The Acer Aspire One 751h is here — anything you want me to check out?

7:40 am PDT • July 9, 2009

The netbook fairy (or a UPS driver named Karl) just dropped off the 11.6-inch Aspire One 751h. I’ll be putting the machine through its paces for the next week or two for a thorough review but I wanted to check with you guys to see if there was anything in particular you’d like me to test. Just drop your requests in the comments section and I’ll try to address some or all of them in the final review.

Aside from that, here are some initial first impressions along with some photos.

Specs:

Intel Atom Z520 CPU at 1.2GHz
Windows XP Home SP3
11.6-inch widescreen display at 1366×768
Intel GMA 500 graphics chipset
1GB RAM
160GB hard drive (5400RPM)
802.11b/g Wi-Fi
Built-in webcam
Three USB ports
Six-cell battery
MSRP: $399, Street Price: $379

Impressions:

It’s smaller than I expected. Despite having an 11.6-inch screen, it’s slimmer than the 8.9-inch Aspire One and doesn’t take up much more space.
The keyboard is phenomenal as far as making use of all the available space is concerned, but it still takes getting used to when typing. The keyboard on my 13.3-inch Sony notebook is still much easier to use so far. However, I’ve only had the Acer for a short while now.
Upgrading the 751h will be dead simple thanks to easy-to-access hard drive, RAM, and communications doors on the underside of the machine.
Windows XP runs pretty well. The model I have contains 1GB of RAM and I’ve found that multitasking slows things down a bit but regular web surfing and whatnot clips along just fine. I immediately uninstalled McAfee Security Center, which sped everything up somewhat.
It feels heavier than I thought it would. Because it’s not that big, all the weight makes it feel kind of stocky. It’s still very portable but compared to the 8.9-inch Aspire One with a three-cell battery, the 11.6-inch 751h with the six-cell battery feels more substantial when carrying it around with one hand.
Seeing “8:16 remaining” on the battery meter is a tingle-inducing experience.
A full-screen episode of Conan O’Brien streamed off of Hulu was jittery but watchable. I’ll do some more thorough video testing but at first glance, this machine probably isn’t going to appeal to video lovers.
The 1366×768 screen resolution makes all the difference in the world. It’s much, much better than the standard 1024×600 resolution found on most other netbooks.

Photos: