Should I pull the trigger?

Hey all,

Been following this whole netbook thing very closely since the first EEE pc. Since then, many times I've come very close to purchasing a netbook of some sort, but something always delays me. (and I'm glad it has!) Now, I'm presented with the opportunity to get the new Acer Aspire One with the 160GB hard drive, 6 cell for $270 (I work for an IT reseller), and they'll take it out of my paycheck over a year, so it's about 13 bucks out of my paycheck. Shipment of the new system is supposed to arrive on the 22nd of this month.

Is now the time? Anyone out their waiting for something better? Yes, I know that I'll be playing the waiting game for the rest of my life if i'm worried about the "next best thing", but this product type has been rapidly maturing, prices dropping, and I'm hoping that we are starting to see things stabilize.

 

There will always be something better coming if you wait. The dual core Atom chips are coming in a few months, so you could wait for that... but maybe beyond that, they'll boost the RAM speed, then reduce the power consumption a bit more, etc.

But- if you want something in the current generation (single core hyperthreading Atom chip, 1024x600 9" screen, 2KG, etc), then IMO, the Acer Aspire One is the best choice (especially if correct keyboard layout matters to you, as it does to me.) I'd advise people to wait for the 6 cell battery version, since the price cuts mean you get a $120 battery and another 40GB of disk space for $50. But since that's what you're talking about getting, you've already waited long enough.

 

Check out the hardware problems sub forum before thinking about buying an AA1. The One is NOT reliable and was released too early. Many users (including yours truly) have had a lot of grief after the One has failed to boot (the black screen of death). Seems to be a problem with the Intel Atom IC but Acer ought to have sorted something out with the BIOS. Don't know if Asus etc are better although my own feeling is that Dell delayed launching in order to ensure that they had a relaible product. Current estimate is that this will cost Acer a minimum of 20M$ just to deal with customer returns and warranty claims plus an untold amount in loss of image etc.

For a relatively low margin product this is catastrophic!!

 

Bullshit.

 

Most of the people I've heard from seem to be quite happy with the One. Do you have any links or articles that describe what you are talking about?

 

$270 for the 160g/6 cell 'One'?

Where's the down side?
If you hate it, you could easily sell it for what you paid, or more,

sounds like win-win to me.

 

I really want to buy a aspire one, but I won't until Acer get their act together and fix the hardware problems.

 

What hardware problems???

 

Just got my A110 yesterday and I love this thing to death. I have Xubuntu on it and it is awesome. I went with the SSD because I'll never put windows on it and the slimmer case is very important to me.

I got stuck in a parking lot today waiting for someone while they went into a store and I whipped out my one, found a wireless network, and got some work done. This is exactly what I got the A1 for.

When I ordered this netbook I was expecting the system to be limited, but I have to say it is everything I have hoped for and super easy to type on. Netbooks as a whole are in their infancy though, and I have a feeling the next few months are going to bring some big advances.

If you don't need it, wait. But if you can use it, the A1 is the way to go.

 

http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=903&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

 

*Every* system has problems, somewhere.

The real issue would be how many users have problems. While there have been reports of trouble here and there, (and like I said, every system has issues) I read other Aspire One forums as well and I do not get the impression that AA1s are failing left right and centre. Ours has been working fine since we got it.

There may something to be said for going back to the old 3109 BIOS version (which works OK here) since the newer one has boot issues for some people, but apart from that I haven't had to (re)install a thing. :geek:

 

I get it bro, that is a killer price for a nice machine.

I am one of those who got the "black screen of death" which was due to overheating. You can read my tale in my post. But I still don't regret it at all. That little guy is a beast. I upgraded the ram, which was a hassle but well worth it, and installed vista. And I must say, it did damn well. So i'd jump in and get it, like the others said, there will always be something better. But if you keep waiting, you'll never get anything.

 

Not true. The hardware is reliable, and you won't find a better build quality - and man you're getting a good price.

All the problems so far are all software problems at the core - I know because I've had almost all of them, and a very big majority of the problems is the resultof tinkering

The black screen of death is a software issue caused by BOOTING FROM USB devices specific to only one BIOS version. If you don't intend to do a lot of that, don't worry. It's also an easy thing to fix if you do.

Perhaps the only thing wrong the the AAO is how hard it is to upgrade ram, but what you're getting should be enough.

I love my aspire one to pieces. So does everyone I've talked to who bought theirs.

 

I just want to reiterate what annafil said.

There are no hardware issues with the A1.

The black screen is due to a BIOS issue, effects only a tiny minority who do specific and atypical things with their machines, and can anyway be recovered from 100% by simply reflashing and rolling back the bios.

Achilles has gone out of his way to publicise the BIOS issue and get to the bottom of it, and in doing so he has done a service to this community.

Now we know what causes it, how to fix it, and how to prevent it from happening, however, I think its time to move on.

 

Mine died and was not booting from a usb, it had just finished upgrading/installing from the desktop [dumped vista ultimate installer there]

I'm currently on no.2 after only 3 weeks, I love my netbook but would not feel right telling people to buy them without mentioning the flaws in it, it is not reliable in my opinion

 

Once more, it's probably NOT dead. Try macles' recovery procedure.

 

Yeah, it's seems to be a BIOS issue. From the descriptions of people having dead machines, I don't think it's people doing specific things to their machines. It seems to me it can happen if the machine is rebooting due to even just a software install or for any reason. Therefore it could happen to anyone. It really is totally CRAP QA on Acer's part. Hopefully they will bring out a update to the BIOS ASAP.

 

dead or not, it is not useable by the average punter, lets say you tell your mum or your aunt/uncle to buy one, a week later it won't switch on, the hdd is not reacting at all and it is a nice looking shiny paperweight, they are not going to know where to begin apart from calling acer, the unit is then sent off to be repaired. That isn't reliable is it?


[I knew there was a chance that I could recover mine but over here we get a $99 cashback rebate, I just claimed rebate no.2 for my troubles...]

 

dead or not, it is not useable by the average punter, lets say you tell your mum or your aunt/uncle to buy one, a week later it won't switch on, the hdd is not reacting at all and it is a nice looking shiny paperweight, they are not going to know where to begin apart from calling acer, the unit is then sent off to be repaired. That isn't reliable is it? [/quote:2sq3h70j]
I have to admit there's some truth in what you say

On the other hand, where can you get a nicer looking paperweight for 299€?

 

it is pretty :lol: