Acer 1410 Impressions

So my Acer 1410 came in the mail 2 days ago from JR.com and I've been playing around with it for the past few days. Here are my impressions so far.

It is a compact notebook with the following specs:

- Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 1.4 ghz

- 11.6" HD LED screen

- 2 GB DDR2 memory

- 250 GB HDD

- Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics

- 6 cell 4400 mAh battery

- 3 lbs flat

I picked up the Acer 1410 after shopping around in Taiwan with the intention of buying a small netbook. However, when I was in Taiwan I discovered that there were 11.6" netbooks such as the Acer 751h and other offerings from Dell, etc. Unfortunately all the 11.6" netbooks were paired with Intel Z520 processors, which are supposedly slower than the typical Intel Atom N270/N280 offerings. The 10" netbook market was the biggest in Taiwan and there weren't too many adopters of the 11.6" offerings as of yet, but I expect them to be the next best thing within a year. I found out that there was an Acer model with a Core 2 Solo coming out to the U.S. so I held off buying a netbook in Taiwan, which were actually quite expensive there anyways (usually $100 more than the U.S. price, which is a lot considering netbooks costing $400 on average in the states).

The Acer 1410 isn't actually considered a netbook, but rather a traditional notebook, but I went with it anyways for the bigger and higher resolution screen and discrete graphics that were capable of playing HD video through hardware acceleration (which is something none of the Intel Atom variations can do). It also comes with fairly reasonable battery life (supposedly 6 hours). While note quite as astonishing as the 10 hour claims from Asus netbooks (such as the 1005HA), I am willing to give up some battery life for a snappier system capable of playing HD video.

So far the 1410 has been good to me and the build quality seems great. I don't feel like it is going to fall apart in my hands or the keys on the keyboard are going to snap off. Though it is shipped with Vista, it also comes with a free upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, which is a nice touch. From what I have read Windows 7 should run a lot faster than the bloated Windows Vista.

Here are some more pics and some of the pro/cons I have noted:

Pros:

- Good keyboard size (practically the same size as a standard keyboard)

- Gorgeous 11.6" screen with 1,366x768 resolution

- Snappy performance with the Core 2 Solo on most applications

- Able to watch HD video with hardware acceleration

- Draft N WiFi with gigabit ethernet

- More than enough space (250 GB)

- HDMI video out for the big screen :)

Cons:

- U.S. version getting a 4400 mAh versus the 5600 mAh version in Europe

- Single core isn't too great at multi-tasking

- No bluetooth (though I probably won't need it)

With that said, for $449 ($380-ish for me after rebate) shipped, the Acer 1410 is a nice machine for my portable needs. I don't like to carry my 15.4" Macbook Pro everywhere since it is pretty heavy, so that is where the 1410 comes in.