TECH SPOTLIGHT: Petite netbook's card reader, keyboard are pluses, but speed isn't

— I finally get it.

I kept hearing about these things called "netbooks." I spotted one in the stores. It is basically a miniature laptop. OK, so what's the big deal about these things?

They're certainly growing in popularity. But I didn't really get the purpose of a computer with a small screen and not a lot of horsepower.

I finally get it.

My enlightenment has come after using the Acer Aspire One A0751h series netbook. The purpose of the netbook, I have discovered, is to be portable enough to take anywhere but have enough features to not make you miss your heavy laptop computer.

The Aspire has the portability thing down pat. It has an 11.6-inch screen, far smaller than the 15-inch screen of my regular laptop. It's only about an inch thick, and the only bulk on this machine comes from the detachable battery. That also gives it the weight - more than 3 pounds with the battery and roughly a third less without it, by feel.

The battery, of course, provides extra portability, though not for terribly long. Heavy use can drain the battery pretty quickly. The company claims up to eight hours with a six-cell battery and four hours with a three-cell. For accuracy, I'd shave about an hour off those numbers, at least with the model I used.

The computer doesn't include a CD or DVD drive. Instead, files can be transferred and stored using a flash drive via the computer's three USB ports. It also has a built in card reader that accepts several types of memory cards, including SD, xD, MMC and Memory Stickcards. I love this feature. I have to connect a card reader to my laptop to retrieve photos from my digital camera's card. With the Aspire, I just slide the card directly into the computer.

The main purpose of the netbook is Internet use. The Aspire can do this via its wireless connection, using a network port on the side or using its Bluetooth wireless feature. It didn't take long to set up the computer for wireless in my house, and within a couple of minutes, I was surfing the Internet with ease.

The Aspire has a very compact keyboard, which may make it tough for those with big hands. It takes a bit of practice to go from a full-size keyboard to a netbook keyboard, but it certainly beats typing on a cellular phone, my other solution for portable Internet use.

The keyboard loads down its keys with functions like turning the Bluetooth on and off, adjusting the screen brightness or muting the sound. A Function (Fn) key in blue corresponds with the blue commands scattered about the keyboard. Holding down the Fn key makes the keys switch from their normal use to the special functions. It took me a bit of time to figure out what each symbol meant on the keyboard, but I like that they put it all there. Sure beats searching through Windows menus to try to figure out how to reduce the screen's brightness.

One of the best features is the track pad, which lets you zoom by pinching, flip pages by swiping or scroll by making a circle with your fingers. The track pad performed very well and made it very easy to use the computer.

My only hesitation with this device is the speed. I realize it's not built to compete with a fullsize laptop, but even so, the model I tried was still a bit slow. It came with 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive and an Intel Atom processor. That's nice, but 2GB of memory would have been better. However, 2GB is the maximum memory for this series. It did OK, but I guess I'm just used to a bit more oomph.

Still, the Aspire did its job well. It's a great little portable device and perfect for those who need to do light work on the go. I wouldn't recommend it for heavy tasks, like video or audio editing. That said, it would make a nice device for a student who needs something on which to write papers or a businessman constantly on the go.

That's the whole point to this device in particular and netbooks in general - productivity and portability.

Yes, I finally get it.

Melissa L. Jones can be reached via email at

mljones72@me.com.

Where it's @ The Acer Aspire One A0751h series includes several models featuring up to 2GB of memory, up to a 250GB hard drive and either Windows XP or Vista. Prices vary by model. The test product, model 1192 in sapphire blue, retails for $349. More information is available at www.acer.us.

Business, Pages 19, 22 on 08/24/2009

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