Anyone use an Acer Aspire One?

[greg jansen]

<p>I'm looking for a small laptop for travel. <br>

Generally for email and such, but was wondering if anyone has used the Acer Aspire One loaded with L.R. Nikon View, Photoshop CS3 or any other memory hog program.<br>

The laptop looks great, and for $350 you can't beat it.<br>

If I could do some basic editing on it it would be great.</p>

<p> </p>

[frank_skomial]

I believe it has an Intel Atom processor, that may not have speed for photo processing ? Also the minimal screen size requirement for any of formidable photo processing software may be too limitting, even if you have disc resources. Acer could not be much different ?

 

I use HP Mini 1000 netbook if I have to, and Western Digital 500 GB My Passport Elite external micro USB drive. The HP mini 1000 is good to transfer photos from DSLR camera to the external USB disc, but pretty slow.

[Brad_]

<p>I have an Aspire One but have yet to load PS on it - would have to "deauthorise" one of my other two Macs to do that. May try an older version or Lightroom. Of course it would not be for heavy duty image editing - no laptop is as well.</p>

<p>It's nice machine - great for staying connected while on the road. Be sure and get the version with the 6 cell battery and 160 GB drive; I get run times close to 6 hours online. The $350 version on Amazon is for the 3 cell battery with much shorter run-time. The 6 cell version is currently $375.</p>

[travismcgee]

<p>I'm thinking about one too, and would be interested in other opinions.</p>

<p>FWIW, I went to a photoshop class at the local camera store the other night, and the instructor (aka "store owner") was touting the Acer Aspire One. He said he uses it when traveling to back up, view and edit his images, and doesn't take a full-size laptop anymore. He said the battery will last a full coast-to-coast airline flight and the he's even able to edit HD video with it without any problem. He mentioned the name of the video editing software, but it didn't stick.</p>

<p>BTW, I Googled it the other day and found an article from overseas (Europe, I think) that mentioned a new version would be available in February with 2GB of RAM, a larger screen, and a few other things. Anybody heard anything about that?</p>

[steven_clark]

<p>I'd think trying to use a netbook like this for much more than organization would just be asking for pain, in the literal physical sense. Have you seen one of these things in person yet? They are tiny.</p>

[travismcgee]

<p>"Have you seen one of these things in person yet? They are tiny."</p>

<p>Yes, and they really are tiny. I agree that doing any real work would be difficult. I can only see the utility in backing up, viewing (I believe they have a larger screen than those dedicated image viewer devices), and answering critcal emails and such. Working any length of time would be no fun at all.</p>

[Brad_]

<p>>>> They are tiny.</p>

<p>And that's the point. They're for staying in-touch; email, web, writing, etc. Not for doing serious photo editing - laptop displays are poor at that anyway. Great for backing up files. The Aspire One even has flash card slots built-in.</p>

<p>What's nice about it is the price, size/weight, 3 USB ports, and relatively large 160 GB hard disk. I leave my MacBook Pro at home on short trips - don't have to worry about it being stolen, hiding it, getting damaged, etc. Haven't even bought a case for the Aspire One. At $375 I'm not going to sweat it getting banged up a little. It's built pretty rugged, and has a nice keyboard for it's size.</p>

[jay_hopkins]

<p>I have one. Great for email and browsing (with the Opera browser, IE is a pig). it won't have the horsepower for LR/PS. I would think it would work good for a light browser like Thumbs + with an external drive.</p>

<p>Jay</p>

[travismcgee]

<p>"Great for email and browsing..."<br>

<br />I'd better not get one then. (grin) I spend about 15 nights a month in a hotel room somewhere and if I had email and the Internet, I'd be up all night working on stuff and just playing around. I intentionally don't carry a laptop so I can get some sleep.</p>

[don_bryant2]

<p>I have a friend wo owns an Acer Aspire that uses PS CS3 on the Aspire. I'm not sure if he has been able to load the Canon software.<br>

I think its a great device for downloading and viewing photos on the road since it is light, tiny, and allows one to use it for e-mail and other apps as well. Bettr than paying for a storage only device, IMO.</p>

[garrison_k.]

<p>Accer is just about to update in Feb/March. Both come with 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of ram, 160GB hhd, a 10.1-inch monitor.</p>

<p>But if you want something with a bit more torque for LR/PS, I'd get an MSI.</p>

[JeffOwen]

<p>I have just bought my wife an Acer Aspire One so that she doesn't have to use my Toshiba Portege when we are travelling about. The Acer is a great little machine but unlike the Toshiba is not powerful enough for photo editing. It's fine for photo viewing and e-mailing. It even has a built in camera and we use it for Skypeing etc. but although it comes with Office and normal XP programs I don't think I will be loading Photoshop or the like.<br>

The version I got came with a solid state hard drive and an additional 8Gb SD card making 16 Gb in total. Very robust notebook but not great for large number of photos.</p>

<p>The Toshiba Portege, on the other hand, has all the features of a full blown laptop but weighs in at about 2 lbs. I have installed CS2 and do all my travel editing using this machine. The down side is that it is about 5 times the price of the Acer.</p>

[alanzaza]

<p>I bought the Windows XP version with the HD last summer and love it. I got it mainly so I can take it with me on shootings to judge photos on it -sure beats the camera LCD. It's very light too. You can load the Canon software on it by changing the display to 1024X768 instead of 1024X600. I have DPP, CS2 and EOS utility running on it. I just copy the discs to a USB drive and install the apps that way. Editing with CS2 is okay for the basic things. The screen is actually pretty good, you can't beat it for $350.00. I even tethered my 5D to it using EOS utility. I think it's perfect to take out in the field!</p>

[greg jansen]

<p>Thanks Alan, and everyone else. An Office Max coupon came in the mail yesterday. Time to get one!</p>

[ashala_tylor]

<p>Anyone know how to change the acer screen from 1024x600 to 1024x768? I have 5D Mark II but software will not load.</p>

<p>Any suggestions other than returning the cute little computer? I have a Mac at home but wanted to use as a download device for on the road and for emails, not photo editing.<br>

Thank you.</p>