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The Acer Aspire One 522 was one of the first netbooks announced to sport a shiny new 1 GHz AMD C-50 dual core chip and AMD Radeon HD 6250 graphics. Now the netbook also has the distinction of becoming the first 10 inch netbook with an AMD Fusion chip to ship in the US. After taking pre-orders for the last few weeks, Amazon is shipping the $330 mini-laptop
Of course, it’s not shocking that the Aspire laptop is the first to ship in the US. The only other 10 inch netbook I’m aware of that uses the same chipset is the Toshiba NB550D, which isn’t scheduled for a US launch at all.
The Acer laptop has a 10 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. It runs Windows 7 Starter Edition.
via Netbook News
This will be an great netbook. I have the 521 and use it browze on my HD TV and play left 4 dead with family. The 522 with 4gig stick and Windows 7 Pro 64 will scream.
It’s $269!! at Best Buy
It can read 1X4GB with ease, the only problem is there is only 32bit driver so windows can only read 3.4GB of it
i wonder if i shld get this one instead..
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/toshiba-toshiba-satellite-15-6-laptop-featuring-amd-processor-e350-c650d-007-black-c650d-007/10161730.aspx?path=d4860e655368a733b4acaf1d62ce6045en02
I am buying one of these the VERY DAY my tax returns come back, plus a SSD, more RAM and upgrade to W7x64.
Apparently, already physically available bestbuy and futureshop stores in Ottawa-Gatineau (and likely elsewhere in Canada I’m guessing):
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/acer-acer-aspire-10-1-netbook-featuring-amd-processor-c-50-ao522-bz499-black-ao522-bz499/10161870.aspx?path
Whoa, I typed that quickly and gramatically blew that comment. 😛
Just to add, it seems somewhat notable that it is 300 (299.99) as opposed to 330 in this example and that’s in C$. (Even when at par, prices seem to tend to be higher here.) Maybe it deserves mention in the deals if it’s also available to US costomers.
Tried it, no shipping outside Canada :/
#sadtrumpet
I’m also surprised that this is only being announced now. It’s been available in Canada for several weeks at least. In stock at every Best Buy location in the Toronto area for $300 (about USD $302)
Now on sale for $270 at Best Buy in Canada. A rare example of consumer electronics being cheaper north of the border!
If you have the finance for it, I suggest looking at the Acer Timeline X 1810t laptop. It uses the Core2Duo su7300 processor, and have a 8 hour battery life. But according to C-Net and LaptopMag review, this computer actually push close to 9 hour of real battery life. This is the computer I am currently using, and love it. By the way if you want even more battery life, you can get a 9 cell battery from EBay that will get you close to 12 hour of battery.
Thanks for the tip. How is the graphics performance? It seems Intel just isn’t keep up with AMD.
If you just want to play games on it, it is not such hot GPU, Most modern games will struggle with the 4500MHD. But for video (including flash video), the GPU is good enough, I play 1080p MPG4 video using window media player on it without any problem.
Oh ya, usually people get the 1810t for the great battery life, and the amazing CPU. for gamers, there is a Ferrari version of the 1810t, that use AMD processor and HD4220 GPU. It has better game performance, but horrible battery life (4 hour). Also if you have the luxury of time, you can wait to see if Acer will release a version of the 1810t with AMD E-350 processor. From the reviews that I have read, the performance of the E-350 CPU is slightly below SU7300 (20% less). but the integrated GPU is on par with the NVidia 9400M, which is amazing considering that E-350 get the same amount of battery life as the SU7300 + 4500MHD GPU.
Sure hope Acer comes out with a nice 11.6 inch version to replace the AO721. It would be ideal for what I need with 1366 X 768, 2 GB ram and full Windows 7 ready to go. The 12 inch Asus has been a disappointment with their power plug failures and the lack of hard drive access. Why should I void a warranty to install a fast HD?
uh oh. thanks for the heads up about the asus issue, i heard replacement was tough, i didn’t know it voided the warranty. 🙁 i hope they fix that and the keyboard flex issue. not too long ago the 1215b looked like it was going to be my main option. it would be nice if the sony vaio yb e-350 option ends up being unexpectedly affordable, provided it doesn’t have any warranty voiding surprises.
Most systems are set to void warranty if the end user decides to open up the casing to access the motherboard, which is what you have to do to void the Asus Warranty by breaking the warranty seal. This is to avoid frivolous tech support for people who damaged their system by doing something dumb and costing the company more loss than profit.
But you do have option to get extended warranty that will still cover the system and it’s mainly the default limited manufacturer warranty that’s the issue.
The hard drive isn’t on the motherboard.
Quite frankly HDD and RAM access should be covered by the warranty as long as both are not soldered onto the motherboard.
Why do you think having the hard drive physically on the motherboard will make any difference?
Point is accessing the motherboard is accessing the internals of the system and doing so can potentially damage the system.
Never mind the hard drive is connected to the motherboard anyway. So it doesn’t have to be soldered. Also some designs have the hard drive buried between parts of the motherboard. Like most modern Eee PC’s has it right between the main board and the IO board, with connecting cables going over the HDD. So there are systems were you would have to partially disassemble the motherboard to gain access to the hard drive.
Not that it would change anything otherwise, those systems that do allow hard drive access will usually set the drive in a isolated part of the casing that will leave the rest of the motherboard out of reach and would then usually not be covered by the warranty void seal, though some companies put a secondary seal in the bay areas to act as a two tier warranty voidance. So breaking one only cuts off warranty for devices in those areas while the main seal covers the rest.
As for the warranty, fact is netbooks are produced with very little profit. So as much as we may not like the policy, it is in the company interest to avoid having people potentially cause damage to the system and expect it to be covered under warranty. Especially with some people who break these systems on purpose. Unfortunately, we all have to be lumped together as far as the company is concerned to protect itself.
Also part of the reason netbooks are so cheap is because you aren’t paying for more extensive warranty for the netbook! Unlike say pretty much anything from Apple. Tech support doesn’t come free!
So we either have to choice to accept the risk of voiding warranty or get extended warranty that will cover more extensive damage.
Like all rights there is a balance between everyones rights and yours and the companies have a right to protect themselves too.
Why should changing a HDD, something easily done on millions of laptops AND without much consequences, void a particular laptop’s warranty?
I am not opening up the motherboard when I’m changing my HDD, so should accessing the HDD void the warranty?
Obviously not reading my posts, I pointed out in some cases you are accessing the motherboard area to reach the hard drive! Don’t assume this is never the case!
I also pointed out that if the hard drive is isolated and allowed separate access then they usually allow you to access it without voiding the warranty, the warranty seal is usually placed over the screw or area you have to remove to gain access to the innards! Thus why I specified motherboard as that’s the main reason!
Covering bases, I also pointed out that the drive (even the RAM) may still have a secondary warranty seal. This is because companies may have issue with people doing things like upgrading their hard drives and expecting the company to cover some other companies hard drive. Systems are licenses with the OS the system came with and only original hard ware only.
Mind you that some companies are pretty lenient and it may not automatically void your warranty if you broke the seal. But the Warranty seal lets the company know whether you altered, or at least attempted to alter, the system. Thus depending on company policy they can choose to refuse the warranty as it’s basically their proverbial get out of jail free card to avoid wasting money on costly repairs caused by user induced damage. But if the damage was from factory then they will likely honor the warranty unless they don’t want to risk it.
Companies want you to be satisfied with their products but the bottom line is they want to profit and if they spend too much on tech support then they lose money instead of making it. So there are limits to what they will do for the end customer.
Netbooks especially, because of their small profit margin limits what they can do for you. Lots of companies you probably never even heard of for example opened and went out of business because of this and even large companies have to watch their bottom line as no company is too big to fail.
Well, if Asus designed their laptops properly, you shouldn’t have to access the motherboard to change the HDDs.
Yes I know that laptop manufacturers have warranty stickers on even RAM access panels, but as a consumer we have a right to demand upgradability for our laptops. And quite frankly, it’s not unreasonable to demand that RAM and HDD upgrades be covered under warranty. It’s not like that every company has a right to sell us a product and not receive any criticism from the consumers.
Don’t confuse demand for actual rights. You can criticize anything you want but that doesn’t mean it makes sense for them to listen to you.
Netbooks by and large are made to be basically disposable. It’s one of the reasons they are so cheap.
You want a customizable system then there is regular notebooks and companies like Dell and HP that specialize in providing those customizations.
Acer, Asus, MSI and others just provide pre-configured set ups that you either take as is or you take your business elsewhere!
Again, bottom line is unless they get a profit then it isn’t in their interest to provide services you aren’t paying for!
Yet Asus and MSI also provide customizable systems, not just pre-configured laptops.
But whatever.
If you don’t want accessible HDD bays, that’s your loss. But I, like Mike, want to be able to upgrade our systems without worrying about voiding the warranty. Not an unreasonable demand considering many laptop manufacturers already allow after market HDD swaps.
What I want was never mention and was never the issue! I’m just pointing out the difference between reality and what you may want! There are lots of things we may want, but it doesn’t mean that we have a automatic right to them nor that it’s even fair to expect!
Again, if you want to be able to tinker/upgrade with a product then either expect that it’ll cost more to have the warranty cover it or know it won’t be covered by warranty if you aren’t willing to pay more up front like getting extended warranty that does cover it.
No one is forcing you to do anything, but you have to realize the companies have rights too and the bottom line is profit otherwise there is no point in them providing the product in the first place and expecting them to still do so is like expecting you to work for free or even pay someone else for your work.
And no, neither Asus nor MSI make customizable netbooks or notebooks direct to end customers, unless you’re a company buying wholesale or otherwise the only customization would be done by the resellers.
This is all part of being an informed consumer!
It’s fine to want things, if enough people want the same thing then they usually get a product fitting that need, but don’t expect things that these companies may not be able to afford.
Otherwise, if you don’t like the product then don’t buy it! Free market goes both ways! Only when there is mutual benefit will everyone be happy but if either wants more than the other then someone will always be unhappy!
If you can’t ever expect anything, then there would be no point in companies ever improving their products.
Without consumers making demands, there would never have been warranty in the first place.
Let’s suppose that NO manufacturers offer a warranty right now, and Mike complains about the lack of warranty. I suppose that you would argue that companies don’t have to offer warranties if it will cost the companies millions in profits if they have to offer warranty.
This argument is sound, but the point is, if the companies took that approach, they would have never offered warranties for the products due to the fact that they eat into their profits.
And since NO manufacturer offer warranties (hypothetically), consumers don’t really have a choice in that if they are going to buy a laptop, there would be no warranty offered matter what brand of laptop they buy.
Similarly, you can also argue that there is no point in setting industry standards on I/O devices because companies lose profit from selling proprietary cables. For example, if Apple transitions to using a standard micro USB instead of the Apple proprietary connector for iPods, they would certainly lose profit from selling overpriced connector cables.
Yet as we should all know, standardizing I/O devices is a very good industry practice for the benefits of ordinary consumers.
And so, in a way, some of us actually want companies to “standardize”, if you will, basic warranty coverage so that HDD and RAM access would be covered. Is it going to make companies unhappy? Heck yeah, but they will adapt eventually.
And from an economic standpoint, I don’t care if a company charges $10 extra for every laptop to cover for the warranty costs so long as I can access the HDD and RAM without voiding the warranty. $10 per laptop should be enough to cover expected warranty costs from the extremely few consumers who actually attempt to upgrade the HDD or RAM by themselves and are so inexperienced that they break their laptops inadvertently.
You seem to be making up your own interpretations for everything without any actual facts. So you’re either ignoring what has been stated or trying too hard to over simplify.
The reality is it cost more than just $10 to cover all the possible damages that can occur when people access their system’s innards. The cost of extended warranty has actually gone up the last few years. So while some big companies may still offer you warranty for cheap, other companies can’t afford it and have to ask for much more or simply set up a void warranty barrier to prevent cost overruns.
Because like it or not there are lots of people who break these systems, both by accident and on purpose. And these companies must account for everyone when making their policies.
I never said what people expect had no impact, but the point was it isn’t the only consideration. Companies will give what people want but they have to profit from it too. So what you should expect has to be within that parameter otherwise you have to accept the fact it would otherwise be unrealistic.
The product we are discussing though falls into the low end market along with regular netbooks.
Which btw, in some cases the profit margins for netbooks drops to much less than a dollar per system sold. So netbooks are often designed with the extremely bare minimum in mind and is unique from the rest of the computer market that run with much larger profit margins.
Another point you seem to be missing is there are products that allow you to do more but they also cost more or require the purchase of extended warranties.
People have the right to demand products that fit their desires and needs but don’t expect it for free is the final point!
Btw, if you really want to support upgradeable systems then see what you can do to support Shuttle’s notebook parts standard as standardizing of system design and parts will make upgrades and modding a whole lot more practical and thus more likely for companies to allow upgrades and modding of their products.
Basically to get what we want, the companies need a profit incentive to get them to provide the product we want.
Can you give any recent numbers on warranty cost?
I would definitely like to know.
Having warranty that covers HDD and RAM access can definitely increase profit as it would attract more buyers who are more technologically fluent. And it would save the consumer the trouble of having to return a laptop back to the manufacturer due to a HDD failure. If you can fix it yourself, it’s much faster than having to wait for weeks before the manufacturer fixes the laptop and ships it back.
Price varies, depending whether the manufacturer or the reseller is providing the warranty. Warranties also vary depending on duration. But depending on the extent of the warranty you can spend hundreds for full coverage… Per year!
For businesses the warranty can even go into the thousands. While some of the cheaper warranties may have hidden costs like it’s basically a discount deal for any repairs but you still pay for the repairs, just less than full price but depending on the repair costs it can easily go up to half the cost of the system.
Though note, this is also an option for even companies with the warranty void seal, in that you can still opt to pay for the repairs but quality isn’t guaranteed and it is sometimes cheaper and/or simpler to just get a replacement system.
You can check sites like Consumer Affairs to see which companies give the worst deals and avoid them if you can.
Big companies like HP tend to give the best deals, along with up front customization options. Or you can check out companies that specialize in customization, they’re costlier but let you set the specs.
Personally, though it’s been a year since they announced the idea publicly, I’m still hoping Shuttle gets some traction and convinces more companies to start backing their universal standards idea…
https://liliputing.com/2010/01/shuttle-launches-push-for-notebook-motherboard-standards.html
Much of the problem with tech support and upgrading is virtually all notebooks are custom designed and parts are made specifically for a given model and that is part of the costs that keeps companies from wanting end users from doing their own upgrades and not covering too much with the default warranties.
But if they standardized design and parts then it’ll make notebooks almost as easy to upgrade as desktop systems.
I was talking about standard warranties, not the extended warranties that you can buy. Do you have any figures on how much it costs manufacturers to repair laptops damaged by users upgrading HDD or RAM?
Accessing the HDD or RAM will not break the standard warranty for many laptops sold today. I am just wondering how much more it would cost the manufacturer to cover HDD and RAM upgrades in the standard warranty.
You can look up the prices of laptop repair services to get some idea of the costs. Like just to copy your drive to a new drive and install the new drive typically costs $20 all by itself. Big companies can do it for less but even lower costs for parts still adds up.
Just replacing the DC jack for example usually costs over $100 because of labor by a laptop repair service. Big companies can do it for less but even the replacement hard drive can still have cost over $30, which is why many times the company just replaces the whole motherboard. Also not counting labor, and software. MS licensing requirements effects even drive replacement, which partly explains why many companies have stopped providing a system recovery disc with every unit sold. At least for low cost systems like netbooks, and why the cost for purchasing those discs from the companies have gone up. Like they are up to $50 from Asus, who use to charge only $30 a year ago.
You can make your own backup, in fact it’s recommended, but if you don’t and lose the drive then many companies won’t cover you without a charge because they in turn get charged by MS and this can effect even hard drive replacement, especially for smaller companies that may not be able to take advantage of volume licenses.
So….$100 max to replace a HDD then?
Well, if they charge $10 extra for every laptop, and if 1 out every 20 consumers need a HDD change due to whatever failure, then the manufacturer just made $100.
As for the OS licenses, that’s gradually more and more of a user’s problem. Manufacturers don’t ship with recovery discs any more, but you can still buy a copy. At least the option is there.
Basically, the manufacturer can still make a profit even if they cover HDD upgrade in basic warranty by raising the price of the laptop slightly. With so many online deals the smart consumer won’t fret over the small price increase.
Depends on the company, and the product. As pointed out before netbooks don’t make much profit at all. So you’re more likely to get that sort of deal from a regular notebook product and from a large company.
Sure, I understand that basic warranties depend on the company and the type of laptop.
But as netbooks become more and more powerful, it is not selfish for consumers to expect that the same basic warranties for regular laptops should apply to netbooks as well.