Acer Aspire Happy Review
Upon the first look, the Acer Aspire One Happy looks like just another netbook but what makes it stand out from the rest of the netbooks is its incredibly bright colored lids which are available in red, green, blue and purple colors. Other specifications of this netbook are pretty much standard. You get a 10.1-inch display packing 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, 250GB hard disk drive, 1GB RAM and a Windows 7 Starter operating system which does not allow the user to change the wallpaper.
To be honest, seeing a netbook with 1024 x 600 resolution in 2011 is weird since most of the modern netbooks now come with at least 1366 x 768 or 1280 x 720 pixel resolution. This means that the text is not as sharp as one would otherwise expect it to be. The font on the screen appears to be a little blurry. Apart from being offered in disturbingly bright colors, I did like the use of dual core Atom N550 1.5GHz processor. This processor handles multitasking much better and runs few apps faster as well, thanks to the extra core. Just do not expect it to blow away netbooks like Asus 1215B out of water as they come with faster and stronger AMD E350 processors.
Another thing to to like about the Acer Aspire One Happy is the pre-boot environment. Happy netbook comes pre-loaded with Android operating system which is one of the most popular phone OS right now. However, using it on a non touchscreen netbook results in a bit awkward experience. It feels shoehorned in and not most of the Android functions work. For example: Alarm will work only if your netbook is on and Android is running. It cannot automatically wake up and alert you about the alarm. Also, you cannot access anything stored on the windows partition which kills the purpose of a quick boot operating system. Web browsing is mediocre since Flash is not supported inside the web browser.
Ports-wise, you get 3x USB 2.0 ports, VGA port, Ethernet port, SD card reader, 802.11n Wi-Fi and there is no Bluetooth built-in. Battery life is pretty good and I got 6 hours in wireless web browsing test. Keyboard is same as Acer D255. The keys are chiclet but much bigger in size (like in Acer 522) compared to the chiclet keyboard usually found in Macbooks. Touchpad works like a charm and we had no problems using the multi touch gestures. Performance is same as the Asus 1015PEM netbook. Read Asus 1015PEM review to know more about the performance of an Atom N550 netbook.
Verdict – Acer Aspire One Happy will surely make college-going students and mothers happy. However, we would not recommend it to businessmen due to the low screen resolution.
Also check out:
- HP G6 Notebook
- Sony Vaio YA Review (Sony Vaio YA is even more powerful than Vaio YB, all packed into a compact netbook-ish form factor)
- SE Arc Review
Post a Comment