By way of a test, we ran a basic Gimp filter test by applying the Gaussian blur filter to a 25.3mb 2048 x 1366 pixel JPEG image, a process that took an average of 7.2s. This compared well the results of the same test performed on the Atom powered Asus EeePC 901 which managed 10.85s when the CPU's set to the standard 1.6GHz setting.
Gimp Results
Time in seconds
Shorter bars are better
Wireless communication is limited to 802.11b/g Wi-Fi so no Bluetooth and no 3G, though the SIM slot lurking behind the battery is a sure indication that the latter will be coming to the AA1 in due course. In the meantime, accessing the net over a cellular network will involve getting up close and personal with a USB modem and the relevant drivers. That's easy with the XP version, less so with Linux.
A feature currently unique to the AA1 is the seamless storage expansion. Shoving a £20 Class 2 8GB SDHC into secone memory card slot we mentioned before resulted in the system telling us we now had 11GB of storage from a potential maximum of 14GB, up from 3.4GB out of 6.4GB. In case you're wondering where the missing storage is, it's the One's 1GB Swap partition.
File Manager reports the 8GB Aspire One's capacity
Click for full-size image
COMMENTS
Re: A few points
"-- The HP 2133 has this thing beaten on all fronts, even comes with a 'standard' Linux: SuSE."
Yeah, except for the fact the 2133 is slow as hell, runs as hot as hell and has a similar battery life! Check your facts before posting please.
Integrated storage slot
@ W
The integrated storage SD slot (accepts SDHC) is used by the file system as it gets mounted into your home directory, which is itself in the /mnt directory. It's a *nix thing that M$ pinched in Win 2000 btw.
I bought the 150 L last week and I'm using it for nearly everything although you will definitely want to change the default twit-proof interface to something more flexible - acerguy will tell you how.
The 120GB holds my MP3 collection (60gb) and still has space for a few movies for the kids although you really want a power socket for movies.
For the record, everyone who has seen this has asked if it is a "real" pc, they are quite surprised when I tell them that it is.
Will buy an aftermarket battery when they come down in price, unless I can source some good quality li-ion cells and build one myself.
Run on alkalines, not very green is it! Now a solar case lid, that would be funky.
J.
On sale at PC WOrld for £199
Just to let you know that PC World are now selling them at £199. If you can pick up the bigger battery, flog the old one, then it's not that bad a price. Linky here: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/705895#productInformationSection
Aspire One with extended battery available
For me the whole point about SCCs (or netbooks) is portability, quick boot up, long battery life and low cost. The Eee 901 almost got it right except for the price, hence why the version of the Aspire One that I bought included the 6 cell battery, 1Gb RAM, 8Gb SSD and Linpus Linux... and it's awesome.
Cost from FutureShop.ca in Canada was CAD$449. After taxes that still comes to only 250 in "real money". Boot time from cold to surfing is 30 seconds. I get between 5-6 hours of use with the 6 cell battery and that includes constant wireless and much video streaming usage. The keyboard is also remarkably usable and the extra "storage slot", as mentioned in the review, is very novel.
Side note: The supplied slip cover does not fit when the 6 cell battery is used, though apparently Acer are planning free replacements.
256 bits per pixel?
»Ermm, that'll be 2048x1366x256 = 716177408 (+ some header info, EXIF info etc) bits
Is that 256 bits per pixel?
Ermm, I rather thought that 24 (or 32 if you have an alpha channel) would be more usual.
