Acer Aspire One D255

This is the first netbook with Windows 7 Starter and Google Android 1.06.00.0115 dual boot. In Android, it has Shiretoko Firefox 3.5.1 browser with Adobe Flash 10.0.42.34 support and Adobe Acrobat Reader 1.09.00.120.

Full charging takes around 3 hours 15 minutes and the 6-cell battery lasts at least 5 hours with web browsing on wi-fi at minimum brightness in Android.

Running Android on Acer Aspire One Netbook

There are 3 options:

1. You can download Android 1.6 and even test it without installing with a CD or USB flash drive. I've tried on my Acer Aspire One AOA110 and it works including wi-fi.
   
2. Get Acer Aspire One D255 which comes with dual boot Windows 7 Starter and Android 1.06.00.0113 or 1.06.00.0115
   
3. Get Acer Aspire One Happy which comes with dual boot Windows 7 Starter and Android 1.06.00.0115, 1.09.00.0118 or 1.09.00.0120
   

Even though there is no Android Market access, you can still download and install third party apps.

Buffalo MediaStation Portable DVD Drive

Since I've 2 netbooks - Acer Aspire One AOA110 and Lenovo IdeaPad S10, I wanted to buy a USB bus powered portable DVD drive without the need for an external power adapter. I tested three such drives - LG GP08 ($133), Panasonic UJ-880A ($125) and Buffalo DVM-P8U2/BW-AP ($80).

LG GP08 was not detected in the BIOS of both AOA110 and S10 so I can't boot from CD/DVD to install any OS but can be used within Windows. Both Panasonic UJ-880A and Buffalo DVM-P8U2 were detected in the BIOS of the netbooks.

In the end, I chose Buffalo DVM-P8U2 because it is cheaper and the pearl white colour matches my S10. The only downside is that it can't read/write DVD-RAM which I don't need.

Installing Windows 7 Beta on Acer Aspire One

You can install Windows 7 Beta on Acer Aspire One A0A110 with 8GB SSD. There is no need to vlite Windows 7 and you can ignore the warning that the recommended free space for installation is 8279MB. After installation, the free disk space left is 990MB.

As shown, the Windows Experience Index is only 2.0 due to the slow MLC SSD and graphics. The only score which is higher than Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is the memory even though both have 1GB RAM.

Comparing Lenovo IdeaPad S10 with Acer Aspire One AOA110

S10

1. 10.2" 1024 x 600 LED backlit non-glossy screen
   
2. 160GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD (Ultra DMA Mode 5) - easy to upgrade without warranty void
   
3. 1GB DDR2 667MHz PC 5300 RAM - easy to upgrade without warranty void
   
4. Video memory 64MB in XP/Vista
   
5. 6-cell Li-ion battery
6. Windows XP Home Edition SP3
   

AOA110

1. 8.9" 1024 x 600 LED backlit glossy screen
2. 8GB MLC SSD (Ultra DMA Mode 4) - hard to upgrade with warranty void
   
3. 1GB DDR2 667MHz PC 5300 RAM - hard to upgrade with warranty void
   
4. Video memory 224MB in XP, 64MB in Vista
   
5. 3-cell Li-ion battery
6. Linpus Linux Lite
   

Comparing Acer Aspire One AOA110 with Dell Inspiron Mini 9/12

A110 has Intel Atom Processor N270, 1GB RAM, Intel GMA 950 and 8GB SSD whereas Mini 12 has Intel Atom Processor Z530, 1GB RAM, Intel GMA 500 and 80GB 4200rpm HDD.

* 1GB + 2GB # SSD @ HDD

Netbook	Acer Aspire One AOA110	Dell Inspiron Mini 9/12
Processor	3.0	3.0/3.0
Memory (RAM)	4.5*	4.5+/4.4*
Graphics	4.2	4.1/2.9
Gaming graphics	2.8	2.7/2.9
Primary hard disk	4.8#	5.9#/4.3@
Windows Experience Index Base Score	2.8	2.7/2.9

Monitoring the Reliability of Windows Vista on Acer Aspire One

I've been using Windows Vista on my Acer Aspire One since it was installed on 29 July 2008.

You can monitor the reliability using Reliability Monitor by typing perfmon on the search bar after clicking Start.

So far, it was very reliable except on 30 July 2008 when I was forced to shutdown using the power button as shown. The index started from 10 and dropped to 9.17 on 29 July 2008.

Comparing Acer Aspire One AOA110 with Asus Eee PC 4G 701

Since I've both netbooks running Windows Vista, I did a comparison with Windows Experience Index.

Netbook	Acer Aspire One AOA110	Asus Eee PC 4G 701
Processor	3.0	1.8
Memory (RAM)	4.5	2.9
Graphics	4.2	1.9
Gaming graphics	2.8	1.0
Primary hard disk	4.8	4.0
Windows Experience Index Base Score	2.8	1.0

The memory should not be compared because they're of different capacity. I am surprised that the disk data transfer rate of Aspire One outperforms my Lenovo Z61t with 80GB SATA hard disk (4.3).

Running Vista on Acer Aspire One AOA110

Contrary to some reports, Vista can run on Intel Atom. You need to download the latest driver to run Aero. After installation, you can see the eye candy such as glass, taskbar thumbnails, windows flip and windows flip 3D.

Running HD Tune Pro & HDDlife Pro on Acer Aspire One

The SSD does not support SMART but the health and performance can be monitored by HDDlife Pro.

Running SpeedFan & CPU-Z on Acer Aspire One

Aspire One does not have 2 CPUs but its processor has Hyper-Threading (HT) technology enabled.

Acer Aspire One Model AOA110

Finally, I upgraded my Eee PC 4G (701) to Acer Aspire One AOA110. It comes with Linpus Linux Lite OS. Tested the OS recovery using the supplied DVD. It takes around 20 minutes to restore Linpus Linux Lite which is slower than Eee PC with Xandros. But, this new Intel netbook comes with a bigger 8.9" screen at 1024 x 600 and bigger 8GB SSD. The keyboard is also more comfortable to type. Overall, Aspire One looks better than Eee PC 4G.

Since the Linpus Linux Lite is locked down and I couldn't make my Huawei E220 3G modem work, I decided to install Windows XP SP3 instead. Due to the slow write speed of the 8GB SSD, it is better to configure the partition as FAT32 instead of NTFS for performance reason. The installation proceeded smoothly and finished in almost an hour. After downloading and installing the XP drivers, everything works.

The Acer supplied 2200mAh Li-Ion battery takes less than 2 hours to fully charge while in use whereas Asus supplied 5200mAh Li-Ion battery takes 4 hours and 2 hours to fully charge while in use and not in use respectively. It lasted almost 2 hours with the brightness set to the lowest, wireless disabled and surfing with 3G modem. On the other hand, Eee PC 4G lasted slightly more than 2 hours with the same settings. This can be attributed to the power efficiency of the Intel Atom processor even with a less capable battery.