Acer Netbook Price Comparison & Stock Check

Acer Netbooks

Acer was founded in 1976 and has grown to become one of the top five computer manufacturers in the world. They offer a wide selection of computers for the home, business and portable markets and have been building notebooks and netbooks for a few years now. Their current Acer netbooks are considered some of the most popular available and have a strong market share worldwide. They have been able to utilize their experience with home and business computer systems to design a netbook that has all of the features a buyer could want at a very attractive price. In a recent Acer netbook review, the new Acer netbooks were considered to be the best combination of features and price available today. You can buy Acer netbooks from a variety of local retailers, but your best bet is to check the web for comparison pricing on various models. This type of comparison-shopping will also allow you to see who has cheap Acer netbooks available.

Storage Capacity - The Acer notebooks are available with a number of different storage options. They are available as a traditional 2.5-inch hard drive in capacities ranging from 80GB to 160GB. The current Acer aspire netbooks are equipped with the larger 160GB drives. In addition to the hard drive as an option for local storage, the Acer netbooks also offer a solid-state memory option. This memory is based on NAND flash technology and is offered as an 8GB or 16GB option. The nice thing about using the flash memory is that it is more durable than the standard hard drives. It can provide this durability because it has no moving parts to break. The flash memory also uses far less power than a traditional hard drive would and this allows you to extend your battery life considerably. The drawbacks to using the flash memory is that the capacities are small compared to hard drive capacities. This means you can store less content on the laptop and may require you to carry additional memory along for your additional content. The other drawback is that the flash memory tends to be more expensive than hard drive technology for a given capacity. Be sure you know what type of memory is being used when you compare Acer netbooks.

Operating System - The Acer netbooks offer a choice of operating systems and pre-loaded applications. You can buy Acer netbooks with a Windows XP Home Edition operating system if you prefer a familiar interface. These Acer netbooks also come with Acer eRecovery Management, Acer Launch Manager, Adobe Acrobat Reader and a trial version of McAfee Internet Security Suite installed. If you choose to use a version of Linux on your Acer netbook, you can purchase it with Linpus Linux Lite installed. The Linux version also comes pre-loaded with Aspire Mail, Messenger and OpenOffice.org version 2.3 installed. Both of these Acer netbooks are the same except for the operating system they contain.

CPU and Graphics - The Acer Aspire netbooks utilize the latest Intel Atom processor 270 for their CPU. This chipset was designed to provide exceptional computing muscle for mobile users and requires less power to operate than many other processors in its class. This processor has 512MB L2 Cache and operates at 1.60 GHZ to provide the speed you require for graphics-heavy applications. For graphics processing, the Acer Aspire netbooks use an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 to help you handle your multimedia needs. The Acer netbooks feature an 8.9-inch WSVGA display that has an LED backlight. This display is very crisp and offers a 1024 X 600 screen resolution using Acer CrystalBrite technology.

Connectivity - The Acer netbooks provide a large number of external connections for you to attach your peripherals and displays to the netbook. It features three high-speed USB connections to give you plenty of connection options for thumb drives and other peripherals. It also features a standard VGA connector to allow you to connect an external display or projector to any of the Acer netbooks if you desire. The Acer netbooks also offer two memory card slots on the unit to allow you to either add storage space to the unit or transfer files. There is an SD memory slot that adds the capacity of whatever storage card you insert into it to the available storage of the netbook. It also allows this card to sit flush in the netbook. This can be a nice way of expanding the internal storage if you decide on the solid-state memory option. There is also a multi-format card reader on the unit that allows you to use MMC, xD, SD and MemoryStick Pro flash memory cards and will present these as volumes of storage that you can use to transfer files.

Keyboard - The keyboard size and layout on the Acer netbooks is pretty close to a full-sized keyboard. Even though it is a bit smaller, the configuration, spacing and size of the keys you use most make it a breeze to type on. The track-pad is a little shorter than it is wide, but still does a great job of allowing you to navigate. There are also two mouse buttons positioned on either side of the track-pad that take a little getting used to. They are easy to master and seem to be the new emerging standard configuration for these netbooks.

Battery Life - The battery life on the Acer netbooks is very good and will provide a little over 3 hours of use with the three-cell battery and about 5.5 hours of use with the six-cell battery that is sold as an option. Both of these numbers can vary depending on your brightness settings and the type of storage you have installed.

Network Connectivity - The Acer aspire netbooks include an internal 802.11b/g Wifi connection that makes connecting to a network a snap. This connection is easy to configure and allows you to save various profiles for connection points for future use, to make it easier to connect when you return to the same location. The Acer netbooks also include an RJ-45 connection as well to allow you to connect to a hard-wired network if you want to this when you are home or at the office. There is also the ability to add a 3G dongle from one of the mobile carriers to the Acer netbooks to give you connection through the cellular network. This connection can be very fast and allows you to use the Acer netbooks in areas where there is no Wifi connectivity.