I like Acer AO532h-2588 10.1-Inch screen size is another very interesting. If the substance is the advantage of portability.

Feedback from the buyer.

Carolyn Buckingham “Netbook Phreak” (Sandusky, OH) Buy on February 6, 2010.

I bought mine from a local retailer for about the same price. I’ve owned a dozen laptops and even the 14″ ones are too big and bulky for me. I love the portability of this machine and for the price, it’s a really good value.

I highly recommend putting in a 2GB RAM module (I used an 800MHz one) and, if you like, a larger hard drive. The extra RAM gives Windows 7 room to breathe and speeds things up noticeably. The Starter Edition of Windows 7 is too limiting for me, I upgraded to another edition of Windows 7. After you upgrade the RAM and the OS to a higher edition of Windows 7, install the Acer VGA driver for Windows 7 and then you’ll have the proper screen resolution and you can run in Aero mode.

I have run Ubuntu Linux (both the Netbook Remix and the standard one), Windows XP Pro, and Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit on my 532h and they all ran just fine. Stick to 32-bit operating systems on this model since it can’t take more than 2GB of RAM (like all netbooks).

For web surfing, I use Google Chrome and it runs much faster than IE8 or Firefox on this machine. Chrome is a good choice because now you can add extensions, like ad blockers, to it. Basically, if you’re like most people and 90% of what you do on a computer is social networking (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), browsing the web, word processing, email and other simple tasks — well, this machine is all you need.

Finally, remember, it’s a Netbook. Not a desktop or even a regular laptop. If you want to do any serious gaming, forget it, but it will run some games. There are netbook websites that are very helpful and some of them even have game recommendations for netbooks.

r2d2inltd2 (Cornwall, PA) Purchase on March 2, 2010.

A netbook seems ideal for vacation travel. It’s compact, lightweight (2.6 lbs), has wireless for internet, a good size screen for viewing photos, a big drive (160 GB) for storage, an 8-hour battery, and a media card slot to download photos from the camera.

My first decision was Acer at $ 300 Vs. HP at $350. They are virtually identical. I’ve been unimpressed with HP’s tech support on my $ 1500 laptop. HP has no advantage.

First impressions of Acer Aspire One 532h-2588:
A highly adjustable angle provides good screen viewing. Keys are 93% the size of a full keyboard and quite comfortable. The Acer has 1 GB of RAM expandable to 2 GB ($48). And it lacks a DVD drive ($ 60-70). I expected I would need more memory and an external DVD drive.

To test it, I loaded software to view, rename, and edit photos, plus a full compliment of word, spreadsheet, presentation, database, etc. software. Here’s the list of software I installed by downloading from the internet and using my license keys to activate as necessary.
The full Norton Security Suite
Google Picasa photo viewing and editing software = FREEWARE
Photoshop Elements 8
Nikon Capture NX2 photo editing software
FileRenamer FREEWARE from Sherrod Computers
Open Office Org word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, etc, = FREEWARE

Based on ease of loading software from the internet and transferring files via USB port, I decided I do not need an external DVD drive.

My first test was to determine if the included Windows software could display a photo in Nikon RAW/NEF format. Windows software could not handle the RAW file. I installed Google Picasa. It immediately recognized and displayed photos in Nikon’s RAW file format.

The next step was to edit a photo with Photoshop Elements 8. It worked fine and appeared to run almost as fast as my desktop which has 4 GB of RAM. Then I tried “Capture NX2″, the phenomenal image editing software from Nikon. I was apprehensive this software would not work with 1 GB RAM. My suspicions were correct. Nikon’s software needs a lot of RAM; it struggles to run on my desktop with 4 GB of RAM. I doubt this software would run on the Acer with 2 GB of RAM. This may be a moot point because the small screen on the Acer is not suitable for serious photo editing.

The FileRenamer software loaded but gave an error message that all functions might not work in Windows7. But it works fine and does a great job of renaming photos.

Based on these tests, I believe the Acer is excellent for reviewing photos to decide which to delete, renaming the remaining photos and placing them in file folders, and some minor photo editing.

My last test involved the Open Office Org full suite of software. I opened a very large (42,000 KB) text file with multiple photos and complex page formatting. The Aspire One kept up with the page display as I scrolled thru the document and allows me to edit this huge file. It’s not as fast as my desktop, but it works fine. I amazed this little computer with only 1 GB RAM can run all this software and handle such a large text file.

Bottom Line = The Acer Aspire One 532h-2588 is an excellent travel computer for viewing, renaming, minor editing, and storing photos. The display screen is about half the size of an 8.5 x 11″ sheet of paper. That’s big enough to review photos, but too small for serious photo editing even though the computer runs Photoshop Elements 8. This size screen is reasonable for writing and editing a text document and connecting to the internet to view email. From a practical standpoint, I believe the only limitation of the Acer is the screen size. If you can accept that, I would highly recommend it.

For easier transport, I bought a Targus bag with a mouse ($ 29). The small bag has lots of storage room, a handle and clip-on shoulder strap.

The Acer meets my needs as a vacation travel computer. It’s easy to carry and surprisingly powerful. Another issue is the risk of it being stolen. I would rather risk theft of a $ 300 netbook with minimal personal files than having my $ 1500 laptop stolen which has ALL my personal files. To protect the limited number of personal files on the Acer, I’ve password protected the Windows7 start-up screen and set separate passwords for each sensitive, personal file on the computer.