I have enjoyed my Aspire One for six (6) months with no issues. The system was upgraded to 1.5 gigs of memory, a 20 gig zif hard drive, running Windows XP SP3 Professional. I have an external USB hard drive, C/D-DVD R/W, and sound card, which add greatly to the functionality of the netbook. I have not invested in a 6 cell battery, waiting to see where Acer goes in utilizing the dual core atom and Windows 7. I do like the new 10.1 Aspire One, but cannot justify the expenditure for the larger screen. The re-design permitting access to the memory, hard drive and wireless card is a plus provided the pictures I have seen on the web are accurate. Acer has encountered problems with their first generation netbook, but I am convinced they are dedicated to providing a dependable, cost effective product to the public.
Rusty, I have to agree with you. I purchased my first A1 (1 gig memory, 120 gig hd) back in August. I immediately upgraded it to 1.5 gig of memory and replaced the hd with a 160 gig HD. I also purchased a 9 cell battery from Ebay, which has given me between 7 to 8 hours of usable time and a USB Bluetooth device. I run Windows Vista Ultimate on it and have had no problems with it whatsoever and have enjoyed using that system ever since. Recently I purchased another A1 (1 Gig memory, 16 Gig SSD) from Newegg when they ran the $239 deal. I haven't done any mods yet to the new one, yet. Looking at the new offerings from both Asus and Acer don't do anything for me in regards to added functionality that I don't have already. The new Atom N280 processor is about the only thing new (Asus is using it in their 1000HE), but even it doesn't boost performance enough to make me want to by the "next generation". I guess I am just too happy with what I have already! I'll wait it out until the next generation comes out, possibly with Windows 7 installed.
Next gen have GN40 chipsets which will offer vastly improved graphics. ION won't be too far away either though whether Acer will go down that route is anybody's guess. Personally I think they're bastards for releasing a 10 inch with the same specs and .06GHz extra clock speed (but better fsb granted) with the same old chipset when they clearly plan to release one with the new chipset in the near future.
