-2010
5
- 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 Processor
- 1GB DDR2 Memory
- 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM); 802.11 b/g/n Wireless Certified
- 10.1″ WSVGA Acer CrystalBrite LED Display, Intel GMA 3150 Graphics
- Windows XP Home; Up to 10 Hours of Battery Life
Product Description
Acer AO532h-2309 comes with these high level Specs. Intel Atom Processor N450, Windows XP Home (Service Pack 3), 10.1-Inch WSVGA Acer CrystalBrite LED Display, Mobile Intel NM10 Express Chipset, Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150, 1024MB DDR2 Memory, 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM), Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader, Acer InviLink 802.11b/g/Draft-N Wi-Fi CERTIFIED, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), Built-In Webcam, Two Built-in Stereo Speakers… More >>
Acer AO532h-2309 10.1-Inch Garnet Red Netbook – Up to 10 Hours of Battery Life
When I shopped for this netbook, it was a long process. There are so many different configurations and price points available. What I finally did was to write a wish list by order of priority with price obviously being the deciding factor. What finally made me decide on this netbook was that it had all of my high priority criteria and I didn’t pay 30 to 50% more to get what I really din’t need (bigger hard drive, `n’ wireless or windows 7 home premium etc)
The following was my wish list in order with comments on this unit.
Long battery life, (6 cell battery doesn’t stick out of the rear like a growth. About 10 hours as advertised!)
N450 processor minimum (not the N270 or 280 which cuts your battery life about 25%).
Reasonable hard drive. (160 GB is hard to fill but I can always upgrade later reusing the 160 in an enclosure.)
Integrated Bluetooth, (no dongles and much better software. Function key on and off with indicator LED. Wireless mouse (any track pad used more than a couple of minutes drives me nuts), easy PDA syncing plus lan sharing if no wifi, using your headset from your cell phone etc. Bluetooth is a very useful feature that you will find more useful as you go. It works great with all of my devices and it shares nicely. The software and the hardware was integrated by the manufacturer to work together properly and I would go this route than go for the $20 dongles that everyone seems to be complaining about. BTW, if something physically jars a dongle hard enough,it could destroy the computer board).
A good display (for one person viewing).
A reasonable keyboard.
XP is actually a bonus. (Works great on these smaller processors and it’s a lot cheaper than 7 home premium!)
`802.11g’ wireless is all you really need. (`g’ is much faster than any internet speed so for a netbook, `n’ is not worth buying a more expensive book to get it. You probably won’t need it.)
webcam and microphone (work very well with Skype etc).
SDHC card slot (don’t have Sony stuff so I am not paying for the extra slots I won’t use).
Purchased with Microsoft Bluetooth mouse, works great but wish it was a little shorter for packing alongside the Acer. When you are travelling, you end up using the mouse in locations that a lesser or wired mouse wouldn’t be comfortable with. Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 Mac/Windows
Memory upgrade. Probably didn’t need it in hindsight but it installed easily. Crucial 2GB 256Mx64PC2-5300 CT25664AC667 DDR2 200-Pin SODIMM Laptop Memory
In the end, it had all what I wanted at a good price. Quality was perfect with no issues with the hardware or software.
Rating: 5 / 5
Build Quality:
Bargain notebook computers of the past often had wobbly hinges or had a body that would flex
not so with this netbook. I am happy to report that the hinges are sturdy, don’t wobble
and the palm rest exhibits no significant flex, however the keyboard has a little bit of
flex when typing quickly.
Performance:
I swapped the hard drive for a 7200 rpm hard drive I had in my old notebook and installed
a full version of windows 7 with no performance issues even though I kept the 1 gb of ram
and I run avast antivirus in the background. Although the computer is less responsive than
my desktop, the responsiveness is more than adequate.
Battery:
Seems to get good life, but I haven’t measured it and I probably decreased it by installing
a 7200 rpm drive and windows 7. I also like how the 6 cell battery elevates the computer
for better cooling without being obnoxiously big.
Other Comments:
-The screen is capable of extremely bright settings
-The touchpad button has a right and left click feature (I have heard some netbooks do not
have both)
-The computer does not come with a carrying case
-The cover is not completely blue, it is half black and blue (I thought what I saw in the
pictures was some sort of reflection)
-small AC adapter (resembles an over sized cell phone charger)which has the ability of
swapping plugs for international usage, although I don’t think Acer sells the other plugs
-because of its lightness I find myself bring my netbook to school everyday
Rating: 5 / 5
external cd drive. I bought this as a back up for my desktop, but will use it as a portable. I don’t think I’ll need to upgrade the ram cause I don’t have a bunch of programs open at once. Heck, my desktop has been working fine with 512mb, 1gb is surely an upgrade using this. One thing I did was to clean out all the BS software (trials). Updated XP, downloaded my Mcafee 3 user subscription, loaded the software I wanted and this little thing works as well or better than my desktop.
Rating: 5 / 5
This computer has been everything that I wanted. I even bought a USB DVD Burner with Lightscribe and made a music CD, for my Son, full of his favorite songs, complete with his picture on the front. I am a musician and downloaded Audacity to multi-track a few songs. I just use an Audio-Technica microphone pluged into the line-in/microphone plug and it does a good job. I just can’t wait to buy a pair of Bluetooth Stereo headphones so I can listen to my music collection wirelessly.
It’s not a dual core processor so it’s a little slow on some functions, but it is a capable performer. I bought the 2GB ram upgrade and it improved the performance noticably. If you don’t need the biggest, baddest computer on the market and you want something easy to travel with, then I recommend this computer. My wife’s laptop just died recently and after playing with my netbook for a while, has decided to buy on of these instead of a full sized laptop.
Rating: 5 / 5
I haven’t had this computer very long, so I can’t say much more than I like it so far. I’m not fond of the highly reflective screen, but otherwise I’m happy.
I want to weigh in on the RAM, issue, though. I wanted to upgrade to 2G and – based on reviews here – got the Crucial 2GB 256Mx64PC2-5300 CT25664AC667 DDR2 200-Pin SODIMM. But the computer wouldn’t boot when it was installed.
For the things I want to do, 1 GB seems to be adequate. But I sure wish I could get 2.
Rating: 4 / 5