Acer Aspire One 751h: NetbookSize++
by Jarred Walton on September 3, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Acer 751h: Size Matters
The Acer 751h doesn't radically alter what we expect from a netbook, but one of the sore points we've had with every netbook we've used on a regular basis to date has been the low native resolution. This was particularly troublesome on the original Eee PC with a paltry 800x480 LCD, and while the jump to 1024x600 has helped matters it's still far from ideal. With a move to an 11.6" chassis, the 751h finally gives us a resolution that we are happy with in a netbook. We would be okay with a 10.1" chassis, but at the bare minimum we really want WXGA resolutions. The Acer 751h gives us exactly that, and what's more it doesn't have to sacrifice battery life much in doing so.
That's not to say that the 751h is perfect, as there is still definitely room for improvement. Parity is the name of the game when it comes to netbooks, so what Acer has done with the 751h is easy enough to copy -- and in fact there are already other 11.6" netbooks on the market (i.e. the ASUS 1101HA), plus others like the Dell Mini 10 with a high-res 1366x768 panel. How do you differentiate your product from the others when performance is essentially the same? It's in the extras, like tweaking for optimal battery life and providing higher-quality components in the areas you control like the LCD and chassis design.
The LCD resolution is great, but contrast ratio could be much better. The keyboard works well and we have no complaints; we feel it is slightly better than the 10.1" netbooks since the keys are regular size. One of the areas that we aren't particularly pleased with is the touchpad; it works and it isn't horrible, but it definitely isn't as good as the GIGABYTE M1022 touchpad.
One of our biggest complaints is actually Intel's fault: the integrated graphics in the Poulsbo chipset. Despite the name (GMA 500), the graphics and drivers have very little to do with other Intel graphics solutions. GMA 500 uses a PowerVR SGX 535 core licensed from Imagination Technologies, and the result is that the drivers are far less mature than the GMA 950 drivers. It also means that getting good Linux drivers is going to be far more difficult, should you be inclined to try installing some flavor of Linux on your netbook. We did experience a few crashes during testing which appear to be caused by the graphics drivers, and the latest XP drivers available from Intel state that they are "intended for use by developers". Our interpretation is that they're beta drivers, and we would expect future driver releases to help with performance and stability. Unfortunately, fixing graphics driver problems has never been one of Intel's strong points (i.e. the G35 launch). Windows Vista drivers look to be a bit newer/better, but using those drivers under Windows 7 actually resulted in worse stability and performance. In general use, we didn't have any difficulties with the Acer 751h; it was only when we tried to push things to the limit that we experienced problems.
Overall, with the correct tweaks in place we feel netbook users now have another choice: do you want a slightly larger LCD with a higher resolution, or do you prefer slightly better performance and a smaller chassis? Obviously we haven't tested every netbook out there, but from what we've seen our pick for performance and battery life continues to be the ASUS 1005HA, plus it has a nice looking, high-contrast LCD (even if the resolution is lower). The Acer Aspire One 751h is a reasonable alternative that might just be easier on your eyes and hands, and the price and features are right. x264 accelerated playback works well with the PowerDVD 8 H.264/AVC codec and even 1080p works, which is more than we can say for the GMA 950/945GSE combination we see in other netbooks. We would still recommend the 1005HA to most users, but after using the 751h going back to a 1024x600 LCD is more than a little painful. If you place a higher priority on getting a decent resolution than on raw performance, give the 751h a look. If you already have a netbook and you're happy with the current status quo, it's not likely to change your overall impression of what a netbook can be, but choice is always good.
For those waiting for the "Next Big Thing", we have a few other netbook alternatives in our queue that mix things up by providing larger chassis designs with faster graphics while keeping the weight close to three pounds. Looking further out, the next major platform release for netbooks is coming in a few more months. Pine Trail/Pineview should improve performance and battery life, and integrating the graphics core into the CPU could really boost performance in an area that's truly lacking at present. The question is, can Intel create graphics drivers that will compliment the performance? GMA 500 is not the right solution at present for that task, so hopefully Pineview will do better. We'll find out in the coming months.
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Finally - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
...but what's the keyboard size?A bigger, higher resolution display is definitely the way to go, but I want full-sized keys and a non-glossy display - and that's the reason why I haven't bought any netbooks yet.
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
If you look at the gallery, you can see the keyboard makes use of the whole area - i.e. no unused space on the right and left sides. I believe the keys are 100% standard desktop keyboard sized, though obviously it's not a 101-key layout. I felt the keyboard was definitely better than the smaller 10.1" and 9.1" netbooks.TA152H - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
It's strange to read an article without P55 motherboard pictures. Is this site under new management?I'm in the market for one of these, but I'd never tolerate the slower clock speed processor. When you factor in the very insignificant power difference, I don't think the processor is attractive for most people. Whatever percentage less it is than the N270/N280, they are very low percentages of the power draw for the computer, so it's really not going to make a big difference in systemic power draw.
Really, Intel kind of did something very un-Intel with the Atom. Even when they had the dreadful Netburst processors, they at least surrounded them with good packaging, including software compilers, good chipsets, good motherboards, etc...
With the Atom, from a purely processor perspective, they have a really nice product, but they shackle it with a perfectly dreadful chipset. It's bizarre. On top of that, they're taking too long to get out something better. I'm really getting impatient waiting to be able to buy one of these things, since I won't buy 945, and I won't buy NVIDIA crap. I wish AMD had something decent, but they don't, so a lot of us just have to wait.
Also, these mirror like screens are a nightmare, and becoming more popular. Especially for something ultra-portable, don't these makers realize that people bring them outside? They must be cheaper to make, since they seem to go to great efforts to convince us that we want them, but I don't. Is anyone else a little annoyed by the number of mirrors they sell parading as displays? It's not so bad if there's a choice, but more and more, it's getting difficult to get an anti-glare screen.
chrnochime - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
You might want to consider the Samsung NC20, which comes with via nano cpu + chrome graphics. Not that blazing fast, but if tunes correctly ,goes at least as fast as the N270/280, and does basic work fine. Another is the Lenovo S20, which costs about the same, ~400USD.If you need a decent fast CPU, consider the Acer Timeline. The base 3810T(13.3") comes with a ULV Intel processor that's more akin to Pentium M than the atom. Priced around 500 I think. That or higher priced, with Core 2 Solo, or even Core 2 duo.
I might've gotten the CPU model name wrong in the timeline, but the CPUs in the timelines are much better than the Atom...
Penti - Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - link
Actually just get Intel CULV if you need more performance, they will also have chipsets available that does have working hw acceleration of video. (The 11.6" Timeline/aspire is CULV, 1.3GHz Penryn based).The prices for the CULVs are decent any way, considering you also get a real version of windows with it. HW acceleration at least works on GS40/GMA4500MHD. Which means a lot on small less powerful notebooks. And you get W7 upgrade too. Costs only around $450. Still is about the size of a large netbook. I think it got a C2S 1.4GHz for that price though. No real reason to go to atoms for such devices any how.
TA152H - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
To be honest, as much as I wanted to like the Nano, to me it's a big disappointment as it currently exists. I don't really this this as a competitive processor in most situations. Where you can get the power down to the point it matches the Atom, it gets beaten in a lot of benchmarks, and if you use one of the higher power ones, you start running into Core 2 territory, or one of the lesser derivatives of it. Given the really excellent Intel designs, Centaur had to get theirs right, and so far it's just not there. Possibly a shrink to 45nm will improve the power characteristics, and some tweaking might improve performance, so I'm still hopeful. But, as it exists today, it's interesting, but not particularly useful. The bad part is, at least for them, is it will get a lot more difficult once Intel comes out with a decent chipset and moves to 32nm. Their own chipsets are still stuck at DX 9, and aren't particularly good either.They had a long time being alone in that market, and they've had a pretty long time where Intel had the processor, but not the chipset. They failed miserably even with that. They came out with nice form factors and such, but never really broke into the market because their products basically suck. I have an 800 MHz part that gets raped by my K6-III+, underclocked to 400 MHz. It uses less power, generates less heat, and outperforms the VIA chip, despite being roughly 6 years older. Now the Nano was a big step up, and maybe it's good if you take it outside of the context of excellent Intel processors, but, within the context of what exists in the marketplace, I don't see it making much sense for a lot of buyers. Again, I'm not blaming them entirely; AMD can't compete with Intel either. It's probably just that Intel makes such attractive products, positioning against them is extremely difficult. On the other hand, still being on 65nm, and not supporting DX10 are issues not related to Intel, that should have been taken care of a while ago. They can't make mistakes like this.
I was looking at Core 2 based notebooks, but it's gotten to the point where I couldn't find a anti-glare screen at HP. I'm allergic to Dell, and merely disgusted with HP. I won't buy Lenovo, since they're Chinese and not American, and we already import too much from them. Sadly, I don't know much about makers, since I don't buy from them, and don't have a job where I have to deal with them. It's a pity there's no way to build a notebook, but, sadly, we have to buy from companies we know suck. It's a disagreeable situation, but, what can one do if they need one of these things?
Etern205 - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
Out of all of them, there is only one model which has Windows XP Professional instead of XP Home.Etern205 - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
Never mind looks like it's already mentioned.bjacobson - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
I wouldn't worry about it. Better to get the Vista version and get the free upgrade to Windows 7.I have an AO751h and absolutely love it. Installed 2g of ram myself, Windows 7, turn off window transparency and you're good to go-- this thing has 6-8h battery life depending on how bright the screen is (I seem to get 7h with it on the lowest brightness setting) and is FAST. The GMA500 graphics chip can accelerate 1080p video-- if you get the drivers installed right (don't run the setup.exe from Intel, make sure you install through Device Manager).
Whatever tweaking they did to Windows 7 to make it faster than Vista WORKED. Idles at ~1-3% with that Atom, and is very responsive once you get Chrome running (Firefox a bit slower). Now I give them about a year before they add the bloat back in through "Security" updates and it slows to a grinding halt (just like what happened to XP).
The0ne - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
As I've been telling unbelievers of Windows 7, all they really to do is install it on a older desktop/laptop and see the difference. Whatever MS changed with Windows 7 it's working wonders on older PCs and even newer crawling PCs with Vista pre-installed.I'm waiting for someone to find out why this is so as I'm too lazy and no time! to look into it myself :D