1GB RAM
160GB hard drive
None
11.6 inches (1,366x768 native resolution)
Integrated Intel GMA 500
3 pounds
1x11.2x7.8 inches
Windows XP Home Edition
The appeal of the new Aspire One 751h is not so much what this netbook adds to Acer's netbook line, although we do like its roomy 11.6-inch screen and new slim design. Rather, the most significant update is what it does away with. Gone is the trademark cramped Aspire One 89-percent-wide keyboard, replaced by a full-width model that's a pleasure to type on.
The Aspire One 751h ($449 in our test configuration) actually feels less bulky than its smaller-screen predecessors, thanks to its slim, inch-thick design. The 10.1-inch-screened Aspire One AOD150, by comparison, is 1.3 inches thick. And the Aspire One 751h is just a tenth of a pound heavier than the AOD150, at three pounds with Acer's six-cell battery. (The unit comes standard with a three-cell battery; the six-cell is an optional upgrade that was factored into the $449 cost of our test unit.) The new case has a slick, two-tone design, with a glossy black exterior and gunmetal silver surrounding the keyboard. White, blue, and red models are available as well. The removable six-cell battery on the unit we reviewed juts out the back of the notebook at a slight downward angle; the standard three-cell battery inserts flush with the case.
The standout design feature on the Aspire One 751h is its bright, colorful 11.6-inch LED-backlit screen. With its 1,366x768 native resolution, this 16-to-9-aspect-ratio screen offers significantly more screen space than the 1,024x576 and 1,024x600 screens found on 10.1-inch netbooks. This equates to more horizontal room for toolbars or multiple windows, and even better, less vertical scrolling. Its expansiveness makes the netbook experience feel much less like a compromise. The only downside of the screen is its glossy surface, which is very reflective.
Also welcome is the full-size keyboard. At just over 10.5 inches wide, and outfitted with full-size Shift, Enter, and Backspace keys and no layout peculiarities, it's a pleasure to type on. The keys are large and flat—a Chiclet design, but with barely any space between the keys—but we found them as comfortable to type on as traditional sculpted keys. Below the keyboard you'll find a touch pad that's small but that supports a wide range of multitouch features.
Acer's full-size keyboard is a pleasure to type on.
The one flaw we noted in the input scheme is the single rocker-style button below the touch pad. You have to push it down quite far before it clicks and registers, making it difficult to press with the thumb of the same hand that you're using to navigate the touch pad. While writing this review, we found ourselves using the tap-to-click feature and mostly ignoring the button.
The Aspire One 751h features the practically standard netbook selection of ports: VGA, 10/100Mbps Ethernet, and three USB ports, as well as a Webcam and a flash-memory-card reader that supports not just the predictable SD and MultiMediaCard formats, but also Memory Stick and xD-PictureCard. The unit includes both 802.11b/g and Bluetooth radios. This netbook is very amenable to upgrades: Along with removable covers on the bottom of the shell for accessing the RAM and hard drive, a third cover allows access to the Wi-Fi card slot.
Netbook ports don't get any more basic than this. Along the left edge: Ethernet, power, two USB, headphone, and mic.
Inside, the Aspire One 751h is a bit less typical. It has the expected 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, and Windows XP Home Edition operating system, but where most netbooks sport a 1.6GHz Atom N270 or N280 processor and the Intel 945 chipset, the Aspire One 751h uses a slower 1.33GHz Atom Z520 processor paired with the Intel US15W Express chipset. Though this chipset integrates a GMA 500 graphics accelerator that's more advanced than the one found in the 945 chipset, offering DirectX 10 support, the Aspire One 751h falls behind the netbook pack in both our CPU and graphics tests.
The Aspire One 751h completed our Windows Media encoding test in 33 minutes and 19 seconds, about five minutes slower the Atom N270-based Aspire One AOD150. Its Cinebench 10 score of 699 was lower than all of the N-series Atom notebooks we've tested, reflecting the slower processor speed and the lesser graphics components. (The Aspire One AOD150, for example, clocked in at 827, and the Atom N280-based Asus Eee PC 1000HE scored 922.) The Aspire One 751h managed a score of just 77 on our 3DMark06 benchmark test, versus 120 for the AOD150. While this is low, even for a netbook, you wouldn’t be cranking up 3D games on it, anyway.
The right edge of the slim chassis features a multiformat card reader, a third USB port, a Kensington-lock slot, and a VGA port.
Despite the disappointing benchmark-test results, the Aspire One 751h doesn't feel less responsive than other Atom-based netbooks in tasks such as Web browsing, word processing, and e-mail. But while we can live with transcoding music and video taking longer—these tasks are slow on even the fastest netbooks—we were disappointed by the video playback. Low-resolution and YouTube videos played back smoothly, but DVD-resolution WMV files and full-screen Hulu playback were both very jerky. Audio volume was typical for a netbook: clear but weak.
Far more impressive was the battery life. The Aspire One 751h lasted 6 hours and 14 minutes on our demanding Wi-Fi video-playback test, one of the better scores we've seen for a notebook with a six-cell battery. The category average is about 4 hours, so this is definitely better than most.
The Aspire One 751h comes bundled with CyberLink's PowerDVD 8 video-playback program and the ad-supported Microsoft Works SE. Acer does bundle an inordinate number of trial programs, something most netbooks arrive free of. These include the McAfee Internet Security Suite, Carbonite Online Backup, Microsoft Office 2007, and a whopping 18 casual games. The McAfee suite remains a poor choice for netbooks, as it hampers their performance, which is particularly noticeable here.
Overall, the Aspire One 751h combines a top-notch physical design with an underpowered engine. If your netbook usage focuses on the Internet and productivity, it's an appealing choice, thanks to its excellent screen and keyboard. But if you also like to watch video while on the road, you'll want to find a netbook with a little more steam.
Price (at time of review): $449 (mfr. est., as tested)
