Short Version: The $399 Acer Aspire One 751h is an affordable netbook with marathon battery life, a gorgeous screen, and an excellent keyboard. As long as you don’t expect to watch high-quality video clips, this machine makes for a very compelling purchase.
Specs:
- Intel Atom Z520 CPU at 1.2GHz
- Windows XP Home SP3
- 11.6-inch widescreen display at 1366×768
- Intel GMA 500 graphics chipset
- 2GB RAM (upgraded from 1GB)
- 160GB hard drive (5400RPM)
- 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
- Built-in webcam
- Three USB ports
- Six-cell battery
- MSRP: $399, Street Price: $379
Review:
If you’ve been researching the 11.6-inch Acer Aspire 751h netbook and haven’t purchased it yet, you’re likely on the fence because of several reviews prior to this one that say the machine is underpowered. And if you’re looking to play HD video, you’ll find it to be underpowered as well. It simply doesn’t play HD video without stuttering. It doesn’t even play non-HD fullscreen Hulu video without stuttering. So this is not a machine to buy if you want to play videos. Standard-definition YouTube videos work fine, but that’s about it.
Taking videos out of the equation, I’m reviewing this machine as if I’d purchased it myself. The first thing I did — and the first thing I do with all new computers — was to remove the antivirus software. In this case, it was McAfee. Boom, instantly this “underpowered” computer starting picking up the pace somewhat.
After that, I opened up the trapdoor on the bottom of the machine and popped in a 2GB RAM stick (cost: about $30), swapping out the included 1GB stick. Boom again, now we’re cooking.
Then, I did what no full-time blogger in their right mind would ever do: I left my trusty $2000 Sony VAIO laptop at home and took the Aspire 751h with me on the road and used it as my only computer for two weeks.
So how did everything work out? Just fine, thank you. The 751h is a more-than-capable portable computer as long as you remove resource-hogging applications (like antivirus software) and bump the RAM up to two gigabytes. I had no problems using the computer day after day to surf the internet using Google Chrome with multiple tabs open, play some old-school games (Risk II, Sim City 3000, etc.), and post stuff to CrunchGear.
Truth be told, I used the machine for about a day before upgrading the RAM and it worked pretty well with just one gigabyte. I upgraded the RAM out of principle, as I think that any computer nowadays should have at least two gigabytes just to be on the safe side. Netbook RAM is cheap and it’s a quick and easy upgrade.
And just to see what all the hubbub was about regarding not being able to play video, I loaded up Hulu Desktop — no go — and tried to play HD YouTube clips — also, no go. Here’s a video of what you can expect if you try to do the same.
As you can see, Hulu Desktop is pretty much out of the question, regular YouTube videos play just fine, and HD YouTube videos don’t play well at all.
Now from a portability standpoint, the design of 751h has found the Goldilocks Zone as far as I’m concerned. It’s not too big, not too small, not too light, not too heavy. It’s juuuuust right. The material used is sturdy, not cheap-feeling, and the curved lines, nice high-resolution screen, and great keyboard make the 751h feel like it’d cost much more than $400. Here it is pictured next to the original 8.9-inch Aspire One for size comparison purposes.
The machine’s glossy outer coating does indeed pick up fingerprints, as does the area around the trackpad (the trackpad itself now looks like it’s covered in butter). Just something to keep in mind. That kind of stuff doesn’t bother me all that much but if it bothers you, you may want to see if you can find one of these on display somewhere and manhandle it for a bit.
Typing on the island keyboard took a bit of getting used to at first but by a few days in, it felt like I was typing on a standard laptop keyboard. The big Shift and Backspace keys are definitely appreciated and, while the tiny arrow keys leave a bit to be desired, this is still by far the best netbook keyboard I’ve used.
The trackpad is kind of a weak spot. It’s bigger than most netbook trackpads and the all-in-one button is placed underneath it instead of flanking the sides but it still takes a fair amount of scrolling and sliding to get the cursor from one side of the screen to the other. The single mouse button registers left and right clicks but it sits almost a bit recessed, so pushing it down to click takes a bit of extra effort sometimes. The trackpad also features multitouch gestures but the actual surface area and slow-to-register timing made multitouch an afterthought aside from vertical scrolling and the occasional zooming.
All in all, the trackpad is fine for occasional, casual browsing and lighter stuff but when I would use the 751h all day for work, I had a USB mouse hooked up.
As for the six-cell battery, this is the first portable computer I’ve ever used that I basically recharge as often as I recharge my cell phone. I’d plug it in at night, and it would pretty much run all throughout the next day. I even took it on a quick three-day weekend without the charger and still had plenty of juice when I got back. So what you give up in power and performance, you absolutely gain in battery life.
Acer promises 8+ hours of battery life and I can definitely say that’s an accurate estimate, all things considered. I was able to muster over six hours of pretty aggressive non-stop computing with Wi-Fi on and the screen brightness set pretty high, along with weekend-long casual use — checking e-mail, surfing the web for a bit, listening to music for a bit, and stuff like that. It’s a welcome change from the battery life found on most standard laptops.
Some may be turned off by the six-cell battery pack jutting out the back, but there’s a three-cell version available and the curvature of the six-cell battery pulls double duty as a nice way to carry the computer around. My hand fit — you guessed it — just right.
So what didn’t I like about this computer? Not enough to make me want to stop using it. I’m not wild about the trackpad, but it’s still usable. The fact that it doesn’t play high-bitrate video is compensated for, in my opinion, by the huge battery life. And I can see how leaving antivirus software and not upgrading the RAM could slow everything down, but that’s all easily fixable and you don’t really need to upgrade the RAM.
The basic premise of this machine — long battery life, high-resolution screen, great keyboard, excellent portability, low price — makes it a great choice against most of the other netbooks on the market. Its Achilles heel, for most people, will be the whole “can’t play HD video” thing. If that’s the case, Gateway (which is owned by Acer) sells basically the exact same machine but with an AMD processor that ought to be able to handle HD video just fine. You lose out on battery life (5 hours versus 8 hours) but that may be a trade-off people are willing to make in the name of acceptable video playback.
Overall, I’ve been excited about this netbook ever since it was announced and, after reading some early reviews, I thought I may have been looking down the barrel of a slow, pokey, disappointing machine. But after a few minor tweaks and upgrades, making peace with the HD video stuff, and a couple weeks of daily use, the Acer Aspire One 751h has quickly become my go-to portable computer — even over my regular laptop.
Acer Aspire One 751h [Acer.com]
Photos:
I find it hard to take this review seriously. Based on the pictures, you’re obviously a rabid Acer fanboy.
Keep drinkin’ the Kool-Aid, Doug…
Are there any real “Acer fanboys” ?
Did you not read this “review”?
Mmmm… Acer Kool-Aid: A delicious conglomeration of several other powdered beverage flavors — Gateway Green and Packard Bell Purple, for example — that have been acquired by Acer in the past few years.
I knew it.
You know way more about Acer than any normal human being possibly could. You could at least come by it honestly, Doug. Have you no shame?
Like any sane person is going to buy an internet surfing computer which needs the anti-virus software turned off to work.
This review is comical.
I got one of these originally with vista and once I removed McAfee and replaced it with eset smart security, it now performs like a dream. It can play full screen videos (AVI format) with the only problem being momentary choppiness after jumping to a new point in the video. I upgraded it to Windows 7 and I haven’t even noticed that problem anymore. Biggest complaint I have with it is the trackpad is sensitive and sometimes double-clicks when I don’t want it to.
AV software (at least a majority of it) just sucks processing power without delivering more than basic protection.
Didn’t want to try swapping out the OS for Win7 or Ubuntu?
I’m going to do that next. I haven’t loaded either up yet, though. Stay tuned.
=) Better you than me. I got XP where I wanted it and then realized ‘Crap, I got my netbook where I want it now.’
Ubuntu netbook remix ran very slow off a usb key, but, then, it was running off a usb key, so I didn’t expect much.
Tho, now that Win7 is closer to reality, upgrading XP (rather than the reformat I’d get with the RC) is worth waiting for.
I haven’t even tried Hulu. Guess I won’t bother =)
Personally, I agree. The netbook, while not as powerful as my HP laptop, is perfectly functional and a great travel machine. Runs XCom great (and I’m happy to hear SimCity 3000 runs on it too, that’s the only one aside from the original I was any good at).
Quick preview, John.
Windows 7 (clean install) doesn’t feel as snappy as XP. I’m running everything in the Basic scheme, too. Still can’t get YouTube HD or Hulu (full screen) to play without choppiness but I didn’t really expect a miracle there since Flash video relies heavily on the CPU itself.
Regular YouTube and Hulu in a window still works fine and WMVHD clips at 720p play fine in Windows Media Player 12 — so that’s something.
Windows Experience Index score is 1.9. I’ll load Ubuntu up as well to see how everything works on that end.
I bought my first netbook (Dell Mini 9) a couple of months ago. It’s a neat little machine but windows just doesn’t work properly on it. It was damn slow like every netbooks even with 2 GB of ram.
It took close to minute to boot up and +20s to shut down. I too had to uninstall the antivirus to be able to do anything.
It runs OSX Leopard great tho. Very fluid and pretty damn fast for such an underpowered machine. Boots up in 30s and shuts down in 3s.
Dell Mini 9 + OSX Leopard = Excellent!
I have the standard (white) Aspire One and like it just fine.
I too, removed McAfee and replaced it with the much lighter-weight AVG free. I use it with a 12v adapter to program the array of comms radios I have in my truck and performance is adequate.
The only thing I don’t like about it (aside from the standard missing netbook features) is the trackpad. The two buttons are *very* hard to click and your thumb gets tired really quickly. A cheap mini optical mouse solved that one.
Have you tried the latest Intel GFX drivers? It is suppose to boost the GMA500 quite a bit for both video playback and 3D. See http://www.liliputing.com/2009/06/updated-driver-for-intel-gma-500-graphics-brings-performance-boost.html
That update is exclusive to Vista/win7 and does not support winXP.
Having this netbook myself, I have confirmed this.
If you’re running WinXP, Asus’s website has a driver update for the GMA500 which I am using right now. I discovered this through an Acer users forum website.
The end result of the update would still not let youtube/hulu HD playback run smooth, but it is still a somewhat boost.
Thanks for the in depth review Doug. I have been looking for one since I just purchased the Acer Aspire One AO751h-1893 on Amazon after having reviewed all my netbook options, this one seemed to have the best specs for the price. Disappointing to hear about the HD video, since it is now an integral part of my daily leisure web surfing. Is Vista suppose to run heavier than XP on netbooks and is Win 7 the ideal OS for netbooks as far as speed and efficiency?
Look this is yet another “review” that needs some tweeking by the reviewer. I get nice 720p video on the Acer. How did I do it?
1) Installed the Windows 7 release candidate with a better Intel GMA 500 video driver. Intel for some reason releases horrible drivers.. Two things you need to do to make this work fast..
a) run MSCONFIG and disable all the video power management crap by disabling anything intel puts in the MSCONFIG startup list..
see Long Zheng’s Blog.. http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090723/lesson-intel-graphics-power-saving-feature
b) after rebooting the things in the graphics you see in Zheng’s blog entry shouldn’t be visible.. and it should be faster..
c) run with the “windows 7 basic” scheme. All the software will work, but no arrow glass, but great video speed especially in Windows media center..
This really is entirely an INTEL driver issue.. Very similar to the vista problems they had with the 945.. It’s not the hardware..
Thanks for the tips, Don. I’ll go through the steps you listed above once I load Windows 7 onto the machine.
hey thanks for the review! I wish I had read it before I bought this computer. I am little bummed about “can not play HD movies” thing.
So, my question is: will increasing ram help me play HD movies better? Is there a way?
Please reply
Thanks
No, unfortunately. I upgraded the RAM to two gigabytes and the video result was the same. Any flash-based web video (YouTube, Hulu, etc.) relies heavily on the CPU.
That being said, I’ve just loaded up Windows 7 and Windows Media Player is able to play 720p WMVHD files just fine. It wouldn’t play them well with XP, though. Windows Media Player 12, which is included with Windows 7, can apparently leverage the graphics chip pretty well.
one more question….
If I upgrade my ram, will the warranty be valid?
Yes. You can upgrade the RAM without voiding the warranty.
Hi Doug,
I’m sure we’ve all had first hand experience of how much of a performance hit machines can take simply by running bloated antivirus programs.
My question is, would you really advocate running a PC entirely without antivirus protection? If we steer clear of McAfee, Norton & Kaspersky, do you have any recommendations for anything that is a little lighter?
Cheers for a thought-provoking review
I use AVG on my Eee Pc 1000HE. I haven’t noticed any performance issues since the installation.
Thanks, someone mentioned that above as well. Plus I can always get along with something that’s free!
I honestly don’t have a problem with people not using AV software as long as they’re comfortable with leaving themselves somewhat exposed and are savvy enough to recognize and remove a virus if one were to infect their computer. I personally don’t use AV software on any of my computers and I rarely run into problems.
If this review were written for a more mainstream publication, I probably wouldn’t have recommended removing McAfee without installing an alternative. But the majority of the fine people that read this site are good enough with computers that AV software probably isn’t a necessity for them.
At any rate, AVG would indeed work well because of the relatively light footprint. The price is nice, too. I haven’t used Avast in a while but I used to like that one as well. The McAfee software that’s included with this machine only lasts for 90 days before you need to pay for it.
Very nice review. This machine is a worthy departure from the Atom netbook rats-nest. But pricey. They would sell millions more if it was $50-$100 less. Nice to see they didn’t solder 512MB of SDRAM on the mobo preventing you from upgrading to 2GB like previous Acer netbooks.
Great review. I just want to run Word applications, some Skype, and listen to music. Does the hard drive get hot after 2 hours use? Or should I get a SSD and sacrifice space for coolness….
I haven’t had any problems with heat. It gets a little warm, yes, but not unbearably hot. I’ve kept it on my lap for hours at a time without any major discomfort.
pros/cons of the webcam? i’ve read some less than stellar reviews that basically said after a few months the cam stops working altogether…
The webcam is okay. It’s “optimized for low-light video chatting” which I found to mean that if I was in a room with low light, everything took on a yellow-ish tint. It’s fine for video chatting on Skype and whatnot but I wouldn’t use it to record video to use in a review or for anything super important.
You might be interested in that Flash is working with NVidia and with Microsoft in order to extend flash to use DirectX Compute shaders and more hardware acceleration in later builds. It isn’t ready yet, but they sure have been talking. When they release that, likely you could get a bit more oomph out of the Intel GMA chipset (since it does have rudimentary video acceleration and 3D) and possibly play higher-res flash video. Did you try any raw h.264 videos to just test that?
Also, if you are interested in tuning that basic install of Windows 7 to be more suited to a netbook build, take a look over at the official Windows 7 RC Support Forum located here http://tinyurl.com/9fhdl5 . I had seen some good build guides about what to remove, keep, and how to set it up so it takes minimal footprint and runs rather speedy.
Nice review and tips about tweaking the machine. I personally wouldn’t run without AV software. The latest incarnation of Norton is actually fairly low footprint (I know – blasphemy!) per MaximumPC and my experience. AVG turned into a hog and I’ve ditched it.
Now, can anyone tell me where to find a spare battery? I can’t find one anywhere (my version came with Vista Basic and a 3-cell battery).
Note that Costco is currently selling this for $330, with the 2GB RAM/250GB disk version for $350.
I bought one, and returned it, for a number of reasons:
* The Atom 520 processor is quite a bit slower than the Celeron in my EEE900, and, from what I’ve heard, than even the Atom 270 that other netbooks used.
* I wasn’t crazy about the glossy screen, and the viewing angle, even up and down was poor — I noticed that the text I was reading was purple, until I tilted the screen, then it became black.
* Ubuntu ran poorly on it — I had to find the “psb” video drivers on a third-party site in order to get the video to work at the correct resolution, and I was never able to get sleep or hibernate to ever come back.
* 802.11n would’ve been nice.
* Did I mention it was slow?
On the other hand, the keyboard and touchpad were very nice (it is a synaptics touchpad, with multitouch support), the screen, with the exception of the viewing angle and glossy thing, was very sharp, with a much more usable resolution than the 1024×600 on my EEE.
Close, but not close enough, considering how happy I am with my EEE900…
Hi, I bought an Acer Aspire and really just need it for Word docs and email, very basic. I’m not sure what steps to take to speed it up and am hoping you have some suggestions on what programs to remove, etc. I’ll remove McAfee for AVG as suggested. Thanks.
hello guys,
Just came back to this forum to tell everyone that I returned this computer in the first 15 days for full refund and would like to advise everyone, who wants to buy this small piece of s***, the same.
Thank you,
Uddhav
I was just about to purchase one but opted for a regular Toshiba laptop for $299.99 at Best Buy…Oh well, what the hec, for the money I’ll put up with the slightly bigger laptop…thanks all for the reviews…
Just bought one of these based on your review. reading the review. Works nicely with latest Ubuntu. Tiny modification needed mentioned in website below to get full resolution going. Am extremely happy with the 751h and am using it as a primary workstation connecting to my other workstations using synergy. Keyboard took about 1 day to get used to but am now typing at full speed.
Cheers.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne
I want to get this computer but not sure after the reviews. Will this work fine with a external dvdr drive and will i be able to run video editing softare without any issues? I have a hd camcorder that I want to transfer and make dvds with this netboook.
I’m going to hazard a guess and say no, at least to the ‘video editing software’ part, unless you know of one that is extremely light when it comes to system resources.
I mean, come on people. It’s a netbook. It’s a little piece of hardware that you take along with you to do lightweight things: Browsing the web, reading email, twittering, blogging, listening to music, offloading pictures from your digital camera.
I got mine because I wanted a light machine to take to coffee shops or on vacation.
It isn’t meant to replace workhorse machines.
Can it write a dvd with an external drive? I’m pretty sure it can.
Nice review. I have been using the AO751h for about 3 weeks now. It came with Vista & 2GB RAM. First thing I did was put Windows 7 RC on it. It runs pretty well.
I also replaced McAfee with AVG, but noticed that AVG often made the CPU spike to 100%, which is uncharacteristic of my experiences with AVG in the past…I then switched from AVG to Avast (both of which are free) and Avast seems to be much less of a system resource hog.
I also installed Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix and it was so slow it wouldn’t run…Regular Ubuntu 9.04 runs fine however. There is a problem with the resolution and there is a fix posted above, however I am not a Linux expert and could not get the fix to work.
Bottom Line: I bought this PC because it is cheap, light, has a large screen (for a netbook), has a full size keyboard and is sold at Costco (so I know if I have a problem they will take it back).
Yes, the Atom processor is slower than my Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz desktop, but you have to know what you are buying…I only run Excel, Word, iTunes, Google Apps and a few php based web apps on this thing and it works great for the money.
I combined it with a VZW MiFi device and I can work anywhere…if I need to do something resource intensive, like edit a movie or run photoshop…I wait till I get back to the office.
Answers to above questions:
1) yes it will write a dvd to an external drive
2) no, you shouldn’t edit video on it (that’s why they call it a “netbook”
3) If you have to ask about Antivirus, you are the type of person that should be using it, and Avast works the best of the 3 mentioned above
4) If you bought the one with Vista-remove it for something else…anything else!
5) I get 2.5 hours of use running web apps, antivirus and WiFi on a 3-cell battery
PS – I have been running Live Mesh as a file sync service because it was made by Microsoft and thought that it would be resource light, but it doesn’t seem to be.
I have tried Syncplicity and Dropbox in the past, does any one know which file sync service is the least resource intensive? Is it one that I did not mention?
Not sure what type of file sync you need , but I have been using IDrive for 2 years and love it!
goto
http://www.idrive.com
I did have an issue with the idrive explorer plug-in running Win7rc , but it still works great via the web.
BTW it is free up to 2gb.
I also use it to back up a database server
at my wife’s small dental office.
Hi, i just got the Acer Aspire One D150. Everytime i hit the question mark/ slash this keys the European e’s would come up… how can i change that?? Thanks!
Hi, could you be more specific on how you installed an extra gb of ram. There is only 1 slot already holding 1 gb and according to various RAM dealers this is the maximum supported for this model. Did you change any bios settings? Thank you in advance!
Thanks for all the tips guys, bought mine while on a trip to new york, and saved a bundle. in the uk its about $600 !!
Hi Doug, Enjoyed your review. I’m considering buying the XP model with the 3 cell and 1gb of ram (Amazon’s price is down to $279), and had a few questions.
1) Can you recommend what type of RAM (1 gb or 2gb? and other specs, or can you see which one you got).
2) I’d want to get rid of all the bloat, beyond the obvious trials, can you list which ones I don’t need (I’d never play games on this machine, with the possible exception of chess, but could easily live without it if it improved performance).
3) I have an Kaspersky Internet Security license, would you recommend an older version with a lighter footprint, or using their ultraportable version?
Besides replacing McAfee, could someone please list other unneeded programs and start-up applications that if removed would speed things up. (Avira AV is another excellent, free alternative to McAfee.)
Ive just bought this machine running XP, expanded RAM to 2gb (answer to question above: this model is in fact fit for 2gb). If i were you, Adam, I would either reinstall XP or remove all the programs that came with it. In my experience all the stuff acer puts on thei retail laptops is useless and sucks up resources. Also, make sure to disable all non-essential services (start/run/services.msc) and use a light footpring AV (like nod32). I wouldnt recommend anyone not using AV, as there is no need to. Nod32 will not suck the Acer machine dry, at all.
Its a nice netbook btw, in my experience, excellent for students (due to the lovely size and weight, you could almost put it in your pocket). Dont buy it if you expect a high-end desktop, the money for this laptop is all in the size, weight and battery (which is excellent too, I easily make six hours using it all the time).
Has anyone found a skin for this bad boy?
I bought the Acer 751h-1351 2G/250GB last week and have been very impressed with it. Vista ran well with it, but I did a clean install of Windows 7 RC and it totally transformed it. Everything is working with Win 7 drivers and the video worked even better after a quick auto driver update from MS. I used a Samsung slim USB DVD drive to install from. I can tell you that playing Netflix full screen is a pleasure. I’m waiting on ABC to update their player software to further test it with ABC HD. Hulu is fine as long as you don’t go full screen. VOIP with x-lite and skype works well. All this from a $299 netbook from OfficeMax. If you’re on the fence with this netbook, go get it – you won’t be disappointed. It is the sweet spot in this market for now.