Acer Aspire One D255

The Acer Aspire One D255 (price not yet announced)  is Acer's first dual-core netbook, and one of the first 10-inchers anywhere to use Intel's new Atom N550 processor. The netbook's benchmark performance is moderately better than single-core competitors. We also like how portable this design is, even when compared to other lightweight netbooks. However, is the D255 fast enough to overcome some of its flaws?

Design

At 2.4 pounds and 10.1 x 7.3 x .95 inches, the D255 is smaller and lighter than competitors like the Eee PC 1215N (11.6 x 8 x 1.4 inches, 3.4 pounds), the Samsung N150 Plus (10.4 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches, 2.8 pounds), and the Toshiba NB305 (10.5 x 7.6 x 1.2 inches, 2.8 pounds). When carrying it around in our bag, we hardly felt its weight.
If you've seen other Aspire One netbooks, the Aspire One D255 will look very familiar too you because it shares their slim but somewhat generic design. Its glossy black lid is emblazoned with a drab Aspire One logo and picks up finger prints, but it's so dark you will hardly notice them. On the inside, a glossy bezel surrounds the extremely glossy screen, making it even more reflective. There's also a gap between the lid and the base of the chassis that's large enough to fit a pen through. You'll also find a matte gray deck and an island-style keyboard.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The island-style keyboard on the Aspire One D255 has the same "fine tip" design as other Acer netbooks and notebooks. Though the keys are large and extend end-to-end across the chassis, we found the overall typing experience cramped because of the narrow chassis and short palm rest that had our wrists hanging over the front lip. In addition, we noticed a little flex when we pressed down on the G and H keys. However, despite these issues, we were able to achieve our typical 80 words per minute score on the ten thumbs typing test, with a slightly higher than usual 2 percent error rate.
The 3 x 1.5-inch touchpad suffers from very serious inaccuracy problems. As we navigated around the desktop, occasionally the pointer would suddenly jump a few pixels and other times it seemed to slow to a crawl. This inaccuracy was more pronounced when tasks such as web page loading were occurring in the background. The pad supports multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom but isn't smooth or consistent. Though we prefer two discrete mouse buttons, the D255's single-button bar offered good tactile feedback without being too stiff.

Heat

The Aspire One D255 stayed relatively cool throughout our testing. Even after streaming a video at full screen for 15 minutes, we measured the keyboard at just 84 degrees, the touchpad at 85 degrees, and the bottom at a chilly 89 degrees Fahrenheit. We consider temperatures near 95 degrees Fahrenheit acceptable and those under 95 extremely pleasant. However, all that heat has to go somewhere. The air vent belched out 107-degree air, but not in the user's direction.

Ports and Webcam

The Aspire One D255 has a standard array of netbook ports. On the right side are a memory card reader, audio in/out jacks, a USB port, a Kensington lock slot, and an Ethernet port. On the left side are a VGA out and two more USB ports, for a total of three.
The 1.3-megapixel webcam produced blurry images that were completely washed out under fluorescent light. During a Skype call from our cubicle, our face was completely covered by shadow. When we moved next to a window, the image quality improved but was still a bit grainy.

Display and Sound

The Aspire One D255's 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel screen provided strong viewing angles, despite its glossy surface. Even at 45 degrees to the left or right, images got a little darker but did not wash out. Intel says that the Atom N550 improves high-def video playback, but when we downloaded a 720p QuickTime trailer of Saw 3D, playback was noticeably jerky. Streaming full-screen 720p Flash videos from Fox.com and another from YouTube, however, was smooth.
Audio quality from the bottom-mounted speakers was loud enough to fill a room, though somewhat tinny when we streamed "Party Train" by the Gap Band from Napster. Unfortunately, when we moved the pointer around during audio playback, we occasionally noticed some distortion as the audio itself seemed to slow down at times.
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Posted in: notebook Acer