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Raman
May 3rd, 2010Acer Aspire One AO751h
July 3rd, 2009
The Acer Aspire AO751h,is one of the company’s first 11.6-inch net book Which is an Upgrade over its 10-inch cousin users get an extra inch of screen real estate, a bigger roomier keyboard, amazingly and more than 7 hours of battery life infect its smaller Cousin, the AOD150, lasts about an hour less. Infect it is larger; the AO751h has a weaker processor then is counterpart competitors. As a result it is a net book that has great looks and feels great but offers less performance than other machines in its class.
Design:
We have seen the 10-inch Aspire One AOD250, and the 11.6-inch version looks familiar. It has a glossy black lid having Acer’s metallic logo impressed in the lower corner off the lid; but the lid picks up fingerprints fairly easily. Just Like the slightly more upscale Timeline series it’s having a gray palm rest and keyboard rest with a zed-black keyboard and thin bezel to match its looks it’s pretty much visible in the Picture above.
As we have seen in Timeline series, that it’s overall effects are conservative but they are not cheap-looking. The real quality about the Aspire is not the color scheme but its thinness. While its competitors i.e. the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA, can be as thick as 1.4 inches and weigh close to 3 pounds the 1005-HA weighs 2.8 the Aspire One has a minimal footprint of 11.2 x 7.8 x 1.0 inches, infect its weighs 3 pounds and 3.6 with its adapter included. It feels just bit heavier than the Toshiba mini-NB205, but that’s offset may be considered because of the thinner build.
The only glich is its six-cell battery juts out the back (bulging out), whereas some other net-books, such as the Eee PC 1005HA, have comparably sized batteries that are more applicable and sleek with the system and that’s not all they manage to deliver longer battery life too.
Keyboard and aesthetics:
Just like the Aspire Timeline AS3810T; the Aspire One A0751h has slightly raised keys with plastic having a textured feel. The layout is very close to full size keyboard and I must appreciate i.e. the right Shift key is full size and it is in proper place. In fact the touch typists will have no problem with this net-book, but I noticed that the keyboard was flexed.
In our first 15 Thumbs Typing Test, we scored 84 words per minute; our highest score on our desktop computer is 88 words per minute. Then, we immediately took the test again and scored 86 words per minute, which suggests that you will likely acclimate quickly with its form and factor.
Touchpad and Touch Button’s:
When I reviewed the 10-inch Aspire One, then we were complaining about the tiny touchpad. But with the A0751h’s slightly wider footprint comes a wider touchpad (2.5 x 1.6 inches), which has a pleasant improvement over the AOD250’s (2.0 x 1.5-inch) touch pad. But it is still fairly short when compared to the NB205’s (3.1 x 1.6 inches) enormous touchpad.
But we have a bigger concern of the single touch button, which we found that it’s too stiff and narrow. Besides from the stiffness, we would definitely have preferred two buttons, as there are on other net-books.
Display and Sound:
The one thing unique about AO751h is that that most of its 10-inch competitors don’t is a high-resolution screen. For e.g.
1. 1005HA,
2. NB205,
3. 10-inch Aspire
One all have displays with 1024 x 600-pixel resolution, the AO751h’s 11.6-inch display has a resolution of enormous 1366 x 768 pixels. Those extra vertical pixels, in particular, mean we don’t have to scroll down as often when we are viewing pages, which is a common inconvenience with net-books at present.
I was impressed by the screen’s bright display. After watched a Saturday Night Live sketch on Hulu.com I enjoyed pleasant colors and amazingly good viewing angles even from oblique side angles. The glossy finish limited our viewing angles from the front; infect when we lowered the lid forward slightly we were still able to make out the clip. By the time I got to a 45-degree angle, however, the screen appeared washed out.
The volume, as expect with a net-book, is weak. While watching a clip in a quiet room with the net-book right in front of us, the sound was never too loud. Music, too, sounded predictably tinny, but no worse than it does on other competitor net-books: the bass in was really Good
Ports and Webcam:
The Net-book AO751h is having a standard selection of ports i.e.
1. three USB ports
2. VGA output
3. an Ethernet jack
4. headphone
5. mica ports,
6. 4-in-1 memory card reader.
The memory card reader, VGA, and one USB port on the right side, and the rest are located on the left.
The net-book comes with a Built in 1.3 MP webcam. While chatting with my friend I noticed minimal latency with better colors and brightness than on his Apple I-Sight camera.
Storage:
Just Like other net-books, the AO751 has a hard drive of 160GB which has 5,400 rpm. On the LAPTOP Transfer Test, I copied a 4.97GB mixed-media folder in 5 minutes and 45 seconds, which results in to a rate of 14.8 MBps. That’s just right in line with the net-book category average (14.6 MBps), but can find many significantly faster hard drives in comparably priced 10-inch net-books. The 10-inch Aspire One, Eee PC 1005HA, and NB205, are for e.g. were all faster, completing the test at rates of 16.5 MBps, 19.9 MBps, and 18.1 MBps, respectively.
Battery Life and Wi-Fi:
The Net-book AO751h has some very tough competition in its battery life I recently hailed both the 1005HA and the NB205 for lasting nearly nine hours on our battery test. But the AO751h has lasted 7 hours and 8 minutes only on the LAPTOP battery test, which is not as long as the other net-books listed, is still an impressive score; But it still beats the six-cell net-book category with average of almost 90 minutes.
Despite having 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, which we wouldn’t expect to have as strong a range as a wireless-N radio, the AO751h maintained an excellent through put of 21.0 Mbps and 20.0 Mbps at 15 and 50 feet respectively both of the results are above average for the net-book category.
Pros:
1. Slim design
2. Long battery life
3. Comfortable keyboard
4. Bright, high-resolution display
5. Strong wireless range
6. Better touch pad
7. Well placed full size right shift Key
8. Slightly raised keys with textured finish
9. Almost a Full sized keyboard
Cons:
1. Subpar performance scores
2. Relatively small touchpad
3. Stiff single touch button
4. Week processor
5. Dust catching finish which is difficult to maintain
6. Bumpy battery at the base.
7. No optical drive
8. Less spate to increase the ram capacity
9. Small HDD of only 160 Gb
Hardware Overview:
1. CPU: 1.33-GHz Intel Atom Z520
2. OS: Windows XP Home
3. RAM/Expandable to: 1GB/2GB
4. Hard Drive Size/Speed: 160GB/5,400 rpm
5. Optical Drive: None
6. Display/Resolution: 11.6 inches/1364 x 768
7. Graphics/Video Memory: Intel GMA 500/384MB
8. HDD 160 GB.
ASUS N90
July 3rd, 2009
General Over view
Graphic addicts who are in search of a big-screen notebook with design will definitely find Prefer the ASUS N90 it is an 18.4inch behemoth having a full HD display with Blueray drive and a massive 1TB of storage for storing libraries of high-definition content. It priced at $1,799, which is Approx Rs-89950 which is not much fo the product but its not so cheap even but this notebook lacks some of the raw graphics power found in similarly priced desktop replacements, and even Speakers are not up to the mark.
Design or aesthetics
The first thing that we will notice in ASUS N90 is that it has massive girth and a attractive design; ASUS has taken great care in ensuring that this PC screams high quality. The notebook’s lid and base feature a black- glossy-Infusion finish with a subtle pinstripe and swirl design. Unfortunately, the N90 is a fingerprint and smudge magnet which in my openion must have been taken care of. At 9.4 pounds it’s also quite the haul but not in comparison with ASUS W90 which is 13.4-pound the company’s other 18-incher.On its right side we will find a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on/off switch, dual headphone jacks and an Express Card/54 slot having two closely placed USB 2.0 ports. Built into the left side is a 2X Blue ray drive and that’s not all it is having an 8-in-1 memory card reader. On the back of the PC, there are two more USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, and a Kensington Lock slot over all a great piece of art and technology combined.
The user interface
Having wide base provides ASUS N90 plenty of room for comfortable touch-typing “chocolate” keyboard (as ASUS dubs its shape), but there is some light flex which is of more concern, however keys themselves are very much touch sensitive and they offer plenty of travel but lack the springy feedback we prefer. In addition to this the right Shift key is oddly undersized. On the upside but ASUS includes a full numeric keypad.
Infect on the other hand the touchpad doesn’t possess the same gloss as the rest of the lappe, the attractive pattern which extends across its surface which helping it to mesh well with the rest of the base. It is 3.3*2.0 inch; it’s just not enough room to navigate with ease. Besides it has a large mouse button that’s loud, but gets the job done well.
At the left of the keyboard is a strip that has four neon-blue backlit buttons that let us adjust the visual settings ie (Vivid, Theater, Soft, Normal, Gamma Correction),a button to enable or disable the touchpad, switch battery modes (Quiet Office, Battery Saving, High Performance, Entertainment), and launch Express Gate, ASUS’ branded version of Splash top.
Positioned below these buttons is a jog wheel that let u control the N90’s volume, as well as mute audio by pressing a button in the wheel’s center. We preferred this jog wheel to the futuristic multimedia touch control panels as its more easey to control the volume more accurately, such as those found on the Acer Aspire 8930G-6448 or ASUS W90.
Pros
1. High-def display and Blu-ray
2. Attractive design
3. Huge 1TB hard drive
4. Two-year warranty
5. Has both touch pad and mouse buttons.
6. Has Blue ray drive
7. Has considerable waight of 9.4 pounds approx less then 4.5 KG
Cons
1. Low speaker volume
2. Fingerprint-prone design so its deficult to maintain it
3. Mediocre graphics performance
4. Has not so good Touch pad.
Audio and Video Performance
ASUS N90 which have the display of 1920 x 1080 full HD served up bright colors and deep blacks, which made movies and Web pages pop. The glossy display which have few reflections, but they were not as severe as the ones we’ve experienced from other notebooks. As such, we enjoyed viewing because of its wide viewing angles when watching We Were Soldiers. While outputting the movie to a 32-inch Samsung monitor using an HDMI cable resulted in no hiccup experiance audio and video playback.
One might think that having Altec Lansing speakers with SRS Premium Sound would probabely make movies and music sound as good as they look, but we may be wrong. While watching the Bluray version of We Were Soldiers, the clarity of the sound was a step above the run-of-the-mill notebook, but were are disappointed by the relatively low volume. The speakers also sounded weak when we played NOFX in Slacker at full volume.
Webcam
Above the display is a 1.3-megapixel webcam that enables us to video chat with friend’s video that we observed featured good color replication that, unfortunately, suffered from some motion blur when we moved around. Designed to work in conjunction with the webcam is Lifeframe 3, an application that allowed us to take snapshots at various resolutions (ranging from 160 x 120 to 1280 x 1024), shoot video 160 x 120 to 640 x 480 and implement wacky visual effects such as oversized hats, masks, and other special but common effects.
Performance
The product has 2.66-GHz Intel Core-2-Duo T9550 processor and a 4GB of RAM which produced a PCMark Vantage score of 3,568, which is 228 points less than the desktop counterpart. Still, we were able to chat with friends in Meebo, having several tabs open in Internet Explorer 8, and stream music from Slacker without a performance hit.
We tested the N90’s performance by transcoding a 5:05 MPEG-4 clip to AVI using Handbrake. Converting the file with no other open applications running in the background took astonishing 6 minutes and 11 seconds, which was just 3 seconds slower than the mark shown by HP ProBook 4710s . Which has a slower 2.53-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 processor but the same 4GB of RAM. When we converted the file again while compressing a 4.97GB folder of mixed media using jZip, the task completion time Leaped to 13 minutes, almost 2 minutes longer than the HP ProBook 4710s.
Nvidia’s CUDA Technology
Which is designed to enable the graphics processing unit to crunch video data, Nvidia’s CUDA technology allowed us to transcode the same 5:05 clip from MPEG-4 to AVI (using vReveal, an application designed which is designed to take advantage of this technology in just 4 minutes and 23 seconds a savings of almost 2 minutes. Transcoding it while compressing the 4.97GB folder took 11 minutes and 46 seconds which is two minutes less than when we tested with CUDA. If you’re a video enthusiast, using CUDA–enabled software is a must for speedy processing.
Graphics Performance
Nvidia Ge-Force GT 130M graphics card with 1GB of memory inside the N90 notched a 3DMark06 score of 4,944. That result is 1,400 points less than that of the average desktop replacement (remember, high-end gaming rigs populate this space), but was significantly higher than the HP Pro-Book 4710S’s which has 2,384 score. However, the N90’s 3DMark Vantage score of just 1,680 was one of the lowest we’ve seen in recent months.
Comparing 3DMark Vantage results with similar laptops
The GPU performed adequately when we tested Far Cry 2. It ran at a decent 26 frames per second in auto-detect mode Having a (1280 x 720-pixel resolution), but dropped to an intolerable 14 frames per second when we bumped up the resolution to 1080p infact we couldn’t play at that point. By comparison, the $1,699 17-inch MSI GT725 tore through the game at 84 frames per second at 1024 x 768, and 44 frames per second at 1900 x 1200. Despite that it has less than stellar graphics scores, the GPU is solid enough in globe-trotting in Google Earth, which we used to zoom to various locations without any bumps.
Massive Storage and Slow Boot Time
As the book is meant for If we have large libraries of music, photos, and high-definition video, the N90’s 1TB of storage divided across two 500GB, 5,400-rpm hard drives should provide with enough capacity for your storage needs. On the other hand booting the Windows Vista Home Premium operating system took a 1 minute and 27 seconds which I think is very slow. The lappe has notched a 16.9 MBps data transfer time when we copied a 4.97GB folder of mixed media using our LAPPE transfer Test, which was much slower than the 23.2 MBps category average.
Wireless Strength and Battery Life
The 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi radio showed an excellent throughput on our wireless tests. It pushed data along at a rate of 21.1 Mbps at fifteen feet away from our access point, which dipped slightly to 20.2 Mbps when we placed the notebook at fifty feet away. Both scores proved better than the 19.6 Mbps and 16.3 Mbps category averages. This allowed us to enjoy smoothly high-def Hulu content .
With many desktop replacements, the N90’s battery life isn’t the longest. In reality its at just 1 hour and 51 minutes, it’s about 45 minutes shorter than the category average. Considering Itssize, you probably won’t stray too far from an outlet anyway.
Software/ Warranty
The Lappe is Bundled with a software package that includes standouts as Adobe Reader 8, ASUS Copy Protect to prevent some one from copying data to a removable storage drive, ASUS Data Security that is for encrypting the drives, ASUS Smart Logon face recognition with LifeScribe disc labeling and printing, it a 60day trial of Ms-Office 2007, and Win-DVD Blu-ray for ASUS. The company backs the N90 with a two-year global warranty which includes one-year of accidental damage and 30-day Zero Bright Dot to ensure that all of the pixels are functional. With a Toll-free tech support available 24/7.
Other Configurations options
To save a couple of hundred dollars, check out the ASUS N90SV-A1, which has same configuration, but reduces the drive capacity from 1TB to 500GB.
Verdict
Priced at $1,799 which is approx 89950 Rs, the ASUS N90 offers a huge high-def display for enjoying Blu-ray playback, Having a attractive design, and a huge amount of storage space. Given that this isn’t a gaming rig, we can live with the not so great graphics performance. But we think a sound system on an 18-inch notebook should offer a better volume. If pure performance is paramount, the MSI GT725 packs a 2.0-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Quad 9000 processor, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850 graphics, Blueray, and a full HD display for $100 about 500 Rs less—if you’re willing to downgrade to a speedy, yet much smaller 320GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive is the other option for you.