The thing I hate most about the Aspire One

It's not the small screen. 8.9" or 10" and whatever the resolution, small is small and ultimately that's a limitation of the form factor.

It's not the trackpad buttons. Frankly the whole trackpad input system is a pain to use for anything but the most basic pointing functions. Yet it suffices to get the basics done ... and for critical work the issue is easily solved: use a external mouse.

It's not the battery life, which is more than 2h but less than 3h. I could buy a larger, heavier 6-cell, but for the "short hops between tether" usage pattern it's alright.

No... the thing I hate most about the Aspire One is the power cord. Unlike every laptop I've recently owned or seen, it has a three-prong power cord.

- good luck buying or borrowing a replacement in the field. You have to bring the original with you and guard it with your life
- three prong in means three prong out. you have to being a ground lift adapter with you whenever you travel, or be faced with what I experienced the night before last: get to the hotel, do some work, browse the net ... battery is out... and I'm staring at a two-prong plug with my three-prong power cord feeling like a complete idiot. Not a three-prong plug in the building = no computer and no net access.

For those wondering, two-prong outlets are really, really common in Japan where I live. Basically any building older than about 8-9 years won't have grounded outlets as a common feature.

I can't excuse Acer here, because there really was no excuse. If Lenovo can ship laptops with the standard 2-prong power cords, and Dell, and everyone else, Acer can too. There is no need to make peoples lives more complicated by using non-standard power cords, and no excuse for it, EU regulations or no EU regulations.

 

Its a safety feature. You can always break the ground prong off if you don't like it.

 

That's an easy fix...

Goto the hardware store and buy 3-prong to 2-prong plug. You can also find a replacement 2-prong power adapter on eBay real cheap.

 

Glad you mentioned that as my wife will probably take a netbook to Japan next year (though I assume she'll stay with her family, not a hotel). Is that the case in houses and apartments as well?

Thanks

 

My European AC adapter fits in both ungrounded and grounded outlets. All countries are different and there are also the different votlages to take into consideration..so if you travel with your Netbook you'll probably need various adapters anyway.

 

A replacement 2 pin power lead (with ground lift) was about Y700 in Tokyo. TBH it is a transformer with a plastic case so should be double insulated and therefore shouldn't need an earth connection.

In Japan, the only place you tend to find ground lift sockets is in the kitchens of apartments as cooking appliances need the earth. All the others are straight 2 blade connections....

Glen

 

Ahmmm.... i dunno if you are aware that you can break off the 3rd prong? Like what a posted also said on the previous posts. I've done that on my other laptops as well. The 3rd prong is really not that important, though it's better with it, but not too many outlets are 3 prongs. So we can all live in relative safety with just 2, hehehe. On my experience with computers (w/c is alot), the 3rd prong is not a necessity.

 

I never thought this an issue as in the US, 3 prong plugs have been standard on all power outlets for atleast 30 years. If needed, you can pick up an 3 prong to 2 prong adapter here for about $2.00. I would do than long before cutting off the grounding prong.

 

Thanks GlenMH for the quick answer.

 

When my wife and I lived in Japan (Okinawa), our apartment had only two-pronged outlets

 

The thing (and pretty much the only thing) I hate is the damn "wheel" thing on the mouse pad. What a PITA

 

Wow, what a trivial matter for such an easy fix.

 

It's funny you would mention that. I swapped the plugs for my Dell and AAO the other day and noticed that the Dell was 2-prong and the AAO 3-prong. It surprised me too.

 

It bothers me because it was so absolutely unnecessary, and there is no "neat" fix. Ripping the ground pin out doesn't qualify as "neat", ground lift adapters are easily lost or forgotten, and at the end of the day if you lose the power cord while traveling you are really in a mess; while the 2 pin cords are found in any hardware or electronics shop, the three pin ones - forget it.