Pretty sweet (for a netbook)
Acer's Aspire One 756 outstrips expectations when it comes to power and smoothness
The Acer Aspire One 756 netbook is quite powerful for its class of mobile computers. Driven by an Intel Pentium B967 1.4GHz with a 2MB cache and 2GB of DDR3 memory, plus the 320GB hard drive, it’s roomy and quick on its keys.
You get a 11.6-inch HD LED-backlit Acer CineCrystal 16:9 display with 1,366x768-pixel resolution. The graphics horsepower comes from integrated Intel HD graphics, not a separate graphics engine, but it’s pretty powerful for a netbook computer that’s after all geared to checking mail, Web surfing and working on business applications on the go.
The One 756 is available in Ash Black, Ladybug Red, Drewdrop Silver and – the one I sampled – in Feather Blue. Nice and shiny!
Windows is not pre-installed, so you have to get your own Windows 7 to get it up and running – and an external DVD drive, because the netbook lacks an optical drive too.
I ran mine on Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit and liked its performance (for a netbook). Business applications like Office 2007 ran fast, without hiccups. Graphics-extensive games can crash Windows, of course, but netbook computers aren’t designed for that anyway.
To my surprise, the One 756 was powerful enough to play HD video. My 720p clip ran smoothly.
Another nice thing is that it comes with a large keyboard, so it’s easy and comfortable to type e-mail and tackle your Word documents.
Assessed against Windows 7’s internal benchmark tool, the One 756 scored well (for a netbook). On a scale of one to 7.9 points it got 4.3 for processor calculations per second, 5.9 for disk data-transfer rate and 5.5 for memory operations per second.
It got 4.4 for graphics desktop performance for Windows Aero and 5.6 for 3D business and gaming graphics performance.
Acer’s Aspire One 756 retails for Bt14,900, VAT included, along with a year’s insurance against accident and theft.
Key specs
_ OS bundle: Linpus Linux BE
_ Processor: Intel Pentium B967 (1.40GHz, 2MB L3 Cache)
_ Chipset: Mobile Intel HM70 Express
_ Graphic Chip: Intel HD
_ Display: 11.6-inch HD LED (1366x768) Acer CineCrystal; 16:9 aspect ratio
_ Main memory: 2GB DDR3 (Max 8GB)
_ Hard disk: 320GB 5400 RPM
_ Web camera: Acer Crystal Eye high-def webcam
_ Port & interface: Three USB 2.0, one D-Sub/VGA, one HDMI
_ Card reader: Multi-in-1
_ Connection: 802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, LAN
_ Battery: Six-cell Li-ion
_ Dimension: 285x202x20mm
_ Weight: 1.38 kilograms
