Acer Aspire One 751h: NetbookSize++
by Jarred Walton on September 3, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Finding ways to differentiate your product in the notebook market can be difficult. Most companies are currently going with the Intel Atom N270/N280 CPU combined with the 945GSE chipset. The result is that performance is nearly identical between similarly equipped netbooks, although as we saw with the ASUS 1005HA and the GIGABYTE M1022, there are still differences when it comes to battery life and features. Acer looks to separate their latest Aspire One 751h from the crowd by bumping the screen size up to 11.6", which also has the very noticeable benefit of providing you with a 1366x768 native resolution. Here's a rundown of the features and specifications.
| Acer Aspire One 751h-1192 (LU.S850B.239) Specifications | |
| Processor | Intel Atom Z520 (1.33GHz, 512KB L2, 45nm, 533FSB) |
| Chipset | Intel US15W + SCH LPC |
| Memory | 1x1024MB DDR2-667 CL5 @533 CL4 (Max 2GB) |
| Graphics | Integrated Intel GMA 500 |
| Display | 11.6" Glossy LED-Backlit 16:9 WXGA (1366x768) AU Optronics model B116XW02 V0 |
| Hard Drive | 2.5" 160GB 5400RPM 8MB (Seagate Momentus 5400.5 ST9160310AS) |
| Networking | Realtek RTL8102 Fast Ethernet Atheros AR5007EG 802.11abg WiFi Bluetooth 2.0+EDR |
| Audio | Realtek AL272 2-Channel HD Audio (2.0 Speakers with headphone/microphone jacks) |
| Battery | 6-Cell 11.1V, 5200 mAhr, 57.72 Whr |
| Front Side | WiFi On/Off switch |
| Left Side | Microphone/Headphone jacks 2 x USB 2.0 AC Power connection 100Mb Fast Ethernet |
| Right Side | SD/MMC/MS Pro/xD reader 1 x USB 2.0 Kensington Lock VGA |
| Back Side | None |
| Operating System | Windows XP Home SP3 |
| Dimensions | 11.2" x 7.8" x 1.0"" (WxDxH) |
| Weight | 3.0 lbs (with 6-cell battery) |
| Extras | 1.3MP Webcam Multi-Gesture Touchpad |
| Warranty | 1-year standard Acer warranty |
| Price | AO751h-1192 $399 MSRP; available online starting at $329. Many preconfigured models available. |
The upgrade in LCD and chassis size would normally result in lower battery life, but Acer counteracts that by switching to a lower power Atom Z520 CPU and the US15W (Poulsbo) chipset (with SCH LPC Southbridge). The Atom Z520 processor isn't actually that much slower than the N280, as it runs at 1333 MHz in comparison to 1667 MHz; it's a difference of 25%, but netbooks aren't designed to be fast systems in the first place. Giving up a bit of CPU power in order to get a larger LCD is a compromise many people would be happy to make, provided there aren't other drawbacks. The change in chipset is more of a mixed bag, offering clearly inferior 3D performance as well as noticeably slower 2D performance. Video playback without proper hardware acceleration (i.e. YouTube) suffers a lot on the US15W/GMA 500, with significant stuttering any time you try to interact with the system -- i.e. opening a menu. However, with proper hardware support you can get very good x264 playback, including up to 1080p support. Try that on a GMA 950 with an Atom CPU and it will fail miserably.
It's worth noting that we received the Aspire One 751h-1192 with a 6-cell battery, and as you might expect that means roughly twice the battery life of models that use a 3-cell battery. There are numerous other 751h models available, including options that ship with 2GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive (i.e. the AO751h-1196). Given the much higher starting price of around $470, you'd be better off buying the base model and upgrading the components on your own, but other SKUs have better pricing.
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quiksilvr - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
Hate to burst your bubble but its running Vista BASIC, meaning no free upgrade to Windows 7.bjacobson - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
Think you're wrong dude--http://www.acer.com/windows7upgrade/eligible.html">http://www.acer.com/windows7upgrade/eligible.html
First line, ao751h
Etern205 - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
No he's right you're wrong.quote by Acer:
To be eligible for the Program, you must purchase a new PC between June 26, 2009 and January 31, 2010. The PC must come with a valid Windows Vista® Home Premium, Windows Vista® Business or Windows Vista® Ultimate Certificate of Authenticity (COA) attached. In addition, the PC must also have Microsoft Windows Vista® SP1 or SP2 OR a Windows® XP Downgrade with Service Pack 3 installed. /quote
bjacobson - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
Eh then buy it, it's worth it.bjacobson - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
and you can see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#Table_of_GM...">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#Table_of_GM...that the GMA500 is perfectly capable of accelerating video. If you're using Vista or 7 (sorry, DXVA 2.0 only available on these with the Intel drivers and they're not planning on making 1.0 work for XP...according to the Intel dev guy behind these drivers) grab DXVA Checker as an easy tool to check for video acceleration.
Installing the free version of PowerDVD9 gets you some codecs which the Intel driver can make use of for accelerating video. For example, Step Into Liquid will only play accelerated through DXVA Checker, showing that the capability for WMV9 is fully there in the hardware, there's just some driver stuff that needs to be worked (might be something on MPC-HC's end, too).
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
I know Poulsbo is supposed to have HD support, which is why I stated: "The Poulsbo chipset is supposed to provide HD codec support, but at present it appears application support for the necessary functions is not there." It appears Windows XP is the problem, based on your linked forum instructions. I'm going to see about putting Win7 x86 on the netbook, just for kicks....JarredWalton - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
I'm trying to follow http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=2148">the instructions and having no luck. I get severe stuttering on the AO751h using "PDVD Video SP" in Win7 using either MPC-HC or KMplayer. I know for a fact that MPC-HC with CoreAVC was no better under XP. I'm still trying to figure out how the people actually set up an AO751h to work with x264... KMplayer is crashing right no when I try for fullscreen, but it was working with the Microsoft DTV-DVD codec in a window.Bottom line: it *might* work, but getting it going is not as easy as I'd like.
bjacobson - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
For more info on accelerating 1080p videos (x264, for example) check out http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewforum.php?f...">http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewforum.php?f...I had to use the 1006 version of the driver to get DXVA working; note that the 1095 version is actually OLDER so you _don't_ want it.
MPC-HC had audio stuttering problems with x264 playback for some reason; but K-Lite player works great with configuration (Set AVC, or maybe it was VC.1, or maybe both) decoding to the Microsoft DTV-DVD decoder, and you'll have to change a few other settings (don't recall what exactly-- check that forum, there's guides and links to the places you need to go to configure it correctly for 1080p video playback).
Again, putting 7 on this, and turning off Window Transparency, and this thing really performs. Loving it, use it every day.
sillyfox - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
YesRelated:http://passional-life.over-blog.com/article-353298...
bjacobson - Thursday, September 3, 2009 - link
Oh and don't forget you can get this for cheaper if you pay attention to the Bing Cashback deals on the Hot Deals forum here. Currently 15% back at Tiger Direct, they sell the 1G versions of these laptops. No tax, $2 shipping, brings the total cost to ~$310 + money for a 2G stick of RAM if you want.