The Acer Aspire One is a prime example of the new breed of netbook. It's an attractive looking machine, and is available in four different colours.

It's obvious that Acer want you to show off your Asipre One when out and about. As it weighs less than a kilo you will have no problem carrying it around with you. The flat keys of the keyboard feel a bit strange at first but it's a small price to pay for getting such a slim computer.

The Aspire One has enough power for running Windows XP smoothly, though it struggles a bit with demanding applications. Websites can take a while to load, but apart from that it's an enjoyable enough experience.

Media playback on the Aspire One is also very good. The small built-in speakers reproduce music pretty well, giving a nice and deep sound –a nice surprise as netbook speakers can sometimes be rather tinny. They are also loud enough to annoy any fellow commuters if you are using it on public transport.

If you really want to get the most out of your music from the Aspire One then you'll need to plug in a pair of headphones. This transforms your listening experience, and you can appreciate the media capabilities of the machine.

Standard movie files look quite good on the bright screen which boasts a 1366 x 768 resolution. This is enough to play high-definition videos, however the playback becomes too choppy to enjoy properly. This is a real shame, as the pictures look great, and as Acer advertises the fact that the Aspire One has a high-definition screen, you'd think it was capable of playing those files without stuttering.

Like other netbooks there is no optical drive, so you can't play DVDs or CDs. The Aspire One does have 3 USB 2.0 ports and a memory card slot in its place, so you will have no problem copying files and programs from USB memory sticks.

There are no connectivity issues either – the Aspire One has Wi-Fi and wired connections for connecting to networks and the internet, as well as Bluetooth and 3G. The built-in webcam produces good images, even in low light, and there is very little lag whilst capturing fast movements.

The battery life is pretty robust, easily giving you around four hours of heavy duty usage before you need to plug it back in.

Although it falls short of some of its bolder claims, the Acer Aspire One is still a very good computer, especially if you are going to use it for working whilst on the road.

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