On the surface Acer’s 10.1-inch Aspire One 521 and 11.6-inch Aspire One 721 crop up to be fairly run-of-the-mill netbooks — or ultraportables for those that have been morally against to calling the laptop with a 11.6-inch arrangement the netbook. They’re rather than small machines, magnitude only about an inch thick, and ring up during underneath $430. But there’s the lot more than meets a eye with this Aspire One duo – instead of Intel Atom or ULV processors, both are powered by the brand-new AMD 1.7GHz Athlon II Neo K125 processor as well as promise 1080p playback interjection to ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics. We’ve positively been pumped about these dual systems given their French debut, but fear of AMD’s customarily poor battery life as well as boiling temperatures have been holding us back from all-out excitement. Do we have zero to fear but fright itself? We’ve spent a final couple of days with these dual systems, as well as will reveal all in the full examination after a break. Acer Aspire One 521 as well as 721 examination

Look and feel

The Aspire One 521 as well as 721 clearly share the same pattern birthright, though they’re patently really different, as shown in a picture on top of. For a single, a 11.6-inch 721 is obviously longer than a 10.1-inch 521, yet both are still awfully portable as well as usually magnitude 1.1-inches at their thickest indicate. The 721 weighs in at 3.1 pounds, while a not as big 521 is a somewhat lighter 2.8 pounds. However, a clearest differentiator between the two is their lids. The 521’s glossy mocha cover has the Tetris-like settlement that is ornate with the vast china Aspire One logo. We’ve picked on this pattern decision the bit in previous posts, but we’re happy to echo the dislike. A bit of branding here or there has never worried us most, though do we need someone across a coffee shop seeing a large trademark upon our laptop? Nope, and it only seems run-down. We much prefer a small Acer logo on the 721’s matte mesh lid, which will be available in red, navy and black.

In conditions of the setup peculiarity, the two systems have been done wholly done of plastic, and we noticed a bottom shade was coming loose on both machines. We find this to be a box with many budget Acers — they aren’t a many permanent systems, but for a cost they’re decently done. The 521 as well as 721 have a same allocation of ports – an HDMI, VGA, as well as a single USB port live upon the left corner, while an one more two USB jacks, Ethernet as well as headphone and microphone sockets have been positioned on the right. Both additionally have 3-in-1 label readers. The bottom of a appurtenance provides easy entrance to both a IMPEL as well as tough drive compartments, so you shouldn’t have the problem swapping them out if that’s your thing.

Keyboard, touchpad and screen

The 521 as well as 721 have the same chiclet keyboards which Acer’s been using on its new netbooks as well as laptops, albeit a 521’s is narrower. While the rounded keys have been well-spaced as well as have a slight gap between them, overall you only find them to be as well prosaic. We got used to typing upon a really level panel, though a plastic keys still don’t unequivocally mold to your fingers. Both systems have rather than tiny touchpads that have been flush with a metal-like palmrest. They’re fine for navigating, though a multitouch gestures are really off — two finger scrolling barely worked in Firefox as well as IE. We similar to a dedicated right as well as left rodent buttons, yet a ones on a 721 have been incredibly unbending.

The 521 has a typical 10.1-inch, 1024×600 fortitude netbook arrangement, but given its ability to hoop 720p calm we wish it had a aloft 1366×768 resolution like the 11.6-inch 721. Obviously, a 721’s 11.6 inch shade is roomier; you elite regulating it over a 521 to write this examination as you could keep mixed windows open upon the shade. Both LCDs had decent horizontal perspective angles, though a vertical angles were pretty trashy. The tiny machines have two speakers underneath the front edge – they aren’t starting to fill a vast room, but they’ll do when it comes to watching the movie or listening to a little tunes whilst working.

Performance, graphics as well as battery life

We know, this is part of the examination you’ve been watchful for – the part where you answer if AMD has done improvements in battery holdup, graphics, and feverishness, as well as if they can start to really contest with Intel in a small laptop space. Well, the answer isn’t that cut as well as dry, though we’re happy with what we’ve seen. On the opening side of things, a 1.7GHz Athlon II Neo processor scored right in in between Intel Atom and Intel ULV CPUs upon benchmarks, which in our perspective is the perfect place to be. We’ll let the benchmarks below speak for themselves, though in bland opening we found the systems to be comparatively snappy – especially after we uninstalled a McAfee Internet Suite. Both the 521 as well as 721 kept up with our bland chores, which enclosed concurrently essay in Microsoft Word 2007, surfing the web in Firefox, chatting in Digsby, as well as checking the Twitter feeds in Tweetdeck. When we threw in the 720p video into a brew, you noticed it took a few more seconds to open a file, though it played back flawlessly.

 PCMarkVantage 3DMark06
 Battery Life 

Acer Aspire One 721
(AMD Athlon II NeoK125)
 1814 1235 3:30 

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e (AMD Athlon Neo) 1511 1060 3:27 

ASUS UL50Vf (Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300) 3724 827 / 3438 6:10 

Alienware M11x (Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300) 2689 654 / 5593 4:30 

 PCMark05 3DMark06 Battery Life 

Acer Aspire One 521
(AMD Athlon II Neo K125) 2286 1481 4:02 

Dell Mini 10 (Intel Atom N450) 1264 132 5:58 

ASUS Eee PC 1005PE (Intel Atom N450) 1431 157 8:10 

Toshiba Mini NB305 (Intel Atom N450) 1272 156 6:30 

And graphics is just where a single core AMD Athlon II Neo / ATI Radeon HD 4225 combo beats any Atom-based netbook, as well as even rivals NVIDIA Ion based systems. (Note: you haven’t reviewed the $484 Eee PC 1201PN that is the usually Ion 2 complement on a market). The 521 as well as 721 didn’t shrug during playing local 720p and 1080p files – they even played them uniformly when outputted to the 40-inch HDTV via HDMI. They additionally handled 720p YouTube videos similar to champs; though starting up to a 1080p environment caused stuttering. On a gaming front, the machines aren’t starting to slice by any initial chairman shooters, though they managed an admirable 28fps in World of Warcraft. That’s unequivocally not too shabby, as well as NVIDIA’s Ion systems are no longer a only netbooks on a marketplace that can claim higher graphics opening. And there’s no doubt that ATI’s Radeon HD 4225 graphics is a better preference than Broadcom’s Crystal HD decoder — a ATI graphics didn’t force us to choose a specific browser or program for personification behind high-def video as Broadcom’s chip did upon the Dell Mini 10.

So, that battery holdup… AMD has definitely done strides in which locus, yet we’d still like to see some-more when it comes to continuation. When you reviewed a Lenovo ThinkPad X100e with the 1.6Ghz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 as well as really large 63Wh battery, the system didn’t run for longer than four hours on the video outline battery exam, that loops a same standard def video at 65 percent shade lightness. Both the 521 as well as 721 with only 48Wh batteries got over three hours upon which same test – a 521 ran for four hours as well as two minutes as well as a 721 for 3.5. In everyday use you saw each get about a half an hour to 45 mins more runtime. Sure, we wish these dual got on top of 5 hours for gentle NY to LA craft rides as well as but the disbelief Intel Atom netbooks with the same batteries would last longer on the charge, but with a combined opening you get from the 521 as well as 721 it’s a sacrifice you assume a little will be peaceful to have. (Note: we’ve asked Acer about extended battery options, and we will update this review when we get an answer behind We also saw improvement in terms of heat – both systems did get somewhat warm upon a left side nearby a air blower, but when we kept them upon our lap it wasn’t bothersome as well as didn’t bake by our jeans similar to a X100e.

A quick note upon configurations — whilst both have the same processor and graphics, there are a little slight spec differences. The $349.99 chronicle of the 521 comes with Windows 7 Starter, the 250GB tough drive as well as 1GB of IMPEL. The $429.99 721, upon a other hand, has 2GB of IMPEL as well as runs Windows 7 Home Premium.

Acer continues to load these puppies up with quite the bit of software. There’s both Norton Antivirus as well as McAfee preloaded along with a Netflix as well as eBay shortcuts on a desktop. Removing most of this junk noticeably sped up opening.

Wrap-up

We had a camber AMD was sitting on some great stuff given the series of laptop makers that have been picking up their brand-new chips, though, as they say, seeing is believing. These dual laptops aren’t perfect as well as their battery life is disappointing, though for their cost you have been tender. At $349 a Aspire One 521 is a single of the many absolute 10-inch netbooks on a marketplace right away, and though it may not final as long on the charge as Atom-powered one, it’s miles ahead in conditions of handling Flash as well as HD video. No, we’re not the greatest fans of the outrageous trademark upon the lid, but the cost as well as performance have been sure to win over someone looking for the 10-incher.

Though, if you had to select we’d go with the 721 — for $80 more than the 521 you get some-more than only the secondary machine with its wider screen as well as keyboard. Of course, if you consistently direct some-more than 4 hours of battery holdup you’ll wish to go with an Intel ULV laptop, but many of them price north of $700. And good, that’s exactly what AMD’s starting for — Acer now has dual incredibly affordable and moveable laptops that container more opening than most netbooks and bill ultraportables upon a marketplace.