Quick Review Aspire One 753

It's basically a reconfigured, low end version of the TimelineX 1830T. 11.6" glossy screen, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB hard drive and the new Arrandale-based dual-core Celeron clocked at 1.06 GHz. The Intel GMA HD graphic processor is a part of the CPU unit.

It cost me 508 euros but I've read it's retailing for 450 euros in several european countries (don't worry, the grocer didn't mistake me for a fool, I'm merely subject to norwegian prices :roll.

The design is solid and looks good, which is hardly surprising as it's the same shell used on a substantially more expensive computer. The cover is textured, which makes it stand out yet is subdued enough to look professional. I also found it looks better in person than on photographies. The finish on the inside is "brushed plastic", doing a good impersonation of aluminum. It had 3 stickers on it and I managed to remove them without damaging the finish.

The processor is the slowest CULV-processor available but does a decent job of running Windows 7 home premium and doing basic tasks, unlike my netbook with a single-core N270 Atom at 1.6 GHz. The only mathematical benchmark I have is that it's about twice as fast as the N270 encoding videos with x264 but in general performance you notice that despite being the slowest CULV-processor available it is still running rings around the N270. The GMA HD features hardware decoding for MPEG-2, VC-1 and H.264, so you can watch 1080P videos if you are so inclined.

The keyboard is larger than on my 14" laptop, so it's surprisingly huge. They call it "finetip". It's great to type on too. The trackpad is slightly textured which is weird at first but you get used to it and it works well, with decent, seperated buttons below. It has multitouch so you can do stuff like pinch-to-zoom (it's as dumb as it sounds on a laptop) and two-finger-scrolling (which is more useful).

The 4400 mAh battery is rated for 6 hours but you'll manage a good deal less under typical use. Obviously this is not in the same class as many netbooks but then again, on your average netbook you'll be spending half that extra time available to you rendering that one extra firefox window you know you shouldn't have opened. :twisted:

The fan noise is okay. It makes less noise than my first generation Aspire One. I have little to say about the speakers and the screen, which are decent but average and decidedly unremarkable. There are no hardware buttons for turning off Wi-Fi or anything else (except the computer :roll but such tasks can be performed by function keys. It includes ports for both VGA and HDMI. I have the basic model but for a premium in price you get the new USB 3.0, Bluetooth and a 320 GB hard drive. The webcam records at VGA-resolution and takes pictures at 1.3 megapixels (1280x1024 pixels) and is decent for a webcam but nothing more.

I think it's a great computer at a good price.

I'll be installing Ubuntu or something similar on it in a few days. I'll let you know how that goes.

If anyone has any questions let me know.

 

For around $200 more, you might take a look at the Toshiba 705R. That's 200 more than 508 euros. I got mine at Best Buy for $799. I replaced my 751H with this model and I think it's the best 3 pound laptop I've ever had. 13" with an Intel i3, 3 GB Ram and 500 GB hard drive. Very response.

The main reason I upgraded was video. I wanted a portable laptop that would do smooth video (movies mainly) and this one does a fine job. Yesterday we watch an iTune pay movie that was about to expire (3 hours) on my big screen 46"er via the built-in HDMI out port. Worked great.

 

Actually, the 753 is capable of playing HD videos through hardware acceleration.

I've installed Ubuntu on it. I haven't really tested the webcam or the multicard reader (as I don't use those functions) but graphics, HDMI, sound, LAN and wireless worked out of the box.

Ubuntu is not really set up optimally for power management, but after tweaking, I can manage 5 hours out of it when only using a text editor at lectures with brightness set to minimum and wifi and some other stuff turned off. With the same settings, battery usage is ~8 watts at idle and could last around 6 hours. Yes, if anyone is reading this you're probably more interested in web browsing times but I don't really have those.

I am impressed with the noise level. I use it at lectures and don't really want to make a nuisance out of myself and I am happy to report that both the keyboard and the drive/fan-noise is on the low side. At first I didn't like the keyboard but after using it for a while, it works well (but if you're accustomed to typical laptop keyboards it will take some time to adapt). I would've preferred a smoother trackpad (it has a slight resistance) but I'll manage.

 

How many hrs does the battery last ?

 

i do own an 753 and installed ubuntu 10.10 64 bit on it.. battery run time is 3.5 hours with wifi ON; if i use windows 7 i do rech 6 hours easily.. Don t know where all the power is gine in ubuntu

i used powernowd and the notebook tools.

If someone does have an idea how to fix that, every hint is usefull

so i did give the acerhdf module and speedfand a try, but both tools do not recognize the bios in a right way. maybe someone does have a solution to stop the fan in ubuntu turning nonstop

thx

 

I spent several weeks researching the replacement for my Samsung N110 N270-based netbook.

I settled on the AAO753, which I picked up from Amazon for under £300 - the 3GB / 320GB model.

I'm surprised it doesn't have Bluetooth (but not bothered as I never use it), and the only negative comment I have is the slightly 'bouncy' keyboard. The keyboard on my N110 was the best I've ever used! However, I do agree with the OP of this thread on this point - the 753 looks very nice, and I love glossy screens.

Running 64bit Win7, the machine does indeed work out of the box, and my only disappointment with the OS is the lack of support from Toshiba for its USB2 Port Replicator II (which I've had to abandon).

Speed-wise, it beats my old N110 hands down, and the ONLY reason I replaced my adored little N110 was its inability to play 1080i HD (from Sony camcorder) -which the 753 accomplishes perfectly.

For under £300, this machine was a steal!

 

The Aspire One 753 Arrandale based machines are pretty good, I picked one (Aspire One 753-U342Gki) up the other day with built in 3G modem, for just 1900,- Dkr (254 €/362 USD/222 £) - Regular price 3240,- Dkr (342 €/618 USD/379 £), as a replacement for my trusty D150 with 3G modem. So far I like it a lot. Better screen, faster processor, and same battery life as my D150 with 6 cell battery.

Just don't take all what Acer says for the truth - They state on their website that the Acer Aspire One 753 only supports up to 4 GB, by adding another 2 GB module in the free SoDIMM slot. That is not correct, and one can theorize whether Acer says so to protect the sale of their more expensive Aspire TimelineX 1830 series, which is the same as the Aspire One 753, though with the faster clocked, higher specced Arrandale i3/i5/i7 processors.

The memorycontroller in the Arrandale architecture has been moved away from the chipset and is embedded on the CPU - Intel states that all the Arrandale processors support up to 8 GB of DDR3 memory, and my tests confirm that. It also gives somewhat of a performance boost, adding more memory, especially if you add the full 8 GB.

I did some tests with my Aspire One 753 and ran the Windows Experience Index (winsat) after changing memory configurations, in various combinations of 2/4/6/8 GB setups.
I also ran Passmarks Performancetest Benchmark (64 bit version) and they confirmed the WEI scores.

With the single factorysupplied 2 GB DDR3 PC3-10600 module (NANYA NT2GC64B8HC0NS-CG) installed, the score was this :


With an additional 2 GB DDR3 PC3-10600 module (Kingston KVR1333D3S9/2G) installed in the second SoDIMM slot for a total of 4GB, it looks like this :

RAM index rose from 5.5 to 5.9, and the Intel HD Graphics controller on the CPU also got more texturememory to play with, rising to 1754 from 762 MB.

Going to a single 4GB DDR3 PC3-10600 module (Kingston KVR1333D3S9/4G) for the same amount of total installed memory, the score reverts :

RAM index back to 5.5, since we are now back to a single channel, instead of going symmetric - Still have more texture memory available for the graphics controller.

Adding a 2GB DDR3 PC3-10600 module to the previous config, for a total of 6 GB memory we see higher increases :

Ram index rises to 6.7, and the graphics controller has the maximum amount of ram it can handle (dont worry, its allocated dynamically).

Finally, for the top of the line, 2 x 4 GB DDR3 PC3-10600 modules for the maximum 8 GB supported by the Arrandale CPU's :

Ram index at 7.0 from the original 5.5 - something that actually can be felt in daily use, whether its office related tasks, or more mundane webbrowsing, light gaming, etc.

As said, the above findings was also confirmed with the Passmark Performancetest 64 bit Benchmark - The results from my tests with the 2 GB and the 8 GB configurations has been uploaded to passmark, and can be downloaded as baselines into the Performancetest for comparison with your own tests.
A couple of screenshots from the benchmark with the system specs of the compared systems, and the summary :


http://peecee.dk/uploads/082011/PassmarkSystem.png
The 753 with 2 GB as default, the 753 with 8 GB, and the TimelineX 1830 Pentium U5400 and TimelineX 1830 i3 machines for comparison.


http://peecee.dk/uploads/082011/PassmarkSummary.png
Considering the differences in price and targetted market of the Aspire One series vs the TimelineX series, its pretty interesting to see how well the lowest specced 753 with the 1.07 Ghz Celeron U3400 compares - Especially with a memoryupgrade which is quite cheap (yellow bar on the graphs).

So I concurr, the 753 is definitely a steal at its current price.

DutchDK

 

Great work DKDutch, thanks for sharing.

I have 3Gb in mine, so the next move might a 4GB upgrade...

 

I have got AO 753 and i can say it is good so far.
Spec:
Colour Black
Processor Intel Celeron Dual Core U3600 (1.2GHz, 2MB Cache)
Screen 11.6" (Acer CrystalBrite, LED Backlit, WXGA 1366x768 HD Resolution)
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
RAM 4GB
Hard Drive 500GB
Graphics Integrated (Integrated Graphics)
Bluetooth Bluetooth 3.0 +HS
Chipset Intel HM55
Ethernet 10/100MB Fast Ethernet
Wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n
USB Ports 3x USB 2.0 ports
Webcam Integrated Webcam
Weight 1-2 Kg (This Model 1.4Kg)
Card Reader 5-in-1 card reader (SD™, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD)
Battery 5-6 Hours (Upto 6 Hour Battery Life - 6 Cell)
Warranty Acer 1 Year ITW
Other VGA out, Headphone/speaker/line-out jack, Microphone-in jack


All AO 753 have built in Bluetooth so just press Fn+F3 and it will come up.
If you are using 32 bit OS dont bother Upgrading the memory as on My OS shows up only 2.8GB from 4.0GB available.
For movies i have not noticed any problems.
Battery life 3.5 hours on Windows 7.

If anyone is interested i am looking for Windows XP drivers,so we can install XP as well.If you know links for Windows XP Drivers please share them.

 

Can processor be updated? I have 2GB ram and would like to add 4GB if possible. Would that work?
My battery isn't that good. Are there larger capacity batteries?

 

can anyone advise on how to get the memory/HDD plate off? I've taken the screws out around the plate but it only partially comes away and I dont want to force it. Do you have to remove the keyboard and push through the MB like on some of the D-series models?

 

my first post on here just wanted to say thanks to dutchdk for the tip on ram upgrade. I bought my 753 as a acer refurb with only 2gb of ram (u3600) for £200. Trusting dutchdk s finding i ordered 2x 4gb from crucial and yes it works! windows recognises 8gb and it defiantly makes a lot of difference, love it!

 

DutchDK thanks for sharing thats really useful for me

 

HI all,
I wasn´t going through all the forum topics, yet someone mention related question in this one, so I hope I´m not OT that much.
Bought AAO 753 two months ago, and I´m satisfied so far. Will upgrade RAM concerning DutchDK´s memory-test. Many thanks for that by the way! ; )

There´s just one thing that bothers me quite lot. Although the 753 is capable of playing 1080p content, mine "doesn´t want to". All 720 media is played smooth without any issue. When I try to play 1080, there is high CPU usage (cca 60 - 80%) and video has delay to the sound. Generally it´s not watchable.
Is this caused having only 2GB RAM yet? Or is there any other possilbe HW/SW issue??
I´m using W7 HP 64b, and recently updated KM player 3.1. Tried few another players or different codecs too, yet without any change.
Laptop is connected to 24" fHD LCD screen.

Thank you in advance for any helpful advice!
koblih22

P.S. Happy Christmas to everyone!

 

Uninstall the Acer supplied Intel HD Videocard driver, and install the generic latest version from the intel website. You need to uninstall the Acer supplied one, before you can install the Intel supplied version.
With the Intel latest version, I can play 1080p content without any problems, over the HDMI port to my Phillips 42" LED tv, through both windows media player, as well as through VLC, and the Acer supplied OEM version of Cyberlink PowerDVD.

Link to the intel driver repository :
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchR ... amilyId=39

DutchDK

 

Hey DutchDK / guys,

thanks for your reply. I did as you suggested, yet there´s no change by 1080 playback. I uninstall the old driver with Your Uninstaller, reboot, install the new one, and reboot. Tried few 1080 movies in KM player and MPHC, yet situation is the same as it was before - delay in picture and heavy CPU usage.

Any idea how to solve it?

Thanks in advance.
koblih22