Aesthetics
This is a beautiful machine. I definitely admire the way it looks. Classy, yet subtle enough to not draw too much attention. The subtle chrome accents give it a touch of class. The machine definitely doesn't look like it should cost 400 bones. I haven't taken it to any large social gatherings or to school yet, so I'll have to repost later when I do that. I can imagine that it will draw a bit of gawking and questioning.
However, the stunning visual aspect of the machine is not all peaches and cream. It looks great. Truely stunning little machine. When it's clean. Remember me mentioning that I still have the plastic on the unit's lid and screen bezel?
The first unit I purchased had fingerprints on the lid as I peeled the plastic off. The bezel absorbs fingerprints like a sponge. Every tiny adjustment you make to the screen leaves a trace. The glossy screen is the same way. I'd recommend bringing a nice microfiber towel with you everywhere this machine goes. If you don't care about fingerprints as much as I do, then do it for the machine's sake. Keep it clean, and it'll love you back!
By the way, I still haven't removed the plastic...I can't bring myself to do it yet. But eventually I'll have to.
Chassis
I am liking the size of this machine more and more as I use it. It's the exact size I was looking for in a notebook. It sits well on my desk, on my lap, and even in my hand. It's palmable just like my Aspire One, without being too small to comfortably sit on my lap. It's very well balanced as well. My Aspire One and even my larger laptop seem top heavy. When they sit on my lap, they tend to fall backwards unless I'm holding the palm rest with my wrist. That was quite possibly the largest gripe I had with my Aspire One.
My hands can rest on the bottom of the unit comfortably as I touch type with ease and speed. The large battery sticking out of the back gives it this advantage of stability that is hard to describe. It makes the unit hard to tip over backwards. I like it. I really thought I would hate the idea of a battery sticking out of the back of the machine, but I was very wrong. The advantages of the extended battery life, superior desk positioning, and stability far outweigh any aesthetic disadvantage.
So the final word on size and weight: perfectly balanced. Not too heavy or big, while not too small or light.
Display
My first unit had a bad screen, probably from damage in shipping. My second unit has a dead pixel. Bad luck? Probably, I usually have terrible luck anyway. Other than those problems, the screen is fantastic. Bright and extremely vivid. It's actually brighter at medium than my Acer 21" LCD at full. Glossy is usually not my style though, so I'll have to wait and see about that. So far my only gripe with the screen is with the glossy coating and its attraction to fingerprints and smudges. This machine is turning out to be a lot like my first gen PSP. Can't use it without fingerprinting it, so I carry a small cloth with it. But damn does it look nice.
The resolution on this monitor is amazing. It runs the same 1366 x 768 that my friend's Asus 15.6" gaming laptop uses. On an 11.6" screen? Talk about pixel density. I love it. The screen real estate bonus compared to a normal netbook (I have to compare it to my Aspire One, it replaced it) is astounding. In fact, posting on Blogger from the Aspire One was a chore. The text input box I'm using now barely fit on the screen on the One. At the moment it has white space to the right and on the bottom. I can dock two windows and type in this one while I watch Hulu in the one to the right. Overkill on a netbook? I like overkill.
Verdict: bright, vivid, dense, and crisp. But a bit smudgy. Don't forget to bring your towel!
Input
At the store and for the first few hours I thought the keyboard would take some getting used to. The keys have a very short stroke, but are spaced very much like a normal full sized keyboard. So if short stroke laptop keyboards aren't for you, then why are you reading this? Laptop keyboards are normally a problem for me. I can't seem to touch type on any laptop keyboard without screwing up very frequently. This one, however, I'm not finding errors very often. And I'm typing quite fast. The keys may not travel much, but they have great response. A nice subtle click from the scissor switches make fast typing a breeze.
A few other reviewers noted a bit of flex in the keyboard. This, I have not noticed. It is perfectly solid for me. But the machine is brand new. So only time will tell on that one.
The touchpad is another story however. I am a rigid mouse lover who refuses to play nicely with touchpads. I can use them, but I'd rather not if at all possible. This one is rather good though. Again, size comes into play. It is large enough to use comfortably, without accidentally hitting it while typing. On my Aspire One, I frequently hit the touchpad by accident and move entire lines of text without realizing it because it is simply too close to the keyboard. And turning the touchpad off and on becomes tiring if you do more than type for very long periods of time. I have only turned this touchpad off when on a desk using a mouse. By the way, I love ChiralMotion scrolling now.
One gripe with the touchpad is actually more of an aesthetic thing. The button(s) on it are plastic chrome, and it attracts fingerprints easily. And since I hit it constantly (because I turn tap to click off) it is always smudged. A quick swipe clears the smudges though, unlike the rest of the case.
I'm going to use the word usable often in this review. That's what they keyboard and touchpad are. Extremely usable. Moreso than any other netbook and most laptops I've used.
Performance
I can't be sure of what to classify this device as. It's raw numbers don't put it ahead of the Atom. The single threaded tests put it ahead, but the CrystalMark CPU scores the processor lower than the Atom. This is disappointing. And misleading.
Real world tests and experience are the factors that cannot be ruled out in a performance review and comparison. I can't give you the laptop and let you use it for two days to determine it for yourself. But if you have a Best Buy near you...by all means go and try it out for yourself.
It feels faster in every way. I don't wait for things to launch, even while multitasking. It doesn't seem to lag at all in every day applications. For instance, I can run Hulu SD video in a window, and browse the web at my leisure with no hiccups in the audio. In fact, as I type this, I am playing an episode of American Dad. I am also viewing my Picasa Web album for when I link pictures, viewing another review I wrote for consistency's sake, and reading a laptop review of an Acer Timeline on Notebookcheck.net. 5 tabs. CPU usage is at 50 - 65%. Playing a Hulu video and running several other heavy tabs. Launching IE8 with all of this took 2 seconds to a full MSN page. Nice.
I play a lot of games, so you knew there'd be a part in here for them. Can this thing rin Crysis at very high with 60+ fps? No. Get over it. What it will do, is help me get my fix when I'm away from my desktops. It gets 20+ fps in battlegrounds on World of Warcraft. In fact, Alterac Valley was churning out 10+ fps in large fights (20 people or more), and that's amazing. Questing and grinding rep/farming is very doable on this machine. Much more so than my Aspire One. I also installed Armadillo Run, an addictive little physics puzzle game, and it runs perfectly with everything maxed. Need for Speed Underground 2 runs well at minimum as well. I'll have to install Steam and try out my entire collection. Not like the hard drive isn't big enough :)
I'd really like to get a comparison of this processor to a Core 2 Solo from a Timeline notebook (the 13.3" Timeline was my other consideration, actually). I can't imagine the Core 2 Solo being much faster.
I do seem to be an AMD fanboy, so take what you will from this :)
Battery
From my limited experience I've measured 4 hours from full to nought with WiFi and screen at half brightness. This was usually with a Flash video playing constantly and my BT dongle plugged in. What more can I say about battery life on this machine? It's good for the amount of sheer usability I get out of it, but bad compared to other netbooks with 6 cell batteries. Does that help?
**Edit: Turning on "Power Saver" battery mode in Windows 7 makes the expected battery life jump up quite a bit.
I think that's all I can say right now. I'll have to post more as I use it more. Updates will probably come frequently. If anyone has a question or if you'd like me to snap another picture or two of it, I'm more than willing to help. It's a fantastic little machine, I do not regret this purchase at all.
