Overall First Impressions

Even though it retails for just a touch over $200, the Acer Aspire One is actually built quite well. It’s not going to compete against the unibody MacBooks in the crowd in terms of quality, of course, but I’d still say that it feels reasonably solid. Again, you have to realize that this is the same shell and construction that the $300 or $400 Aspire One would also receive. The only difference lies in the guts of the machine.

The Acer Aspire One netbook is available in a range of colors, but it’s the navy blue version shown here that is usually the most popular for some reason. Its glossy appearance will make for quite the fingerprint trap. If that’s something that concerns you, you’ll want to carry around a buffing cloth at all times.

When I tried typing on the Asus Eee PC 900 series, I was not at all impressed with the keyboard. It was the same size as the 700 series, making for quite the cramped experience. Since the Aspire One has an equally small 8.9-inch screen, I expected the same… but I didn’t get the same.

While it’s certainly not as big as a full desktop keyboard, the one on the Aspire One is surprisingly comfortable. It really spans the entire width of the machine and the keys are a good size. I’m quite pleased.

The trackpad, on the other hand, can leave much to be desired. The mouse buttons are placed on either side of the trackpad rather than underneath it. The trackpad is also quite small, so you may want to have a small travel mouse for extended computing sessions.