Web Secret #46 : Acer Aspire One Netbook

I have become a netbook enthusiast.

What’s a netbook? A shrunken Jivaro laptop. More specifically, a netbook is a laptop with a small screen and an undersized keyboard. Netbooks are small, light weight and VERY INEXPENSIVE, from just under $300 to $500.

If all you want to do is e-mail, Web browsing, chat, Skype and word processing – buy a netbook. Many people buy a netbook as a secondary computer – to take to class, or carry on a business trip. But some frugal recessionistas are now using a netbook in lieu of a laptop.

I’ll admit – at first I was VERY skeptical. Then I happened to spend the weekend at my friend Herb’s house. Herb is, to put it mildly, an EARLY, technology adopter. He always is the first of my friends to own a ___________ (fill in the blanks with the latest cool gadget of your choice.) Anyway, Herb proudly pointed to a sapphire blue, quite adorable 8.9” Acer Aspire One netbook and said, “See my new toy?”

I immediately started to play with it. The Acer has specs typical of most netbooks:

• Windows XP
  
• 1 gig of memory;
  
• a 1.6-gigahertz Intel Atom processor
  
• a gynormous 160-gig hard drive
  
• No DVD drive (easy to buy an external DVD drive for around $90)
  
• Wi-Fi wireless
  
• 3 U.S.B. jacks
  
• a webcam

All this and it only weighs 2.4 lbs! And I have to tell you, this little thing felt really solid and well built. I was impressed.

Anyway, turns out my Acer encounter was providential, because not two weeks later my errant teenage daughter called to inform me that her Dell laptop, (the one that was supposed to last all four years of college) was on life-support, headed for an imminent demise. I started to scream at her, then simultaneously remembered her upcoming birthday and the netbook.

I abruptly hung up the phone and proceeded to read twenty expert and consumer write ups on the Acer Aspire One. The reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

Long story short, a quick trip to the Best Buy website, and today my daughter is the proud owner of an Aspire One netbook. The Aspire was a snap to set up and she transferred 2,000 songs from her old Dell onto it using an external hard drive.

She is happy as a clam and so am I – I paid just $299 for this amazing little machine.