Acer Aspire One (A150) vs Asus EEE 901

[Dark Black]

About to invest in a new netbook for the ltd. I've narrowed my list down to the Acer Aspire One (A150) and the Asus EEE 901 (Linux versions).

Whichever I get will be have the included OS replaced by Ubuntu and/or OSX.

Both have various pros and cons, and noticing that some on here have the EEE I wondered if anyone has the Acer and could comment?

Acer A150: Cheaper, looking at the 160GB HDD version but lacks bluetooth (not a biggy as small dongles are available) and only has a 0.3 Mp cam (not that important really). Battery life is short but bigger batts are available although that then pushes the price upto that of the Asus.

Asus 901: Ships with 20GB SSD although the first 4GB is a separate "fast" drive for the OS. Dual booting would mean another SD card in the slot. Has bluetooth and better webcam. More expensive but with superior battery life as standard. 904 version ships with a HDD but only seems to be available with XP on it and I object to paying the M$ tax!

Views from the panel?

[AtW]

Get Samsung NC10 - it's the real deal.

MS only charges $15 for Win XP Home when sold on netbooks, it's not a huge "tax" and top value given compatibility with 20+ year old software.

[FiveTimes]

I've got the A150 and its a good bit of kit. However the samsung NC10 appears to be the one that is the main rival.

[Pondlife]

Just to muddy the water

I have a Dell mini 10 and am very happy with it at the mo.

[beercohol]

I run my Samsung NC10 as my main development machine using Visual Studio 2005 - and it isn't painfully slow!! Connected to an external monitor, and upgraded to my own copy of XP Pro (from XP home), it is a superb machine. I don't really class it as a netbook as there are far too few compromises. The 6-cell battery is fantastic.

Prior to this, I had an Acer Aspire One A150 (from Tesco!). It was good, but it only lasted 3 months of commuting abuse.

The NC10 is miles ahead in quality.

[LazyFan]

I have both the Asus 901 and the Samsung NC10.
I use the 901 with Easy Peasy (an Ubuntu variant) and the misses uses the NC10 with XP.

Do not get the 904 if memory serves me right it has an inferior processor and the 901 and NC10 use the Atom. Which in itself is not that great. The Acer is cheaper, but the build quality is very poor and plasticky feeling. Also the battery life is very poor.

If you go for the 901 which is the best 9inch netbook on the market, then buy the 20GB Linux version. You will have to change from their Linux version Xandros as it is Dros. The wifi card never worked for me on Xandros and their software is tulip!

After which installed Easy Peasy from www.geteasypeasy.com the dist I mentioned. Then you will have to check the forums to fix a few minor issues and you will find you have great bit of software for your netbook. It fixed my wifi problem on first boot up, unlike Asus’s Xandros version which is Dros and a terrible advert for netbook Linux.

Also a new version of Ubuntu is due around now, this may have a netbook install on it, which might be superior to Easy Peasy. We shall have to wait and see.

If you are willing to accept a bigger sized netbook of 10.1inches, then the NC10 is the best netbook you can get. Its battery life is good as well unlike the Wind/Advent which is not. The build quality is excellent and it comes with XP. So, no need to change the operating system. This is currently the best of breed for 10 inch netbooks at the moment.

However for the future and coming soon, we shall have some netbooks from Asus that have a touch swivel screen. So, you may want to wait for them. But they will be more expensive.

This is the second post I have done on netbooks here, you guys need to use google more :P

[Dark Black]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

I have done loads of googling already but just wanted some hands-on feedback really.

The 904 rather confusingly has two versions, the HA and the HD. The HA uses the Atom processor like the 901 whereas the HD uses the slower Celeron.

Although the NC10 is getting lots of praise (here and elsewhere) I really want a sub 300 quid netbook and prefer the smaller screen (otherwise I might as well get another laptop).

Just one more question really - the biggest complaint I've seen elsewhere on the 901 is the keyboard, how do you guys (who have one) get on with it?

[Fred Bloggs]

For typically £305 the 160 Gb Samsung is, I think, great value though.

[Dark Black]

Tried to some side by side comparisons in the retail stores today - specifically wanted to compare keyboards but could I find a Asus anywhere... ?!

The Samsung is a nice bit of kit, keyboard feels solid but at £309 it's over my budget - really only wanting to spend 250ish max. Advent seemed reasonable and is I believe a re-badged MSI Wind.

Unless I can find a Asus 90x soon to check out the keyboard it's looking like I'll be getting an Acer online. The 701 keyboard really is pants so unless Asus have significantly improved the one on the 90x series it's out the running.

[FiveTimes]

Tried to some side by side comparisons in the retail stores today - specifically wanted to compare keyboards but could I find a Asus anywhere... ?!

The Samsung is a nice bit of kit, keyboard feels solid but at £309 it's over my budget - really only wanting to spend 250ish max. Advent seemed reasonable and is I believe a re-badged MSI Wind.

Unless I can find a Asus 90x soon to check out the keyboard it's looking like I'll be getting an Acer online. The 701 keyboard really is pants so unless Asus have significantly improved the one on the 90x series it's out the running.

I couldn't find the Acer in store any where and ended up just ordering it online from comet for £245 delivered.

The only difference between the samsung and the acer is the 1.2" extra on the screen and the blue tooth. The difference in price was @ £70.

Like you I wanted a sub £250 netbook, this fitted the bill perfect.