Acer Aspire One 721 Review

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hi i got 1 for sale at 20k second hand in good condition,windows 7 ultimate activated.

ano mas ok 1551 or 1721??

I will buy in Gigahertz at SM Dasma, Php 22k for cash, maybe i will check if they have available RAM for upgrades, i will consider your advice. Thanks.

Thanks Darthngan, and OS ng Acer 721 ay home basic hindi starter so pwede ko sya i-personalize. Maybe next or this week bili na ako.

Ask lang po kung compare natin ito sa HP 311, Alin ang mas ok?

I’ve bought the bronze-colored one here in the Philippines and it’s amazing. It’s P25,500 (12 months 0% interest) in Gigahertz Computer at SM Cubao. Added an additional 2Gb DDR3 1333 RAM to my 2Gb DDR3 1066 unit since it’s running on 64-bit Windows Home Basic and can handle RAM sizes 4gb and beyond. I’ve tested it’s performance and here are my findings so far:

1. It can play any HD Video format (720p/1080p), except some AVI, smoothly. Probably because some AVI’s do not use H.264 encoding, which is the one supported by the on-board ATI HD4225 video acclerator.
2. It can run any last gen games smoothly. I’ve set the ATI antialiasing to none (you won’t need this since the screen of the netbook is too small to notice serious aliasing) and the rest of the settings to max. Games tested were as follows:
– Neverwinter Nights (very smooth gameplay at full settings and 1366×768 resolution)
– Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 (very smooth gameplay at full settings and 1024×768 resolution)
– Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (smooth gameplay at near full settings with all shadow enhancements cranked up and HDR turned on. Played at 1366×768 resolution)
– The Godfather (very smooth gameplay at full settings and 1280×720 resolution)
– Haven’t tried any FPS and racing sims yet, will update you as soon as I get my hands on some.
3. Video and audio output on the HDMI is stellar. I’ve tried connecting them to my 42″ LG and HD video playback is very smooth even at 1080p.
4. All 3 USB ports are powered, so you can connect any external laptop HDDs without trouble.
5. Battery performance is as follows (using lowest brightness settings and full ATI video acceleration) Note: This is with an additional 2Gb RAM installed to a total of 4Gb:
– Browsing with Wifi turned on (around 4.5 hrs)
– Watching HD videos (around 3 hrs max)
– Playing 3D-accelerated games (around 2 hrs max)
– Attaching an external USB powered HDD (battery drains 25% faster)
6. Had a hard time connecting the on-board Bluetooth 3.0 module to my headset but got to it eventually.
7. Doesn’t run too hot even when playing demanding games.
8. Screen brightness is good (too reflective though). Blacks are nice but not well defined at the highest brightness settings. Above average compared with competing netbooks of the same size.
9. Multimedia apps like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere can be ran without trouble.
10. Wifi signal is strong.
11. Sound from the built-in speakers is average, but the headphone output performs way better.
12. The webcam output is crisp. Tried it using Google video and it’s not bad at all, considering the receiver was watching me in full screen using a 32″ HDTV.

Powerful as the unit already is, I still wished it had the following:
– Longer battery life
– A SIM card slot for on-the-go mobile surfing
– Another 1.7Ghz core.
– Larger stock HDD, 250Gb is not enough nowadays.
– At least a stock 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium to benefit from the Aero interface
– A scratch resistant screen and bezel, AOD721 is definitely a scratch-o-philiac especially on its bezel.
– A better set of speakers
– support for up to a total of 8Gb RAM

@Joseph

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@sleepygeepy,

I’m from cebu. might as well have to wait for Acer AO1551 to arrive here in cebu. Anyway, does this laptop, Acer AO721 come with a AMD Athlon II Neo k325(dual-core, 1.3Ghz) processor in another version?

@Joseph,

You can find the Acer Aspire 1551 locally at PC Gilmore for Php 24K.

Another option is the Gateway EC13N01i notebook. It’s basically the same as the Acer Aspire 1551 since Gateway and Acer are essentially the same brand. Although it is more expensive (I think) at around Php 26K more or less.

Both will be good alternatives to the existing Acer Aspire 1810TZ which is well known for its long battery life but so-so graphics.

All we need now is the Acer Aspire 1830T to be available locally and the 11-inch Acer lineup is complete :)

sleepygeepy

I’ve seen other reviews with this laptop having an AMD Athlon II Neo k325(dual-core, 1.3Ghz), which I think is another version of this netbook and gives better performance. Another is the Acer AO1551. The difference with this one is that the AO1551 has an AMD Turion II Neo k625 @ 1.5GHz which is dual-core processor, with 4GB RAM and up to 640GB HDD. Is there any availabilties of these netbook?

oo naman po pede palitan os yan, pero kailangan may external dvd drive ka if your os will came from DVD or pede rin yong OS na nasa flash drive na bootable. yong sa akin napalitan ko ng windows ultimate .

sa pc gilmore – gilmore ko na nabili itong 721 ko. kasi walang black sa pc corner.. ang price kay pc gilmore ay 22,490 pero nong ipakita ko yong flyers ni pc corner na 21,995, ginawa na ni pc gilmore na 22 thou sarado plus sleeve plus 8gb flash drive.. not bad ehhh… so far very good performance po siya.. hataw..

@Julie – Where did you buy your unit? Thanks! :>

@julie: I just got an acer laptop sleeve which is included in the package. Windows 7 Home Basic is already pre-installed which is a plus for me. I think its already a bargain price for me coz according to the review of yuga, its market price is 24,900. =D

@julie: I bought mine at PC Corner in Gilmore. contact numbers: 723-1737 / 723-1718
Cel no.: 0926-6751902 / 0917-505-3888

@levs: already made it work. thanks for that. =D

I bought this laptop for my gf yesterday, same color used in this review. So far, satisfied ako with its overall performance and the design is good. The only drawback I can see so far is the battery life. It took almost 4 hours to consume full battery with average use. CPU temp range from 62C – 75C. I didn’t tried yet playing latest games.

@Jaq: I bought it at PC Corner in Gilmore for the price of P21995 for cash, +2k if card. I think it is the best deal among few shops that sells this model.

@Yuga: I’m a bit confused if this model has bluetooth or not. There is no bluetooth device in Device Manager BUT when I check the bottom of the laptop, I can see a sticker saying that the unit has bluetooth. It even has the bluetooth logo on it. Can you verify that on the unit you reviewed?

Sir yuga, does this unit comes with an OS? And where is this available? Acer store in megamall doesn’t have this unit yet, where can i buy this? Specific store name please. .

My brother purchased this ultraportable a couple of days ago. Compared to the pictures above, in person the notebook looks actually a bit darker, more of a bronze shade which is very nice and modern looking. Definitely this notebook will not look out of place in an office :)

As for performance my brother says it’s fast enough for his needs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, minor Photo editing, and movies) and the battery life is adequate at around 3.5 – 4 hours on average.

Another good thing is that the charger it comes with is relatively small and compact (compared to a regular notebook) so not much weight is added when you bring it along.

Overall not bad for Php 22K which is about the price of a top of the line 10-inch netbook. Let’s just hope that the dual core version of this notebook (AMD Athlon II Neo K325) will be made available by the local Acer distros :)

hmmm pwede na… para sa akin ang price nito ay below 20k….

I prefer Home Premium or Ultimate para sa netbooks na naka-2GB and above basta 32-bit ang OS nito

i had bad experience with acer laptop,,