Acer Aspire One 521 Pro Reviews

At $349 the Aspire One 521 is one of the most powerful 10-inch netbooks on the market now, and though it may not last as long on a charge as Atom-powered one, it's miles ahead in terms of managing Flash and HD video. No, we're not the biggest fans of the huge logo on its lid, but its price and performance are sure to win over someone looking for a 10-incher.

While the Acer Aspire One AO521-3782 is noticeably speedier than its Intel Atom adversaries, it's not as battery-efficient and runs warm during media playback.

I’ve been reviewing netbooks for well over two years at this point, and to be perfectly honest it’s starting to get boring. Almost every 10 inch mini-laptop that hits the market these days has the same specs: Intel Atom processor, Intel integrated graphics, Windows 7 Starter Edition, 1GB of RAM, WiFi, and maybe Bluetooth. The Acer Aspire 521 is one of the few netbooks I’ve tested that really breaks the mold.I mean sure, it still has the same basic case design as a typical netbook, it ships with the artificially crippled Windows 7 Starter Edition, and the screen resolution is still the standard 1024 x 600 pixels. But the AMD Athlon II Neo K125 processor and ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics are a winning combination in this small form factor laptop.

Finally - an AMD-based 10.1-inch netbook with battery life approaching that of the Intel Atom netbooks. Acer is marketing the Aspire One 521 with its Athlon II Neo system as a netbook, and we are also keeping it out of the subnotebook category.