Acer Mini Notebook Guide

Buying an Acer Mini Notebook

Posted on the December 9th, 2009 under Acer Mini Notebook by Tracey

If you are looking for a mini notebook and considering an Acer, you will probably be quite pleased. Mini laptops, commonly known as netbooks, have becoming exceeding popular. Acer introduced its mini, the Acer Aspire One  in July 2008. While many brands are good, here are a few important points about the Acer mini notebook.

What Size?

The Acer netbook gives some variety in available sizes: a 8.9 inch, 10.1 inch and 11.6 inch screen. (It is generally agreed “netbook” size ends at 12 inches.)  All are portable sizes.

The keyboard on the Acer mini notebook is identical for the 10.1 and 8.9 inch, but the touch pad buttons are a little bigger. Naturally the screen and case a bigger, but for many the difference is extremely small, and not enough to be a big deal.

The difference in 10.1 and 8.9 is 1.2 inches. But keep in mind this distance is the diagonal–measuring, say, from the lower right corner to the upper right. Translate this into a size difference in the screen vertically or horizontally, and it is only a fraction of an inch on each side. Does this make a difference to you?

3G Possibilites

If you already pay for Internet service through your cell phone carrier, you might consider a netbook with built-in 3G capability. The Acer Aspire One 531h 10.1″ comes with the 3G modem built-in. What does this mean? You don’t have to find a coffee shop or library or bookstore with wireless when you want to get online.   And you don’t need to get one of those annoying USB modems from the phone carrier-all built in.

If you are already paying for 3G service for your phone or someone in your family, this can be convenient, but do verify the charges are and how much Internet service you use in a month.

Innovations – Google Chrome

Acer will be the first netbook to be released with Google’s Chrome operating system. OK , we have a few months to wait, but it would be likely that as long as Chrome is developed for the Acer hardware, it will work on many or all of the Acer netbook machines.

Still undecided? We’ll be covering more aspects and test on the Acer Aspire One. If you have one, we’ll also cover tweaks that make you even more productive with your Acer mini notebook.