Acer Aspire One 751 reviewed – beauty only skin deep
May 6, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Pocket-Lint has posted the first English review of Acer’s 11.6-inch Aspire One 751 netbook. Now whether one classifies an 11.6-inch device as a netbook rather than notebook is debateable. However, considering that Acer has bunched the 751 with the Aspire One family and Asus will be doing tagging their rumoured 11.6-inch device to its Eee line, it’s a definition that consumers should get used to.
Overall, whilst they loved the design decisions made by Acer, which includes striking angles in a skinny form-factor, they felt it was let down by a poor keyboard and weak performance. Whilst they welcomed the higher resolution not normally seen in netbooks at 1366 x 768 pixels, they felt it was underpowered, limiting the ability to watch HD content. They awarded the 751 a 6/10 and felt that “it looks great out and about, but has so many issues, it is a nightmare to live with“. Check out the key points of the review after the jump.
Key points from Pocket-Lint’s Acer Aspire One 751 review:
- The 751 is a perfect example of the more adventurous designs coming to netbooks. Rather than traditional straight lines, it comes with a number of angled corners that look good. A nice touch is the battery that is designed to slot under and between the screen hinges. It is very sleek and slimline measuring just 1-inch at its thickest point.
- The 751 doesn’t feel like a premium product. The screen can be distorted by bending the lid and the ‘skin’ on the lid feels too light which may need a protective case.
- The 1366 x 768 LED-backlit display has a glossy finish but is bright and crisp. This resolution doesn’t feel too small on this sized display, a lot of content can be seen without the need to scroll too much.
- The 751 does feel underpowered though, coming with a 1.33GHz Z520 Atom CPU, the US15W chipset and 1GB RAM. It refused to play HD content on YouTube despite being fine with SD content.
- The 751 does a slot for a 3G card if needed.
- The full-sized keyboard suffered from pretty bad flexing and they described it akin to “typing on the back of a sponge”.
- The touchpad could have been bigger, not allowing you to navigate the entire screen without several touches. The multi-gesture input on the trackpad didn’t work too well either.
- Battery life stood at around 3 hours on the 3-cell 2200mAh battery.
May 7th, 2009 10:35 PM
I purchased 2 Acer Aspire One Laptops less than 6 months ago and they lived up to their billing UNTIL (2 weeks apart) the LCD screens cracked for no known reason. They were not dropped, not even carried out of the house, one was sitting on a desk, the other on a shelf. They were fine, then the next use they cracked upon turning them on. I googled the problem, and I am NOT alone on this – wish I had known!
Service thus far has been a hassle at best & I’m pretty sure the Acer techs will say it was something ‘we’ did so they won’t have to pay for it.
May 7th, 2009 11:21 PM
I’m sorry to hear that Linda. That seems like extremely bad luck to happen to both netbooks just two weeks apart!
I did have high hopes for the 751, which seemed to offer a great looking ‘netbook’ at a decent price. However, it looks like the build quality isn’t up to scratch judging by the above review…
May 8th, 2009 1:54 PM
I just got my Aspire One, first impression is good. I’d like a better user manual than what comes in the box (useless), so I can learn more about using the webcam and the other features ( I’m not up on my technology). I’m not finding the Acer website very helpful/easy to navigate … Any counsel for me? – thank you.
I’m in the U.S.
May 8th, 2009 5:43 PM
Vianna,
The 10.1-inch manual can be found here.
The 8.9-inch manual can be found here.
Hope it helps.
May 13th, 2009 5:53 PM
My 8.9 Aspire One screen cracked as well with no force applied – just opened it up to use it one day and the display was screwed. I have since found other people on the web with the same problem. So far Acer are refusing to acknowledge that this is a problem, but proving that I didn’t drop the damn thing is impossible so not sure how to proceed from here
June 5th, 2009 6:36 PM
I bought FOUR of these Aspire Netbooks for Christmas. The screen on one has cracked internally. NOTHING was done to damage it. It was sitting on a shelf for about 4 weeks without use (we do have 4 of them in the house!). Then, when I turned it on, the screen was cracked. I still can’t figure out what happened. Acer’s warranty department told me that cracked LCDs are not covered. I will have to pay for repair, but don’t know how much yet. First, I have to ship it to them in Texas. Does anyone know how much they will charge to replace the screen?
June 9th, 2009 3:12 PM
Rworth: I found a solution to your problem here:
http://chromick.com/eric/aa1/aspire-one-black-screen-of-death/
It seems to have worked for quite a few people. Good luck!
June 13th, 2009 4:32 AM
I opened my netbook tonight, after not having used it for four days to discover that the screen had cracks through it along with a huge black circle on the upper left side of the screen. This unit had been handled properly when used and had never been dropped.
June 16th, 2009 9:39 PM
I have the same experiences. I left my laptop on my study desk without use for two weeks. I opened it today and found to my horror an internal crack on the right. Like the others, I have treated this with delicate care. I did not drop it or slam it and never experienced this with the other laptops I have purchased. I contacted the support to demand a repair. If they do not comply, I am contacting the BBB, and would suggest others to do the same, because this is absurd.
July 16th, 2009 11:47 PM
I got a Aspire One for a graduation present, and everything was fine until 2 weeks later, I opened it and not only were there huge internal cracks on the screen, there was a huge black spot.
July 17th, 2009 12:37 AM
I too have had the same experience with my Acer Aspire One Netbook. It has been very well looked after, never dropped or had pressure of any sort. I used it on Saturday and all was perfect. The next day I opened it up and the whole screen had cracks running through it. I just could not figure it out!!!! It was just sitting on my desk!! Acer does not cover it on warranty and it is costing me AU$330 to repair. I was very disappointed, and they said that there is NO history of the Acer Aspire One having this problem. But, now after reading this forum, there obviously must be a problem with there screens.
August 30th, 2009 7:03 PM
Hi – I was at the shops today and was really keen on buying one – Luckily I didnt after all the comments I have read – Do you think that it is really worth getting. I was so keen on getting it cos it has 3G. If it is not worth getting do you have any other notebooks to recommend??
September 11th, 2009 1:13 AM
Well, GUESS WHAT! I planned on using my Acer Asire One Netbook tonight and low and behold I have a black spot about the size of a golf ball on the left side of my screen plus the whole screen has blue lines running throught it.
Something is diffently wrong with these screens. Jake did you have any luck with Acer support?
September 26th, 2009 12:45 AM
I would like to buy one of these, right price, good looking,
is this cracking a real problem, has anyone heard from ACer?
September 26th, 2009 2:56 AM
I have the same problem with the rest of you guys. I used my acer aspire one notebook with ample care for 6 months now since the day I bought it but unfortunately i never escaped the breakage problem. I never put pressure on my laptop screen nor dropped it accidentally or otherwise. my deli ma is that I discovered various cracks on my screen.There is this spiderweb like black thing on the screen. i really don’t know how it happened. Is a problem with the quality of the parts of the of acer aspire one notebook?i really don’t know. how did you fix your problem with the LCD breakage and how much will it cost me?my unit is still under warranty.please do help me.thanks.
October 12th, 2009 9:23 AM
Guess I’m joining in too. My Acer netbook screen has the same problem, opened it to find a huge cracked area. It’s less than a year old and has not been dropped or handled roughly. In fact it only ever moves between the sofa and the end table and is only used ocassionally.
Acer need to address this, there is clearly a faulty hardware issue here.
Watchdog anyone?
October 15th, 2009 7:14 PM
Acer Aspire one
I think it is heat from the hardrive!
I have the same golf ball size crack on the left hand side!
2 week old unit from PC world!
they have had it for a week and I’ve just picked it up and had a heated discussion with the a******* manager!
He say’s accidebtal damage!
A******