Acer Aspire 1410 update: New $400 model can handle HD YouTube videos

When I reviewed the Acer Aspire 1410 with a Core 2 Solo SU3500 processor and Windows Vista a last month, I found that it was much faster than your average netbook when it came CPU-intensive tasks like transcoding audio and video files. But there was one thing it still couldn’t do: play HD and high quality Flash videos on its high resolution 1366 x 768 pixel display.

But this week Acer released an updated version of the Aspire 1410. The new model has a 1.2GHz Intel Celeron SU2300 dual core processor and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. And according to Peter at Netbooked, it can handle HD YouTube videos reasonably well. But you don’t have to take his word for it. You can check it out for yourself by watching the… HD YouTube video below.

Playback isn’t 100% flawless, but the videos look very watchable. When you try watching similar videos with the older version of the Aspire 1410, it feels like you’re looking at a picture slideshow instead of a video. That’s no longer the case.

And that makes the new Acer Aspire 1410 the cheapest laptop I’m aware of with an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, 4+ hour battery life, and HD Flash video capabilities. You can order one today from Amazon for just under $400. Of course, the $400 HP Mini 311 will give the Aspire 1410 a run for its money once Flash Player 10.1 is released. That’s the upcoming version of Adobe’s Flash Player that will support NVIDIA ION GPU acceleration for Flash video, allowing you to watch 1080p Flash video on a netbook with a low power Intel Atom processor (provided it has NVIDIA graphics).

You can check out Peter’s video after the break:

Posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009, 11:06 am by Brad Linder

adnanm

i put windows 7 premium on my acer 1410 with the core 2 solo processor (1.4ghz) and hulu has been playing smooth and so has youtube hd. mayne it's because of the final release version of windows 7.
http://liliputing.com Brad Linder

This is why I'm in the process of developing a series of benchmarks to test
the performance of different machines with different CPUs.

But here's what I can tell you… the SU2300 is a dual core processor while
the SU3500 is a single core CPU. That will make a big difference with
applications that can handle multicore processing or in multitasking. And
Netbooked reports that the new Aspire 1410 can handle HD Flash video,
something the original 1410 witht the SU3500 processor struggled at.

But that doesn't necessarily mean it's better at all tasks, and I won't be
able to tell you exactly what that means until I test it.
Bconvis

All of these processors really confuse me… is the Intel Celeron SU2300 dual core processor on the updated version better than the Core 2 Solo SU3500? I always looked at things like this and thought that the higehr number is better. 3500 better than 2300. And Core 2 better than Celeron. Does the simple fact that the Celeron is dual core and the Core 2 is a single core make the Celeron better? Please help!
Ed

It looks like the new version linked to here at Amazon only has a 160GB hard drive, vs. 250 GB for the old one with the SU3500. Any thoughts on what difference that's likely to make in terms of overall performance? Thanks.
http://liliputing.com Brad Linder

Once you get past a certain point, hard drive size really doesn't affect
performance very much. Hard drive speed and other factors might. I don't
think we have enough information yet to determine if there's any major
difference in these two hard drives other than the fact that one can store
90GB of additional data.
Susan

Hi Brad, your reviews are the best ever! Just a note that today on Amazon (Nov. 19), the page for this model of the 1410 computer says “ships in 4-7 weeks”. Oh, man, what a bummer! I was afraid a great machine like this would do the 'out of stock' thing, and sure enough. The other seller on Amazon says they have it in stock, but want $549!
http://liliputing.com Brad Linder

Yeah, I saw that $549 model when I was looking for bargains to add to the
deals of the day post. That's outrageous. You could get an Aspire Timeline
1810TZ for that price.
Susan

Hi Brad, your reviews are the best ever! Just a note that today on Amazon (Nov. 19), the page for this model of the 1410 computer says “ships in 4-7 weeks”. Oh, man, what a bummer! I was afraid a great machine like this would do the 'out of stock' thing, and sure enough. The other seller on Amazon says they have it in stock, but want $549!
http://liliputing.com Brad Linder

Yeah, I saw that $549 model when I was looking for bargains to add to the
deals of the day post. That's outrageous. You could get an Aspire Timeline
1810TZ for that price.

Acer Aspire 1410 update: New $400 model can handle HD YouTube videos

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