Acer Aspire One AO722-BZ454 11.6-Inch HD Netbook (Espresso Black)

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1. Just My $.02 says:
   August 7, 2011 at 7:03 pm
   194 of 196 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Powerful little laptop that can even run Photoshop CS5 64bit, June 16, 2011

   By 

   Just My $.02 (Florida) –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Acer Aspire One AO722-BZ454 11.6-Inch HD Netbook (Espresso Black) (Personal Computers)

   I was looking for an 11″-13″ small laptop or netbook that could web surf, blog, and run MS Office. I also wanted to be able to handle basic, on-the-fly photo editing & design using Adobe CS5. Lastly, I needed something that could run for at least 6 hours on battery and had a full-size keyboard. Going with the Acer Aspire One 722 was a good choice price wise and provided a power efficient option that met my needs while on the road. Hopefully, you find this review helpful.

   After testing it without any upgrades for a week, it was way faster than the Atom netbooks I’ve used in the past and faster than my old 11.6″ Acer AS1410 Core2 Solo from last year. However, I wanted a bit more grunt power and speed. Upgrading the hard drive and memory seemed like a good decision, and it has turned this entry level PC into something on par with most mid-range desktops. Here are the upgrades I made:
   * Crucial C300 2.5″ 128GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
   * G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 Unbuffered Non-ECC
   * UPDATE 6/24/11: For details on how to upgrade this netbook, check out the comments posted below. Just click ‘Comments (#)’ at the bottom of this review.

   Being that this is a review for the Acer Aspire One 722, it’s only fair to give you the PROS and CONS without factoring in the upgrades.

   PROS:
   * Amazing keyboard – Huge buttons, nice click and very little flex. Buttons are where they should be.
   * Dedicated graphics – Video streams via YouTube and Hulu in HD without stuttering. 1366×768 resolution means I can run Photoshop natively. 256MB of dedicated graphics memory, means I can flip through web pages without waiting for it to catch up.
   * Battery life – With the original hard drive, I was getting 4.5-5 hours on the “balanced” power setting. 7 hours on “power saver”
   * Windows 7 64bit with an AMD C-50 processor
   * Brand name – This is my 4th Acer PC. There are a lot of great options out there, but IMHO Acer is the best bang for the buck.
   * Charger cord – Something I’ve grown to appreciate is how compact the charger cord is. It is only one cord, as opposed to the usual two part cord included with most laptops. It’s a whopping 8 feet long and comes with a Velcro strip pre-attached to neatly store the coiled cord. The charging block is at the plug-in end. Also, the prongs can be rotated 90 degrees so it doesn’t block any more of a powerstrip or outlet than it has too. Nice job!
   * Webcam – Very clear webcam. It’s only a 0.3 MegaPixel, but when I’m traveling my misses says it’s crystal clear on Skype.

   CONS:
   * Glossy black lid – Not a deal breaker, just a matter of preference. Wish it was matte. I do like the embedded ripple. Kind of groovy.
   * BEEP – If you plug-in or unplug the power cord while the netbook is ON, the computer lets out a loud beep – just loud enough to make you flinch. It reminds me of my very first PC from 20 years ago. This can be disabled in Control Panel > Sound > Playback Tab > Speakers > Properties > Levels Tab > Mute PC Speaker.
   * No Bluetooth – Using a mini USB Bluetooth adapter to resolve that.
   * Trackpad size – You can kind of expect this on a laptop this small. I prefer a wireless mouse anyways. Other than size, the pad feels perfect and is very responsive. The trackpad buttons are the best I’ve ever used.
   * Linux users – As of 6/14/11, the graphics card, web cam, and wifi drivers are buggy on Linux. I tested Ubuntu 10.04, 11.04, Mint 11 and Joli 1.2 and was experiencing system freezes and resolution issues.

   AFTER UPGRADING THE MEMORY AND HARD DRIVE:
   * Boot time – Before the upgrade: 1 minute 35 seconds. After the upgrade: 32 seconds.
   * Battery life – I get about 5.5-6 hours with the power management setting on “balanced”. 8+ hours on “power saver”.
   * Photoshop CS5 64bit – Opens in 7 seconds now as opposed to 16 seconds previously.
   * Multitasking – I’m able to multitask a couple web pages, streaming music, Outlook, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Bridge and Camera Raw simultaneously without a prolonged hourglass. That’s good enough for me.

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2. Francisco Gonzalez says:
   August 7, 2011 at 7:16 pm
   66 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Amazing little machine, July 5, 2011

   By 

   Francisco Gonzalez –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Acer Aspire One AO722-BZ454 11.6-Inch HD Netbook (Espresso Black) (Personal Computers)

   I’ve had this netbook about a month now. I spent a couple of weeks looking up different netbooks to do basic stuff like handle Adobe Flash on the web, type a paper, but most importantly, have HDMI output to play 1080p videos. My budget was in the $300 range and this was the perfect choice after taking everything into consideration.

   The netbook itself is very thin and light and has a good keyboard that is a little bigger than your typical one on a 10″ netbook. It has a 250GB HDD, standard webcam, mic, and card reader. Another thing I should mention is that it has two speakers on the bottom (left & right) and is louder than other Acer netbooks I’ve had that only have one speaker.

   I wiped the HDD when I got it and installed Win7 Ultimate x64. I liked that it came with 2GB RAM as most netbooks in this price range only come with 1GB, but even then, this netbook runs even better when you upgrade to 4GB RAM. The CPU may run at 1GHz, but don’t be fooled as it handles well, has great benchmarks, and is comparable to other netbooks I’ve had with Intel Atom CPUs that ran at up to 1.66GHz. That’s mostly because it has the killer ATI Radeon HD 6250 video card that can play any video or flash game I throw at it with no hogging up a lot of the CPU (be sure to install proper codecs like k-lite).

   The screen is a good size at 11.6″ (not too big, not too small, I think) and is really bright and vivid with 720p resolution (1366×768) so you don’t have to deal with cramped up desktops and web surfing like on other netbooks. It outputs 1080p video perfectly and I am able to watch a show or movie on my TV via HDMI output and be surfing the web or be typing a document at the same time with no noticeable lag. I also love the battery life on this thing: ~7-8hrs on power saver with low brightness.
   Something else I should mention is that this netbook does not run hot and will not burn your lap or hand. It has a vent on the left side, and is the only spot that may occasionally only get warm, even when I’m using it outside in 100F+ weather.

   Yes, it beeps when you plug or unplug the charger, but that may be considered useful to some people and is easily muted like other reviewers have mentioned. As for ripple design on the cover, I thought it looked cool and that it was neat it wasn’t just another black cover like other netbooks I’ve had and seen. Even when I’ve gone out with it, I’ve had several friends comment on how much they liked the design (as well as the netbook as a whole).

   A beep that can be muted and a ripple design on the cover are ridiculous excuses for bad reviews when you can clearly see this netbook has a ripple design as it is mentioned all over with plenty of pictures. End of the day, get real people. Grow up and learn how to review properly or don’t review at all, as this is the best netbook with HDMI I have seen in this price range.

   Pros:
   - Thin & light
   - Cool cover
   - Webcam & mic (though pretty standard nowadays)
   - Card reader
   - Nice and large keyboard
   - 2GB RAM (not 1GB)
   - ATI Radeon HD 6250 graphics can play any video or flash
   - 1080p HDMI output
   - 11.6″ screen w/ 720p resolution
   - 7-8hr battery
   - Doesn’t run hot
   - 2 speakers

   Cons:
   - 2GB RAM (upgrade to 4GB)

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