Acer Aspire One 532h – One for the frequent traveller Review

Acer Aspire One 532h – One for the frequent traveller Review
VERDICT:

The Acer Aspire One 532h is a sleek and stylish ultra-portable notebook that typically suits the needs of a frequent traveller. It incorporates all the basic features in a sleek and compact design. The optional 3G connectivity adds value for money. Overall, it makes a very cheap buy at Rs. 19,499 and gives you a hefty bang for your buck!

Acer Aspire One 532h – ports on the left

[RELATED_ARTICLE]The brushed metallic blue coat on the trackpad mouse buttons shows a nice contrast against the glossy black finish on the palm-rest. The blue-lit power button on the top left corner of the keypad and the blue-lit LED indicators to the left of the track pad buttons, add beauty to the design aesthetics of the netbook. The keypad layout incorporates a floating keypad design with noticeable spacing between the keys, which enables finger navigation and typing that's quite comfortable. The special function keys are marked with blue icons, which add to the overall ergonomics of the keypad. The keypad keys are soft to the touch and provide consistent tactile feedback with good response. However, we were not fully satisfied with the congested keypad layout, as we often hit the wrong keys while stretching to reach the boundary keys on the keypad.

Read on to know more about the body aesthetics, dimensions and ports on the netbook on the next page (click here if the button doesn't work)…

 

Acer Aspire One 532h – ports on the right

[RELATED_ARTICLE]The diamond black coated cover-lid provides a touch of class and appeal to the body aesthetics of the netbook. The well-sculpted hinges provide smooth and flexible tilting to the LCD screen up to a maximum angle of 120 degrees from the palm-rest. The battery latches on tightly into the groove provided below the hinges and blends nicely within the body dimensions of the netbook, avoiding any unwanted protrusion which we have seen in some netbooks and laptops. It consists of a VGA port and two USB ports aligned on the left side and one ethernet, one USB, one headphone and one microphone port, along with one Kensington-security slot aligned on the right. In addition, the Aspire One 532h also has a multi-in-1 memory card reader on the right side.

Acer Aspire One 532h – side view 1

The Acer Aspire One 532h includes a rich assortment of features like online video calls at 640 x 480 resolution, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi capability, fast ethernet and Bluetooth. The introduction of optional 3G capability enables the user to make use of 3G data services by connecting through a 3G USB modem. Thus, the rich set of features add good value for money and make it a great buy.

Acer Aspire One 532h – side view 2

Read on to know the performance, conclusion, specifications, ratings and more on the next page (click here if the button doesn't work)

 

Performance

[RELATED_ARTICLE]The Acer Aspire One 532h had a modest outing across synthetic benchmarks and real-world benchmarks. The ordinary CPU scores and overall scores did not make any impression, when compared to other decent performers – MSI counterparts (U130, U135 and U160). The webcam image quality was just average, with visible grainy particles across darker colours like red. However, the speaker audio clarity and maximum volume were quite satisfactory. However,, we were absolutely disappointed with the battery performance yielding just 1hour and 45 minutes of battery life, while running a video file in looping mode, with all the power saving features turned off. We could forgive its performance shortcomings, considering it to be a very basic lightweight netbook. However, we feel the MSI counterparts were a notch above, in almost every test we conducted including the battery test.

Conclusion

The Acer Aspire One 532h is an ultra-portable notebook that typically suits the needs of a frequent traveller. It incorporates all the basic features in a sleek and compact design. The optional 3G connectivity adds value for money. It makes a very cheap buy at Rs. 19,499 and gives you a hefty bang for your buck!

Specifications
Processor: Intel Atom N450 1.66 GHz; Memory capacity: 1GB, Type: DDR2, Speed: 400MHz; Hard drive: 160GB; Display size:10.1-inches, Resolution: 1024 x 600; Battery: 4400mAh; Weight: 1.26 Kilo-grams; Bundled operating system: Windows 7 Starter edition.

Model Acer Aspire One
Features (Out of 10) 7
Performance (Out of10) 6
Build Quality (So 10) 8
Value for Money (Out of 10) 7.5
Grand Total (Out of 10) 7
Features  
Component Specifications  
Processor Model No Intel Atom N450
Processor Speed (GHz) 1.66
Memory (GB) / RAM Type / Memory Speed 1/DDR2/400
Chipset Intel NM10
Graphics Solution Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
HDD Size (GB) 160GB
Bundled OS Windows 7 Starter
Battery Capacity (mAh) 4400mAh
Characteristics  
Dimensions (WxDxH) (mm) 249 x 195 x 36
Screen Size (Inches) 10.1-inches
Screen Resolution (Pixels) 1024 x 600
Weight (kg) 1.26Kg
No of Ports (USB) 3
Wireless Connectivity  
Bluetooth Y
WiFi Y
Type of Memory Cards Supported Multi-in 1 card reader
Performance  
Synthetic Scores  
PC Mark 2005  
CPU Score 724
Memory Score 1381
Graphics Score NA
HDD 4239
Overall NA
SiSoft Sandra 2010  
CPU Arithmetic (Dhrystone ALU/Whetstone iSSE3) 2.63GIPS/2.2GFLOPS
CPU Multi-Media (Integer x8 iSSE3/Floating x4 iSSE2) 5.54MPixel/s / 4.25MPixel/s
HDD (Index/Random Access Time) 57.16MB/s / 7.26ms
Memory bandwidth (Integer/Floating) 1.77GB/s / 1.47GB/s
3D Mark 2006  
CPU Score 262
Overall Score 76
Real World Tests  
Build Quality (So 10) 8
Ergonomics (So 10) 7.5
Audio Test Speakers (So 10)  
Volume 7.5
Clarity 6.5
WinRAR 3.8 (Compression / Decompression) 195KB/s
Quake 3 NA
Webcam Quality 6
Screen Quality (Spyder3 Elite)  
Luminance NA
Contrast Ratio NA
Partition-to-partition Copy (1GB file) (secs) 48.52
100 MB File Conversion (VOB-to-DivX) (secs) NA
Battery Life (hrs:mins:sec) 01:45:43
Wi-Fi Test (100MB file over 802.11g) (secs)  
Short Distance  
Netbook-to-Test PC NA
Test PC-to-Netbook NA
Long Distance  
Netbook-to-Test PC NA
Test PC-to-Netbook NA
Price (Rupees) Rs. 19,499

Ratings
Features: 7
Performance: 6
Build Quality: 8
Value for money: 7.5
Overall: 7

Contact: Acer India Pvt. Ltd.
Phone: 1-800-3000-2237
E-mail: NA
Website: http://www.acer.co.in/
Price: Rs. 19,499

Vinod Yalburgi
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