The machine switched into standby and needed a recharge after just 67 minutes' H.264 video playback, making it no good for a feature film. Under less intensive use, typing reviews and playing solitaire – the joys of train travel – we got over two hours out of the same three-cell battery pack, but it’s still disappointing given its size and Elonex’s claim of three hours.
Battery Life Results
Longer bars are better
OS is Windows XP unless stated
The fan, which is near silent, poured out quite a bit of heat while the video was running, but that’s what fans do and the machine itself stayed cool. There’s little chance of damaging anything biologically important using this laptop on your lap.
The sample MPEG 4 video we played under QuickTime during battery life testing was jerky, with a low frame count, so you would need to watch in a smaller window to be able to view media comfortably. BBC iPlayer videos played without jerking.
Certainly portable
Verdict
Apart from a bit of trouble playing videos, the Webbook is a very reasonable SCC. There are no major glitches in its design and although things like a webcam and 1GB of memory might be good to have, the machine functions well enough without them. Its keyboard, trackpad and screen are good, and the display in particular is pin-sharp. The downsides: poor battery life, and we've yet to be sold on the VIA C7-M CPU.
But we like the Webbook, and if you can tie it to a good mobile broadband deal, it’s likely to cost you less than buying an SCC and dongle separately.
Carphone Warehouse Webbook
COMMENTS
aspire one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-One-Netbook-Seashell/dp/B001BZ923O/ref=pd_cp_ce_1?pf_rd_p=136153791&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B001BZ920W&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1HH15H17T4MS7YTA4REE
its an scc at £179 quid mind!
@Ian Watkinson
£269 is for the 1Gb RAM, 120 Gb disk with Windows XP version.
Try sorting by price and you'll see the A110L @ £198
£5 "new catalogue" discount and free delivery to a local store.
Tesco Direct, just like the Argos they are trying to emulate shows items sorted with the most expensive at the top!
- Tesco
http://direct.tesco.com/search/default.aspx?search=Acer+Aspire+One+&confirm.x=0&confirm.y=0
£269 + Delivery, hardly £195..
Which is the point.
At £269..it's only a SC...not a SCC...
@Windows v Linux
It's much easier to tweak applications to run on the strange low resolutions these laptop screens have.
With Windows you end up with dialogs appearing with buttons that aren't visible. In the Linux desktops you can CTRL drag the window so you can see the buttons, can't do this with Windows!
Re: Windows vs Linux & Fundamental error...
I saw one of these in CPW in Chicester recently - it was running Ubuntu Linux!
I assume it was not a one off so here's an option that appears to be less publicised?
On the Linux compatibility side, considering a fully functional OpenOffice, skype etc etc there is no problem with compatibility for the things you want - but compatibility with crapware & viruses plus the consequent need for performance sapping antivirus software is something I can easily do without!
The disapointing things for me were the absence of webcam and the fact that the build quality appeared worse and any other netbook/scc that I've seen. Oh yes and the battery life is poor
