Acer's Aspire One now available: unboxing and impressions

Given that Acer's contribution to the netbook craze was reviewed over a fortnight ago, it follows logic that the thing finally be available for purchase. Apparently the Aspire One is already on shelves in at least one Circuit City location, so chances are you can run out and grab one for yourself today as well. But what if you're not totally convinced it's the mini laptop for you? If you're 100% okay with subjecting yourself to a 26-minute "geek session" (their words, not ours) that unboxes it and gives a few brief impressions, jump on past the break and hit play. We're warning you though, don't venture down there unless you've got your coke bottle glasses on. We're serious.

Read - Acer Aspire One first look
Read - Acer Aspire One impressions

[Ignatius @ Aug 11th 2008 4:49PM]

It's been at my local Circuit City for a week now... $380 is not cheap for it though.

[strikertp @ Aug 11th 2008 5:14PM]

I'm pretty sure that an 8.9incher, 1 gig of ram, 120gb hd, and xp at $400 makes it the best value around, but that's just me.

[MemphisNET @ Aug 11th 2008 7:53PM]

Been carrying this at Staples Canada for about 3 weeks now. 349.99$ for the 7''. Screen is fantastic, so much more vibrant and brighter than the Asus Eee.

[no1watson @ Aug 11th 2008 8:39PM]

Yeah I bought this subnote a week and a half ago here in Canada. They are pretty great!

[mayhem85 @ Aug 12th 2008 3:35AM]

yeah we got those out here in CO about 2 weeks ago...
Tore it open without worrying about the display discrepancy screen lol...

I'd be an engadget sensation if I would just start recording everything new that comes in and post it two weeks before engadget knows its out lol...

for the price it seems like a decent deal...

[vg @ Aug 11th 2008 4:51PM]

uhm, has been available for quite some time...

[joe @ Aug 11th 2008 10:43PM]

word

when i first read the title I thought they were talking about the 6 cell battery version, because otherwise, it's been out for a while

[Danny @ Aug 11th 2008 5:08PM]

when is the xp version coming out?

[Arjy @ Aug 11th 2008 4:53PM]

I want the blue one :[ I only see white on newegg.

[Daniel Cheung @ Aug 11th 2008 4:54PM]

These have been in Canada for the past two weeks.

Places like Staples.ca and NCIX.com has had it since then.

[Andrew @ Aug 11th 2008 5:22PM]

I bought mine 3 and a half WEEKS ago in Anitec in Vancouver! They even had MSI Wind in stock that day. The little thing is on its second out of city trip already. So how is this news??

[tnkgrl @ Aug 11th 2008 4:55PM]

My unboxing and first thoughts are here, if you want to link to it :)

http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/unboxing-the-acer-aspire-one/

I took it apart tonight and upgraded the RAM to 1.5 GB, and it's so, so, so hack-elicious... And I mean Asus Eee 701 levels of hack-elicious!

I'll be replacing the SSD with a 60 GB 1.8" HD, adding Bluetooth, and after Burning Man, adding 3G.

[Jesse @ Aug 11th 2008 4:57PM]

Am I gay now

[Mile @ Aug 11th 2008 5:02PM]

Now?

[The Dude @ Aug 11th 2008 5:05PM]

Yeah?

[:p atrick @ Aug 11th 2008 9:28PM]

"It's sealed for your protection."

[MaxN @ Aug 11th 2008 5:01PM]

I bought mine almost two weeks ago from my local Circuit City (Santa Ana, CA).

So far I have upgraded the memory (512 - 1.5GB) and replaced the 8GB SSD with a 32GB CF card on a ZIF-to-CF converter.

Xubuntu with the netbook remix 'stuff'' added and a few tweaks are running extremely nicely.

Memory upgrades are a fairly extensive disassembly away, but the SSD is easy :)

It would probably have been easier to wait for the XP version with the proper drive and (presumably) the 6-cell battery......

[Zeth Ethereal @ Aug 11th 2008 5:01PM]

OMG these guys are so boring and annoying...

[MattyB @ Aug 11th 2008 7:29PM]

I purchased the windows version from CDW and it arrived last Friday ($433 shipped). It seems like the best deal in terms of the price to feature ratio.

[CosterMonger @ Aug 11th 2008 6:26PM]

maybe that's how you can tell it's not viral :(

[Lancelot @ Aug 11th 2008 5:19PM]

There's a saying in the the car business, "There's an ass for every seat".
There's a saying in the tech field too, "There's an idiot for every stupid PC
that retails for ridiculous prices & still needs upgrades"..

[Andrew @ Aug 11th 2008 5:26PM]

Uhm, $350 for what it offers is not much. It also does what it's supposed to do very well. Why don't you try it before you knock it?

[dc @ Aug 11th 2008 5:41PM]

There is a saying in the comments business: "even dopes have internet access."

[chuck209er @ Aug 11th 2008 5:07PM]

Not only is it available by me, it's available in the 1GB, HDD XP version. And it was only $399 !!

Love it love it love it.

[Hamodeh @ Aug 12th 2008 7:55PM]

From where did u buy it for this price?
Thanks

[mcdj @ Aug 11th 2008 5:08PM]

I thought Vern died?

[joe @ Aug 11th 2008 6:41PM]

what a pair of choppers

[Tim @ Aug 11th 2008 5:35PM]

It looks like a cheaper, shitter version of my mini-note with a better processor.

The mini-note is awesome, rapid on xp. does my school work awesomly multitasks well handles .5gb ram more than the aspire. nicer case, better webcame.

seen as speed doesn't mean THAT much on a linux device like the aspire one Im not selling my mini note any time soon to pick up any other netbook.

[jon @ Aug 11th 2008 5:49PM]

sounds like someone is a little insecure about their mini-note regret...

[phanbouy @ Aug 12th 2008 1:05AM]

i think i'll decline on the better webcame

[Antti @ Aug 12th 2008 3:14AM]

Hmm, this has been available in Europe for at least a month. It looks decent, and works quite fast.
Price is about 320 eur in Finland, which is... what, 475 usd?

[David @ Aug 11th 2008 5:55PM]

I played with it at CC and it's nice, but to me, the keyboard has been jacked up to the size of the WIND's without the screen real-estate following suit, so what you have are WIND dimensions, without the 10.2" screen.

I'd rather have a smaller keyboard and smaller computer overall (e.g. Eee 901).

Also, it's kind of stupid, but why the 0.3MP camera? How much more could the 1.3MP camera have cost them?

Still, a nice package. Great screen (although "glossy").

[DiGiC @ Aug 11th 2008 5:57PM]

Most boring unboxing ever.

[anthony @ Aug 11th 2008 6:44PM]

i work at a circuit city, and we have had it for sale for two weeks now!! we just didn't have them on display.

[Ninjakamster (PS360 FTW!) @ Aug 11th 2008 6:12PM]

The $379 model comes with 512megs of ram, 8gb SSD and Linux.

The $399 model comes with 1gb of ram, 120gb HDD and XP Home, the far better deal.

Both are available at Microcenter.com, there's a store in Houston, will check it out after class.

Both come with 3 cell batteries with only 2.5 max hours of battery life but a great price for what you get especially against the other netbooks out there.

[OCEAN 12 @ Aug 11th 2008 6:14PM]

put it back in the box, and keep the recite

[Ninjakamster (PS360 FTW!) @ Aug 11th 2008 6:21PM]

If Apple releases a netbook, will you cream your pants my Apple fanatical friend?

[OCEAN 12 @ Aug 11th 2008 6:16PM]

put it back in the box, and keep the recite

[Casey @ Aug 11th 2008 6:26PM]

Don't be in such a rush to put your computer back in the box that you forget to spell-check your comments, though.

[OCEAN 12 @ Aug 11th 2008 6:17PM]

put it back in the box, and keep the recite

[CosterMonger @ Aug 11th 2008 6:30PM]

yes you are reciting quite often!
take out of the box remove default Linpus OS!

[alloneword @ Aug 11th 2008 6:40PM]

Been on sale for a week or so at DSE in Aust. As far as they go, looks pretty average. base model only has 512MB RAM, and no bluetooth.

[Akeem @ Aug 11th 2008 7:43PM]

I bought one at Circuit City over a week ago because nobody else had it in blue. So far I've like it except for how the mouse buttons on the touchpad are situated. I've gotten used to it by now though. However, after messing with Linpus for a while, I just decided to install Xubuntu on it and it runs great. WiFi doesn't work out of the box (Xubuntu), but there are already a lot of guides on the internet that show you what to do.

[Wormbolt @ Aug 11th 2008 8:21PM]

I can't decide if I want to kill the guy in the insert first or off the other one and save the old man for for when I can linger.

Gotta stop watching Dexter.

[Ninjakamster (PS360 FTW!) @ Aug 11th 2008 9:18PM]

I got to try out both the SSD and HDD models at my Microcenter store in Houston.

The HDD model has a slight bulge at the bottom to accomodate the HDD and of course is a bit heavier.

As some have said, the mouse buttons are very loud, the left one being louder but they were slightly quieter on the HDD model than the SSD model.

[BOGRASH @ Aug 11th 2008 10:29PM]

trash

[Dustin Hess @ Aug 11th 2008 10:31PM]

I am sad to say that I actually watched the video from begining to end, and I was almost in tears by the end.

The bit about two card readers was interesting though, one to expand the system storage with the laptop boasting some software to merge the one sd card with the primary on board storage, and one used strictly for external storage.

[Richard @ Aug 12th 2008 5:59AM]

COUGH!!. viral advertising COUGH!!

[x2Jiggy @ Aug 13th 2008 10:29PM]

I bought an aspire one a couple of weeks ago (linux version) and was satisfied with everything except for the SSD drive. It comes with either an Intel SSD or a Samsung (??? I think ???).

The intel has very poor read/write speeds (12mbs/7mbs) compared to the other drive. Windows XP is unusable without extensive tweaks (ie. removing the page file and upgrading ram, formatting with FAT32 etc.)

Everything else about this laptop was great however I did not want to open it up to install either a 1.8" drive or homemade SSD. Upgrading the RAM is also far too intensive than it needs to be however the keyboard, screen, build quality etc. was great. Ubuntu didn't run the greatest either with the poor SSD however it was a lot better than XP.

[Abbey @ Aug 15th 2008 2:16PM]

I agree x2Jiggy, I thought it ran better than XP.

http://www.jr.com/acer-computer/pe/ACE_AOA1101295/?JRSource=socnet