Netbookshave a reputation for being rather samey, with their external design often the only point of difference. The Aspire One 533 breaks from the boring norm witha new Intel Atom N475 CPU and faster DDR3 RAM to improve performance. Ourreview model was supplied by Save on Laptops, where you can buy it for £300.
Acer Aspire One 533
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Not too shabby netbook
The533 certainly makes a good first impression thanks to its sleek design. Thedark grey, glossy finish on the lid goes nicely with the more matte look of thekeyboard surround. We also like the curved, elongated screen hinge, which notonly feels very robust, but looks quite funky, too. It's slim, measuring a mere27mm thick. Overall, we think it's one of the better looking netbooks on themarket right now.
Atjust 10.1 inches, the display is obviously quite small, but its resolution of1024x600 pixels is pretty crisp given its petite dimensions. Despite its shinycoating, the screen is not too reflective by glossy-screen standards. It's alsobrilliantly bright and capable of producing strong colour. Unlike a lot ofnetbooks, the 533's viewing angle is quite wide, which will come in handy ifyou want to share a movie with a mate while you're travelling.
Becausethe battery protrudes slightly from the bottom of the netbook, the keyboard tiltstowards you at a gentle, sloping angle that creates a nice typing position. Thekeyboard is one of the better ones we've come across on a 10-inch netbook, asthe keys are relatively large and the layout is practical with only the cursorkeys reduced to half size.
Thetrackpad sits completely flush with the case, marked only by a grid patternthat distinguishes it from its surround. The pad is actually quite large bynetbook standards and it even has a separate scroll area on the right-hand sidefor quickly zipping up and down through longer Web pages and documents. Ratherthan having two separate buttons, Acer has integrated them into a single rockerbutton that sits right at the front lip of the chassis. There's a noticeableclick as you tap on either side, so it feels responsive to the touch.
More than just a pretty face
Mostnetbooks use an Atom N450 processor, but Acer has chosen the newer N475 for the533. This single-core processor is clocked at 1.83GHz, but, more importantly, it uses DDR3 memoryto provide extra performance. Unfortunately, the netbook refused to completeour PCMark05 test, but the speed improvement was noticeable over other netbooksthat use the N450 chip. For example, while most netbooks struggle to play 720pvideos smoothly, the 533 was able to play even more complex 720p files withoutany problems. Its 3D performance, however, doesn't rise above the standardnetbook level. It uses an Intel GMA graphics card which was only able to rackup a score of 164 in 3DMark06, so although you can use it to play very old 3Dtitles, it's a dead duck when it comes to modern first-person shooters.
Elsewhere,the specification doesn't stray too far from the traditional netbook template. Althoughthe RAM is the faster DDR3 type, there's still only 1GB of it, which is justenough to run the Windows 7 Starter operating system. For storage, Acer hasprovided a 250GB hard drive. The line-up of ports is similar to most netbooks,too, with three USB ports, a VGA output for connecting to an external display (unfortunately,there's no HDMI port) and an Ethernet socket for hooking up to a wired network.There's also a multi-format card reader nestled on the right-hand side of thechassis. On the wireless front, there's 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 support-- a handy addition for transferring files from devices such as smart phones.
Ifthere's one area in which netbooks consistently outperform laptops, it's batterylife, and the 533 doesn't let its fellow devices down. It managed to keeprunning for a relatively impressive 4 hours and 11 minutes in our Battery Eatertest. Since this test is super intensive, you should get an even longer life fromthe 533 with ordinary day-to-day use.
Conclusion
Overall,this is a very impressive netbook from Acer. It looks sleek and has a goodscreen and keyboard. The new processor and faster RAM provide a small, butwelcome, increase in performance. If you're in the market for a 10-inchnetbook, the Acer Aspire One 533 should be near the top of your list.
Edited by Emma Bayly