Acer Aspire One 521 and 721 review
On the surface Acer's 10.1-inch Aspire One 521 and 11.6-inch Aspire One 721 appear to be fairly run-of-the-mill netbooks -- or ultraportables for those that are morally opposed to calling a laptop with a 11.6-inch display a netbook. They're rather small machines, measure just about an inch thick, and ring up at under $430. But there's a lot more than meets the eye with this Aspire One duo – instead of Intel Atom or ULV processors, both are powered by a new AMD 1.7GHz Athlon II Neo K125 processor and promise 1080p playback thanks to ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics. We've certainly been pumped about these two systems since their French debut, but fear of AMD's usually poor battery life and scorching temperatures have been holding us back from all-out excitement. Do we have nothing to fear but fear itself? We've spent the last few days with these two systems, and will reveal all in our full review after the break.
Look and feel

In terms of the build quality, the two systems are made entirely made of plastic, and we noticed the bottom screen was coming loose on both machines. We find this to be the case with most budget Acers -- they aren't the most durable systems, but for the price they're decently made. The 521 and 721 have the same allocation of ports – an HDMI, VGA, and a single USB port live on the left edge, while an additional two USB jacks, Ethernet and headphone and microphone sockets are positioned on the right. Both also have 3-in-1 card readers. The bottom of the machine provides easy access to both the RAM and hard drive compartments, so you shouldn't have a problem swapping them out if that's your thing.
Keyboard, touchpad and screen

The 521 has a typical 10.1-inch, 1024x600 resolution netbook display, but given its ability to handle 720p content we wish it had a higher 1366x768 resolution like the 11.6-inch 721. Obviously, the 721's 11.6 inch screen is roomier; we preferred using it over the 521 to write this review as we could keep multiple windows open on the screen. Both LCDs had decent horizontal view angles, but the vertical angles were pretty shoddy. The small machines have two speakers underneath the front edge – they aren't going to fill a large room, but they'll do when it comes to watching a movie or listening to some tunes while working.
Performance, graphics and battery life

We know, this is part of the review you've been waiting for – the part where we answer if AMD has made improvements in battery life, graphics, and heat, and if they can start to really compete with Intel in the small laptop space. Well, the answer isn't that cut and dry, but we're happy with what we've seen. On the performance side of things, the 1.7GHz Athlon II Neo processor scored right in between Intel Atom and Intel ULV CPUs on benchmarks, which in our opinion is a perfect place to be. We'll let the benchmarks below speak for themselves, but in everyday performance we found the systems to be relatively snappy – especially after we uninstalled the McAfee Internet Suite. Both the 521 and 721 kept up with our everyday chores, which included simultaneously writing in Microsoft Word 2007, surfing the web in Firefox, chatting in Digsby, and checking our Twitter feeds in Tweetdeck. When we threw in a 720p video into the mix, we noticed it took a few more seconds to open the file, but it played back flawlessly.
| PCMarkVantage | 3DMark06 |
Battery Life | |
| Acer Aspire One 721 (AMD Athlon II Neo K125) |
1814 | 1235 | 3:30 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X100e (AMD Athlon Neo) | 1511 | 1060 | 3:27 |
| ASUS UL50Vf (Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300) | 3724 | 827 / 3438 | 6:10 |
| Alienware M11x (Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300) | 2689 | 654 / 5593 | 4:30 |
| PCMark05 | 3DMark06 | Battery Life | |
| Acer Aspire One 521 (AMD Athlon II Neo K125) |
2286 | 1481 | 4:02 |
| Dell Mini 10 (Intel Atom N450) | 1264 | 132 | 5:58 |
| ASUS Eee PC 1005PE (Intel Atom N450) | 1431 | 157 | 8:10 |
| Toshiba Mini NB305 (Intel Atom N450) | 1272 | 156 | 6:30 |
And graphics is exactly where the single core AMD Athlon II Neo / ATI Radeon HD 4225 combo beats any Atom-based netbook, and even rivals NVIDIA Ion based systems. (Note: we haven't reviewed the $484 Eee PC 1201PN which is the only Ion 2 system on the market). The 521 and 721 didn't shrug at playing local 720p and 1080p files – they even played them smoothly when outputted to a 40-inch HDTV via HDMI. They also handled 720p YouTube videos like champs; though going up to the 1080p setting caused stuttering. On the gaming front, the machines aren't going to rip through any first person shooters, but they managed an admirable 28fps in World of Warcraft. That's really not too shabby, and NVIDIA's Ion systems are no longer the only netbooks on the market that can claim superior graphics performance. And there's no doubt that ATI's Radeon HD 4225 graphics is a better choice than Broadcom's Crystal HD decoder -- the ATI graphics didn't force us to choose a specific browser or program for playing back high-def video as Broadcom's chip did on the Dell Mini 10.
So, that battery life... AMD has definitely made strides in that arena, though we'd still like to see more when it comes to endurance. When we reviewed the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e with a 1.6Ghz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 and very large 63Wh battery, the system didn't run for longer than four hours on our video rundown battery test, which loops the same standard def video at 65 percent screen brightness. Both the 521 and 721 with only 48Wh batteries got over three hours on that same test – the 521 ran for four hours and two minutes and the 721 for 3.5. In everyday use we saw each get about a half an hour to 45 minutes more runtime. Sure, we wish these two got above five hours for comfortable NY to LA plane rides and without a doubt Intel Atom netbooks with the same batteries would last longer on a charge, but with the added performance you get from the 521 and 721 it's a sacrifice we assume some will be willing to make. (Note: we've asked Acer about extended battery options, and we will update this review when we get an answer back.) We also saw improvement in terms of heat – both systems did get slightly warm on the left side near the fan, but when we kept them on our lap it wasn't bothersome and didn't burn through our jeans like the X100e.
A quick note on configurations -- while both have the same processor and graphics, there are some slight spec differences. The $349.99 version of the 521 comes with Windows 7 Starter, a 250GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. The $429.99 721, on the other hand, has 2GB of RAM and runs Windows 7 Home Premium.
Acer continues to load these puppies up with quite a bit of software. There's both Norton Antivirus and McAfee preloaded along with a Netflix and eBay shortcuts on the desktop. Removing most of this junk noticeably sped up performance.
Wrap-up

Though, if we had to choose we'd go with the 721 -- for $80 more than the 521 you get more than just a secondary machine with its wider screen and keyboard. Of course, if you consistently demand more than four hours of battery life you'll want to go with an Intel ULV laptop, but most of them cost north of $700. And well, that's exactly what AMD's going for -- Acer now has two incredibly affordable and portable laptops that pack more performance than most netbooks and budget ultraportables on the market.





























I'm more intrigued by the 10 incher.
@Outsider That's what she said.
@omgitswes
i dont understand why people buy netbooks. A little more and you can get the complete experience, more power, storage capacity, drives, better resolution etc.
i myself wouldnt buy one of these. am ok to carry the litttle extra weight and get a better performance than to buy these and live in mediocrity.
@omgitswes
Beyond played out.
@coolkams03 Well, I'm thinking of buying a netbook, but that's just because I've already got the full experience (an Asus G60JX) and it's to friggin' big to lug around everywhere. Something tiny which can do word processing in class for a super cheap price would be great. When I need the power, my Asus DOES fit in my backpack too-- barely.
@coolkams03 enough power, a lot of portability, lightweight, cheap and mostly autonomy. I love my 15.6 Envy 15 with quad-core and good graphics, but when traveling I wish I could squeeze more battery life on those US-UK flights...I'd get a netbook just because I can carry it and it won't die on my halfway (quarter TBH) on the plane...
@coolkams03
I've had 3 full-size laptops and I bought a netbook for its 1) 8 hrs of battery life (extended battery), 2) small size and weight, and 3) cheapness. I don't need the higher performance of a laptop while traveling or out of the house. I have a custom desktop for that purpose - and I can use remote desktop if I need high performance and I'm away from the house.
People buy netbooks because they're cheap and they're small & light. I doubt many people have them as their primary PC, but for people who can't afford $1000 laptops a $350 option is definitely welcome.
"A bit of branding here or there has never bothered us much, but do we need someone across the coffee shop seeing a large logo on our laptop? Nope, and it just seems tacky."
Yeah, I mean, a giant light up logo on the back of your laptop that let's everyone at Starbucks know what brand laptop you use would be totally tacky and totally bashed on by Engadget too, amirite?
@coolkams03
I'd rather live in mediocrity than oblivion. Be sure to copy your comments and paste them into every netbook review. I so enjoy hearing that argument over and over and over.
@Brianbrain
See, cost, portability, and eight hours of battery life were all critical for me, too, so I bought a real, 13" notebook (albeit ULV), which manages to fill all my daily computing needs. That's just not something that a netbook can do.
Perfect just what my little sister is asking for....really all she wants is something pink
@omgitswes reading this immediately after the first comment and its first response is soooooo wrong...
@FAP FAP FAP
I hate you guys. I was in a lecture with only 25 people.
@omgitswes
That's what he said...
No? OK, my bad.
Great review. It's good to see AMD making progress but I can't wait for the day where they try and make a product that competes directly with an Intel chip instead of trying to force their own niche with lower prices and middle of the road performance.
@ninetynine99 You and me both.
nice review, I would like to know if its better to go for dual core Neo CPU or Intel ULV laptop?
@ad Still waiting to test something with the dual core version. Should have something in a few weeks...
@Joanna Stern
Thanks, looking forward to it.
@Joanna Stern Do you get to keep the netbooks/laptops other then for testing purposes?
@ad From my experience with the Lenovo x100e with a Turion X2 L625, its performance is almost double compare to say a 1.4Ghz Core 2 Solo SU3500.
@hmmwv
thats good news for me :) i personally like AMD but recent past has not been so good as compared to Intel. I will wait for the Engadget review before I finalize my ultra portable/netbook selection.
I think what we all really want to know is... will it blend?
AMD needs to learn how to squeeze more battery life out of their processors.
@CJisohsocool
This latest platform has shown quite a bit of improvement. Now if only AMD could convince OEMs to use their platform with anything that isn't bottom of the barrel batteries.
When are you going to review the tosh t215?
I want a faster netbook, a dualcore at 2Ghz, but in the netbook form factor, i dont care about battery life...
@thefrataline then get the 521, look at the benchmarks!
@thefrataline your really looking for a fast netbook i think this is what you need Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 (http://www.ideapadtoday.com/the-lenovo-ideapad-y460-multimedia-laptop-has-hit-the-shelves-updated-spring-2010-review.htm). i got mine too. and it works perfectly to me :)
Hey Engadget, are you going to review the Acer 1830T? From what I can tell it has a nearly identical frame to the 721 and 1551, but has an Intel CULV processor. It sounds very intriguing but I'm trying to determine if its worth the money. Plus I want to see if the battery is flush with the bottom of the case because I really hate those protruding batteries. Why have a "thin and light" laptop with an ugly tumor of a battery sticking out the bottom (or backside)!
@sithlorderic At 43Wh I don't think anything is sticking out the bottom.
They seem to be a nice alternative to Intel underpowered and poor specd Atoms. Especially the standard 10 inch netbook looks tempting with the 1080p playback ability and its HDMI, thought its lid is fugly.
4 hour battery time is good but it could be something like 5...
I would like to see something from HP on this AMD platform...
I believe hp has the dm3z out for a while now. Starts at 500 and has an option for the dual core neo. I really want this one but still waiting for a review (Please Engadget!!!!)
I'm very impressed with these machines, especially for the price. I just hope that tech-ignorants can see past the AMD logo and see what they are getting.
Good review. I've been wondering how performance would shape up on these. Not bad at all with good price points. Still curious to see how the Asus 1215 and 1218 do... if they're ever available.
@Kyzgar
I hear ya Kyzgar, any news on when the 1218 will be around Engadget?
521 Ordered! This is the netbook that I've been waiting 2 years for.
I'm actually kind of glad the 532g got canceled. I wouldn't have noticed this otherwise. The AMD seems like a better processor and bus architecture than the Intel Atom anyway. The Intel stuff just seems to be the same old crap year after year, and nobody seems to be able to put Ion in a sub-12" device for whatever reason. I'm glad AMD stepped up to pick up this ball obviously dropped by Intel & NVidia.
I'll probably pop an another GB of RAM in there though. I don't care about battery life as I don't expect to use it out of reach of a plug for more than an hour at a time.
@StalkyTheFish
Update: Upgraded it to 2GB and Win7 Pro and LOVING IT. Best 10" netbook out today. Posted a review on Amazon for it.
how are these in comparison to the asus 1201n?
@pleasantcrew should be about the same performance-wise, but maybe the battery-life on the 1201 is a little better.
Why does the 521 score so much higher in 3DMark06 than the 721? The 721 having 2gb and the same cpu, gpu and chipset, I would expect it to score higher or at least the same as the 521. Only explanation I can think of is that the benchmark was run at the higher screen resolution on the 721, putting more stress on the gpu?
Where'd they get the brown one? My mom would totally love it.
@fatpolomanjr Found it at Wal-Mart. Alright.