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Acer AO722 quick review- a well-balanced budget netbook

Adrian — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 10:36:55 +0000

For a netbook to become popular nowadays and to attract large audiences, it has to fulfill a number of conditions. It has to be light and portable, it has to come at a decent and affordable price, but it also has to offer a performance level at least close to that of a notebook. Unfortunately, there are very few devices on the market today that can offer all that in one package. Fortunately, we are going to present you in the following lines one of these netbooks, the Acer AO722.

The latest 11.6-inch netbook from Acer manages to keep it simple and uncomplicated, but also to satisfy the basic needs of a computer user. The price tag is more than decent, the performance is pretty speedy for a mini-laptop and it also runs HD content pretty well.

Enough chitchat though and let’s get down to our business of quickly reviewing this netbook’s design, keyboard, screen, performance and autonomy. We would also like to determine the target audience of this netbook, as well as point out some of its inherent weak points aside of insisting on its advantages and strong points.

Exterior and design

If there’s one thing that sets Acer laptops apart from other computers on the market today is the coloring of their devices. The AO722 is not an exception from that rule, being available in two different color schemes, ‘’aquamarine’’ and ‘’espresso black’’.

The design is one of the things that you will either love or hate at Acer's new netbook.

Both of these could be considered pretty tacky by business users, but students and youngsters in general might find this netbook’s design pretty hip. The aquamarine model is our favorite, the distinctive ripple design on the lid making the computer resemble water coming to life.

The AO722 is solid and sturdy, but manages to be pretty lightweight also. It is highly portable, weighing in at 3.2 pounds and measuring 1 x 11.2 x 7.9 inches.

Keyboard and touchpad

One of the biggest problems of netbooks nowadays is the lack of comfort offered by keyboards. Unfortunately, Acer’s new machine fails to solve this inconvenience, even though it features a full-sized keyboard.

This feels pretty cramped and uncomfortable, but on the other hand is extremely accurate and precise. The touchpad is well-sized for a netbook and accepts multi-finger gesture input. Also, it blends very well into the overall design of the mini-laptop, which is pretty nice.

Screen, hardware and performance

The 11.6-inch LCD LED-backlit screen is very nice, offering a more than satisfying 1366×768 native resolution. Even though we are not impressed by the glossy black bezel of the display, the colors are bright and the images are extremely crisp.

The Acer AO722 is probably one of the best budget mini-laptops of the moment.

In terms of hardware and performance, Acer’s new netbook is powered by a 1 GHz AMD C-Series C-50 processor with 2 GB of DDR3 memory. While the chipset itself is far from impressive, being less powerful than the AMD Zacate E-350, for example, the ATI Radeon HD 6250 graphics card with 256 MB of dedicated system memory manages to compensate a little and makes for an overall pretty snappy system.

You can’t hope to play new and demanding video games on this machine, but the HD video playback is smooth and satisfying. On the other hand, talking about multimedia content, the speakers are pretty poor, with flat sound quality and low volume.

In terms of internal storage space, the AO722 features a 250 GB SATA hard drive, which is pretty standard for a netbook with an affordable price tag.

Battery life and others

The 6-cell standard Li-ion battery featured by Acer’s 11.6-inch netbook should go for seven hours between charges, if we are to believe the producers’ claims. However, according to the Battery-Rundown test conducted by the folks at computershopper.com, the battery only lasted a few minutes over four hours, which is decent, but is under what other similar computers can do. On the other hand, based on average use, you should in fact get over six hours of autonomy, which should be satisfying.

In terms of connectivity and ports, the AO722 features three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA-out connector, a Kensington cable-locking slot, Ethernet, headphone and microphone jacks, a flash-card reader, but also full-size HDMI. This is more than you could hope to find on most mini-laptops right now.

The AO722 could be your perfect travel companion, with its lightweight and portability.

Pricing

As we already stated, a netbook’s popularity depends very much on its price and affordability. And while the AO722 has its weak points in other areas, when it comes to pricing things are almost ideal. Acer’s netbook is available right now on Amazon for 279.99 dollars, which is a couple of bucks under the price of other similar mini-laptops on the market.

Wrap-up

Is this netbook light and portable? It definitely is. Is it affordable? Pretty much so. Is it snappy and fast? Well, the processor is not great, but it does run full HD content and that is certainly a plus. Aside from that, it features a decent battery and a large number of ports.

Overall, the Acer AO722 could well be considered the perfect device for students, both in terms of design and capabilities, and is also targeted on people who are on a tight budget and want to have a decent traveling companion.

For a more detailed review of the netbook and a closer look at what it can do, you can check out this following video review from netbooknews.com:

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 review- top notch Lenovo mini laptop in a light weight package

Mark — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:04:31 +0000

The ThinkPad X220 is a 12.5 inch business oriented mini laptop that Lenovo introduced earlier this year and started shipping around April. Like other ThinkPads, this is a no nonsense laptop, aimed at professionals, and is in between the 13.3 inch category (which apparently became too big to handle by ultra portable fashionistas) and the 11.6 inch niche, which is too small and doesn’t sustain worthwhile productivity.

There’s no question that the X220 is an accomplished little PA, as Lenovo rarely misses the target with their laptops; still, let’s see if the X220 has new tricks up its sleeve or if it’s something we’ve seen before in terms of performance, design, battery life and other essential aspects. Stay tuned.

Specs

The X220 runs on a second generation Core i7-2620M processor and can have up to 8 GB of RAM. Also, you can choose between a standard LED display or an IPS one. Full spec list below.

Processor: Intel Core i7-2620M, 2.7 GHZ, 3.4 GHZ with Turbo Boost
System memory: up to 8 GB DDR3 RAM
Video: Integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics
Display: 12.5 inch, 1366 x 768 px resolution, LED backlit display/IPS
Storage: 320 GB HDD, optional SSD
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Ports: USB 2.0, USB 3.0 (only with the Core i7-2620M version), card reader, audio jack
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth
Battery: 3/6/9 cell battery
Features: HD web cam, fingerprint reader
Dimensions: 12 x 8.1 x 1.25 inches
Weight: 3.4 pounds

Build and design

I’m almost tempted to jump this section, as the X220 looks exactly like any other ThinkPad released since IBM’s stunt so many years ago. If it wouldn’t have been for the ultra contemporary features- USB 3.0 port, IPS display, slimmer profile, you could honestly say this is a vintage laptop running on a 933 MHZ Pentium II processor.

You have the same, simple black finish, made out of plastic. It’s a great finish, nonetheless, as it’s both tough, very well assembled, being also quite classy and sombre, in that way that goes hand in hand with corporate entourages. The only downturn is that the palm rest bends a little if you press really hard, but under normal working circumstances, you wouldn’t have to do that kind of thing.

The bezel around the display has a rubbery finish and won’t catch fingerprints. A good aspect of Lenovo’s slightly out fashioned approach to design is that there’s no glossy surface that might turn your laptop into a dirty mirror. The 9 cell battery version weighs around 1.7 kg, which is very decent for a pimped up machine. It’s a very light package considering the big battery, and considering the fact that it delivers performance equal to large laptops, it’s a great trade off.

The X220 has a black, rubbery chassis

The 12.5 incher hosts enough ports. On the left, you get a USB 3.0 port, D-sub, Display Port, a USB 2.0 port, Express Card and wireless switch, while on the right there’s the SDXC card reader, another USB 2.0 port (with sleep and charge functionality), Ethernet, audio jack and Kensington lock.

Keyboard and touch pad

As expected, you get a classic keyboard layout, with large keys. And when I say large, I mean large, as Lenovo’s designers found a way to put in a full size keyboard. Keys are indeed great, don’t flex and have the same quality we’ve come to expect from any Lenovo ThinkPad. There’s also a little treat, rarely seen on such a small laptop, a row of media control keys, namely volume up and down and mute mic.

The touch pad is larger than the ones on older ThinkPads and has a slightly textured finish, which helps you to have fairly accurate touch input. The left and right mouse buttons are now positioned on the bottom of the surface, without being separated from the rest of the surface. But maybe you won’t have to use them too often, as the red dot is there and feels snappier and more precise than ever.

Display

The screen is one of the highlights on the X220. You can go for a stock LED display or, for an extra $50, you can opt for an IPS display, the same type used on the iPad 2. This solves all the problems related to poor viewing angles and as you know, this is a problem on so many laptops. If you tilt the screen a little, objects lose detail and the corners get covered in some sort of plague like black hue.

It’s not the case with X220′s IPS option, as even tilting the display back 180 degrees gets you great viewing angles. Also, the screen is matte, which means there won’t be any glare being reflected on the screen, so you can use the machine in broad daylight or in a very well lit room. The only downturn is the rather limited resolution of 1366 x 768, which although is good enough to run HD videos, might prove insufficient to run full screen apps with a high level of detail at an acceptable level.

Even tilted back a lot, the IPS display offers great viewing angles

Hardware and performance

The base X220 model comes with a second generation Core i3 processor, while the top version has a Core i7-2620M CPU. Although a 12.5 incher, the X220 hosts full voltage Sandy Bridge CPUs, which offer much better performance than ULV solutions like Atom processors, for example. These processors can deal with any kind of apps, so a mix of browsing, working, media playback (even HD) and some light gaming is easily handled by the laptop.

There’s no dedicated video card, mind, but the integrated solution can deal with older games pretty good and newer titles might run on lower details. You can add as much as 8 GB of RAM and there’s an optional SSD drive to install, together or instead of a classic HDD. An SSD is much faster than a HDD and also requires less power to run.

The Windows Experience Index is 5.8, determined by the on board graphics. The CPU ranked 7.1 and storage 7.6, but this was with the SSD inside. Overall, the X220 offers a very solid experience, being very fast and not choking on apps, even if you’re a hardcore multi tasker. This is also caused by the decent software configuration.

Besides the OS, there aren’t many pre installed apps, namely bloatware, that just consume system resources without giving anything in return. There’s Lenovo’s Thinkvantage Toolbox, that gives you access to a bunch of apps dealing with power management, security, storage and more, which is actually very useful if you want to fine tune the performance of your machine.

Noise, heat, speakers and other features

The speakers on the X220 are modest and will take you through a conference call, but that’s about it. Don’t count on them for FLAC playback or gaming. You’re better off with a bunch of decent headphones or a nice little travel audio system. The X220 is a pretty quiet and cool laptop. Considering it has a full voltage CPU that needs proper venting, it gets rarely noticeably hot and the fan is not very noisy, as it can be easily covered with light chatter or some music.

The X220 packs a 720p web cam, which should prove sufficient for decent video calls. Also, it packs a couple of interesting security features, like a fingerprint reader that can also boot the laptop without pressing the power button, hardware encryption and a tracking service for stolen/lost gadgets.

Yep, that's a perfect keyboard.

Battery life

The X220, packed with the 9 cell battery, can go on a single charge for more than 7 hours. This was achieved with a balanced Windows profile, which takes in more power when needed, but spares the battery when dealing with less demanding apps.

Basically, if you’re going to use the X220 for browsing, working with documents, some music and clips and other productivity apps, you should be good to go for about 7 hours. However, if you want to keep the price and weight down, there are also 3 and 6 cell versions available, which will offer significantly less autonomy.

Prices and availability

The base X220 model, packing a Core i5, second generation CPU, normal display, 3 cell battery costs around 940 bucks, while the top version, including a beastly Core i7 CPU, 4 GB of RAM, 9 cell battery and IPS displayticks at around $1200. It’s pricy, but Lenovo’s machines are usually like that.

Final thoughts

The ThinkPad X220 is yet another great entry in Lenovo’s line of professional computers. But, unlike other business oriented machines, it’s smaller, 12.5 inch, and lighter than most business laptops out there. Under the hood, you get a full power dual core processor and enough RAM and storage to go on with your work without feeling the hardware limiting your work. Of course, for this you’ll have to pay good money, more than you would pay for some 13.3 inch laptops, like the U36SD. But if you’re already in love with Lenovo’s top notch build quality, great performance and, at least regarding the X220, great portability, then the decision is already made. And that is buy, buy, buy.

Photos and video: www.gadgetroad.com

Asus 1215B EEE PC reviewed – a big boy with a mighty heart

Mark — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:41:35 +0000

The 1215B is the natural evolution of the 1215N, which was not a bad netbook at all, but considering how fast the market evolves and shifts these days, you can’t really linger in one place for too much. And there are some expectations from this one, as it uses one of the new and very appreciated platforms for netbooks, namely the AMD Fusion platform. But let’s take it slow and talk about what we notice about this one when just looking at it.

Like its predecessor, the 1215B has a seashell design and the finish on the lid is plastic, but that soft, almost rubbery one we really liked on the 1215N. The little guy doesn’t look bad at all from the outside, although the lid might be a fingerprint magnet, but can you name more than a couple of netbooks which are not? The keyboard is standard chiclet and there seems to be enough space between the keys to avoid typos and the actual keys are large, although they have this plastic feel- something more soft might have been more comfy.

The touchpad is the same as the one the 1215N, which means pretty standard stuff, but built in such a way that everybody can use it without much of a problem. The single mouse button is easy to use and large enough not to miss, even if you’re not looking at the keyboard. The 12.1 inch screen has a 1366 x 768, which might attract some light if you’re in a very sunny room- so this is mostly an indoor netbook only.

The keyboard is standard Eee PC layout and feel

Now, let’s see what lies beneath the classic Eee PC skin. The 1215B is powered by the AMD Fusion E350 Zacate dual core APU, running at 1.66 GHZ. The processor comes with integrated graphics, in this case the ATI HD 6310. The graphic card comes with support for Direct X11 and is HD capable, something you don’t get on just any netbook. You can even have a go at some gaming, but there will be some limitations in terms of detail level and frame rate on newer titles.

Nevertheless, it will deliver a rich multimedia experience, be sure of that-and if you want to enjoy it on a bigger screen, there’s a HDMI port for that. System memory is 2 GB DDR3, which is a welcomed factory standard, considering so many netbooks come with only 1 GB straight out of the box. If you want to max the slots, you should know you can go as much as 4 GB- which you should, considering that about 400-500 MB can be required by the graphics card.

The lid is black with a plastic, rubbery finish

There’s a 250 GB 5400 rpm HDD, but there’s the option to go for a faster, 7200 rpm version or just switch to a SSD drive.

Read Reviews

The battery of the 1215B will hold for as much as 5-6 hours, on a regular session of browsing, music, using text editors and even watching some movies. This is a good autonomy, I might say, and we can thank the Brazos architecture for this.

The 1215B comes with Windows 7 Home Premium and a bunch of other stuff on top, most of them trial version- your decision if you’ll keep them or not. The Asus Eee PC 1215B has a starting price of $449 (for the 2 GB RAM version), but you can find it on Amazon discounted and with Free Shipping included. See link for details and also pictures and review from those who bought one of these EEE PCs already and shared their views on them.

Pretty slim for its size, the 1215B will fit in most bags and won't hold you back from running after a bus

The 1215B is a fine netbook, packing probably the best type of processor we have right now for netbooks, as well as keeping true to the Eee PC design and affordable pricing. It can handle most of the tasks a modern user can throw at it, and the good battery will offer some sought after autonomy.

More details in the review of the Asus 1215B here.

MacBook Air 11.6″ Reviewed

Mark — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:54:38 +0000

It doesn’t happen very often and when it does people get all excited and splash their savings on a netbook. Yes, Apple released the new Macbook Air 11.6” and some lucky hands from slashgear.com got to play around with it. The first in this series was one of the most controversial products of the company; most die hard Apple users loved it because it featured the company’s core values (design and portability), while some critics raised concern over the poor performance and inhibitive price tag.

This new model is still expensive for the market of netbooks, but it’s a significant price cut from its predecessor (1.000$<2.500$ in my math) . Apple’s ultraportable boosts everything is new and “green”: NAND flash storage and low voltage processors and GPU’s. The CPU is a Intel Core 2 Duo (1.4GHz or 1.6GHz), the memory module has 2GB DDR3 (or you can have 4 GB for an extra 100$), 64GB or 128GB of NAND storage (which helps keeping the ultra slim Apple look), NVIDIA Geforce 320M and the battery should hold for 5 hours with wireless on. The display is 11.6-inch running on a 1366 x 768 resolution.

MacBook Air 11.6 out in the open

Ports are distributed on both sides of the Macbook, with the power port, the first USB 2.0 port, a headphone jack and microphone on the left, while on the right there’s the second USB 2.0 port and a Mini DisplayPort. On top there’s a ultra thin webcam for Apple’s “FaceTime”. The keyboard is full sized and includes a function key row which is thinner than the rest and there’s no backlighting, while the trackpad supports multitouch and up to four-finger gestures.

Performance wise, this Macbook is built to cope with anything you throw at it (in reasonable terms, of course). Although some benchmark tests ranked it lower than the Air from 2008, it handled HD editing, playing 720p videos and writing articles by the slashgear team. Of course, there are limitations due to the ULV processor and reduced disk size, but still is a great deal if you’re more into ultraportability and style than raw performance (anyway, has anybody seen Apple users playing 3D shooters?).

Asus 1005PR EEE PC – HD capable 10 inch netbook

Andrew — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:17:04 +0000

Netbooks these days are known for their portability and huge battery life, but not so much for performance. Standard versions will do fine with your daily applications and will be en0ugh for listening to music, surfing the web, chatting with friends, writing texts, etc . Bot won’t be able to face HD content.

HD capable Asus 1005PR

And here’s where the Asus EEE PC 1005PR comes into the scene, a device very much similar to the most popular Asus series of the moment, the 1005PE, but with some extra goodies, including a HD display and HD content playing abilities, with the help of a Broadcom accelerator card. This is an extension chip connected on the mini PCI-e slot and is able to enhance the graphic performances of the standard PineTrail platform.

However, improvements are only visible in terms of video playing and not on games, as the chip provides H.264 decoding capabilities. As a result, the Asus EEE PC 1005PR can play up to 1080p self-stored clips and 720p flash videos. 1080p Flash might work or not, according to the bitrate of each individual clip.

Playing HD content on a 10 inch 1024 x 600 px display wouldn’t have been much of an improvement, thus Asus equipped the 1005PR EEE PC with a HD ready 10 inch 1366 x 768 px screen. On the bright side, this translates in a bigger working area. But, having a bigger resolution will also translate in a bigger weight on the shoulders of the PineTrail hardware, which we already know ain’t the best in terms of performances. Thus, the 1005PR might be somewhat more sluggish than a standard Asus 10 incher in everyday tasks.

Also, everything will be smaller on a 10 inch HD display and you might have problems using it for a longer period of time, as it might cause pain to your eyes, not to mention headaches (just because reading smaller texts is uncomfortable). So, you’d better have this in mind when looking for such a device.

All in all though, the Asus EEE PC 1005PR is an improvement. Although not a complete fan of the HD screen, the HD abilities are definitely welcomed and make it more versatile as a multimedia travel companion. The textured carbon-like exterior, like the one on the Asus EEE PC 1001P, also helps, allowing better grip and protecting it from scratches and smudges. Too bad for the glossy display and palm rest are though.

The good part is that the gadget is not that expensive. It is available for $399 in the states, with Free Shipping included. And that’s quite fair in my eyes.

Asus EEE PC 1005PR - all the goodies, plus HD display and HD playing abilities

Pros:

classic Seashell looks and solid build quality
standard hardware: N450 + GMA 3150 + 1 GB of RAM + 250 GB hard-drive
Broadcom Crystal accelerator included, making it able to run almost all kind of HD content, both Flash or self-stored
10.1 inch LED back-lit HD ready display, 1366 x 768 px resolution
6 Cell battery – up to 11 hours of life on paper, more like 8 in practice
Wi-Fi N connectivity + Bluetooth
casing comes with a matte carbon-fiber-like finish, less prone to fingerprints and smudges
ergonomic chiclet keyboard + multi-touch trackpad
price is very good for the features

Cons:

screen and palm-rest area are glossy, thus you will have to deal with scratches and smudges, plus you won’t be able to easily use it in strong light conditions
HD display on such a small screen is a plus, but also a con, making it difficult to read content and possibly causing you headaches (this happened to me but not to others, so I guess it’s a pretty subjective observation). Also, because the Atom hardware is not very powerful, the computer might get more sluggish than a standard 10 incher sometimes, because it has to display more content on the screen.

All in one the Asus EEE PC 1005PR is definitely a good pick if you want a 10 inch netbook with better multimedia performances and a HD display. In fact, it’s one of your best choices right now in the 10 inch class, at least until we’ll see Nvidia ION 10 inchers on the market, but that won’t happen sooner than a couple of months.

Asus EEE PC 1001P review – perhaps the best netbook under $300

Andrew — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:46:38 +0000

Netbooks became popular because they managed to bring good features and performance for a very affordable price. Still, the standard such mini laptops usually go for around $350, but there are good picks you can get for less than $300. And perhaps the best right now is the Asus EEE PC 1001P, one of the most affordable device built on the Intel PineTrail platform.

The Asus 1001P is a 10 inch mini laptop, part of the Seashell series. Looks good (and it’s not glossy, but comes with a textured exterior) and is very solid built. Specs and hardware are pretty standard, but the device impresses with battery life, reliability and its good price (bellow $300 for most configurations).

And speaking of specs, here’s what you get on the 1001P EEE PC:

10.1 inch LED matte display 1024 x 600 px
Intel N450 1.66 GHz processor + GMA 3150 graphics
1 GB of RAM (upgradeable to 2 – easy access, as you have a dedicated memory bay on the back)
160 GB hard-drive (250 GB on the upgraded version)
92% ful-size keyboard and multitouch trackpad
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g , Bluetooth (only on the upgraded version)
3xUSB, card-reader, VGA, Audio out, Webcam
Windows 7 starter
6 Cell battery
weighs 2.8 pounds and measures 10.3 x 7 x 1.4 inches ( 262 x 178 x 25.9~36 mm and 1.27 kg )
1 year warranty

Asus EEE PC 1001P - capable mini laptop for good money

Pros

good looking and sturdy built
the case and palm-rest area are no longer glossy, but made of a textured plastic, which feels quite OK and is smudges and fingerprints-proof.
hardware and features are standard for a 10 Inch netbook these days
display is matte too, so you can easily use it around
battery life is up to 11 hours on paper and more like 7-8 in daily usage, which is more than enough
it is available in a couple of different configurations (see details below) and in many color options (white, black, pink, etc)
price is very good what it has to offer

Cons

keyboard is only a standard flat one, and although quite comfortable, I prefer the chiclet styled ones
trackpad is not so responsive and only has a single click button
standard version gets only 160 GB storage and no Bluetooth
you only get Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g wireless and no fast Wi-Fi N (speed differences are not that big though)

Conclusions

As you can see, this device has nearly everything you’ll ever need. The hardware can run your daily applications fairly well, just don’t expect it to be able to face HD content, HD flash clips or games.

The good part is that this device is meant to be a travel companion: the smudge-free case, the screen you can use in strong light conditions, the big battery and the light weight are a proof that. It does has its lacks and you can get better 10 inch mini laptops on the market (not by much though), but if you’re on a tight budget, this is the one for you.

Because overall the Asus EEE PC 1001P is a great deal for the money you have to pay for it. And the fact that is one of the most popular such devices on the market is a proof of that, as well as the very good marks and reviews from regular buyers, posted all over the web.

Where to get the best deals

Like i said above, there are in fact two versions for the Asus EEE PC 1001P available right now:

Asus Eee PC 1001P-M – the standard version with all the features above, with prices ranging from $290 and $299, with Free shipping included . It’s available in Pink, Royal Blue, Black or White .

Asus Eee PC 1001P-P – goes for $329 and offers the bigger storage (250 GB instead of only 160 GB) and integrated Bluetooth . Also comes with Free Shipping and is only available in Black/White .

For more details or for reviews, pictures and the option to buy one of these netbooks, click the links on each model. Also, i have to say that these deals and prices are only available for the United States.

Also, Asus has some other interesting netbooks you should check out: the cheaper Asus 1001PX, very much similar to this one but with Windows XP (goes for $279) and the better equipped Asus EEE PC 1005PE series (with prices from $330 top $370) being the ones deserving your attention.