Acer has launched its Aspire One 522 which is powered by it features a 10.1 inch display and an AMD C-50 processor with Radeon HD 6250 graphics. If it weren’t for the high resolution 1280 x 720 pixel display, you’d probably have a hard time telling this mini-laptop apart from any other netbook. It’s about the same size, weight, and even price as other offerings from Acer. But when it comes to performance, things get a little more complicated.
The AMD C-50 chip is a 1 GHz dual core processor with the CPU and graphics components on the same chip. AMD called this sort of system-on-a-chip an APU, or Accelerated Processing Unit. Intel is also producing System on a Chip processors, but Intel lags behind AMD in the graphics department, thanks to AMD’s purchase of graphics card maker ATI a few years ago.
The end result is that while the AMD C-50 chip uses almost the same amount of power as Intel’s latest Atom chips and offers similar day to day performance, it offers far better graphics performance.
In my tests, the Acer Aspire One 522 had no problem handling regular day to day tasks such as web browsing or writing documents. But it could also handle 1080p HD video playback and even some 3D gaming without breaking a sweat — although your battery life may suffer a bit if you spend a lot of time on these tasks.
Overall I’m very impressed with the performance offered by this little notebook computer which costs just about $330. But I’m less enamored of the keyboard and touchpad. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not awful, but the touchpad in particular takes some getting used to.
Acer sent me a demo unit for testing purposes. It features 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and runs Windows 7 Home Starter Edition. It has 3 USB ports, an HDMI output, Ethernet and VGA jacks, and mic and headphone jacks. The computer has a 6 cell battery and is not available with Bluetooth.
Design
The Acer Aspire One 522 looks a lot like the last half dozen or so netbooks from Acer. It has an 10.1 inch display, a not-quite full sized keyboard, and a 6 cell battery. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In the early days of netbooks, computer makers were constantly trying out new designs to figure out what works. Acer has pretty much settled on its design, and the last few generations of the company’s mini-laptop have had very subtle differences such as different designs on the lid, or different power button arrangements.[liliputing.com]
Acer Aspire One 522 Netbook Specifications :
The AMD C-50 chip is a 1 GHz dual core processor with the CPU and graphics components on the same chip. AMD called this sort of system-on-a-chip an APU, or Accelerated Processing Unit. Intel is also producing System on a Chip processors, but Intel lags behind AMD in the graphics department, thanks to AMD’s purchase of graphics card maker ATI a few years ago.
The end result is that while the AMD C-50 chip uses almost the same amount of power as Intel’s latest Atom chips and offers similar day to day performance, it offers far better graphics performance.
In my tests, the Acer Aspire One 522 had no problem handling regular day to day tasks such as web browsing or writing documents. But it could also handle 1080p HD video playback and even some 3D gaming without breaking a sweat — although your battery life may suffer a bit if you spend a lot of time on these tasks.
Overall I’m very impressed with the performance offered by this little notebook computer which costs just about $330. But I’m less enamored of the keyboard and touchpad. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not awful, but the touchpad in particular takes some getting used to.
Acer sent me a demo unit for testing purposes. It features 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and runs Windows 7 Home Starter Edition. It has 3 USB ports, an HDMI output, Ethernet and VGA jacks, and mic and headphone jacks. The computer has a 6 cell battery and is not available with Bluetooth.
Design
The Acer Aspire One 522 looks a lot like the last half dozen or so netbooks from Acer. It has an 10.1 inch display, a not-quite full sized keyboard, and a 6 cell battery. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In the early days of netbooks, computer makers were constantly trying out new designs to figure out what works. Acer has pretty much settled on its design, and the last few generations of the company’s mini-laptop have had very subtle differences such as different designs on the lid, or different power button arrangements.[liliputing.com]
Acer Aspire One 522 Netbook Specifications :
- Genuine Windows 7 starter operating system
- Next gen AMD Fusion platform, 1GHz AMD C-50 Ontario APU
- 10.1″ High Definition display maximum of 1280 x 720 pixels resolution
- Radeon 6250 chip with DirectX 11 support
- Featured with Green chassis, HDMI and VGA output, HD webcam
- 6 cell battery with 6 hours guaranteed backup time
- Wi-Fi, 10/100 LAN, Stereo Bluetooth+EDR
- 6 in one multi-format card reader, 3 USB 2.0 ports
