Acer Aspire One D250

Inch-thick successor to the popular AA1

When troubled with a bit of Gaussian Blur action in The Gimp, it took an average of 4.8 seconds to apply the filter to our standard test image, which is in line with other Atom-based netbooks.

Video Playback Battery Life Results

Battery Life in Minutes
Longer bars are better

On our scales, the Aspire One D250 weighed in at just 1.1kg, making it one of the lightest 10in netbooks you'll find. Taking its lightweight nature into account, the fact it managed to last two hours and twenty-four minutes in our high-strain video playback test is admirable. You'll get much more than this by going easier on the D250, and with a fully-charged battery Windows estimated there was enough juice for just under six hours of action.

Take the six-cell version and you'll do even better, of course.

Forget the D150 - this is the real successor to the original AA1

Verdict

Usability is paramount when it comes to netbooks, and given the updated keyboard found on Acer's Aspire One 751 it's hard not to feel a little hard done by that the company has opted to use the old Aspire One A110 keyboard on the D250.

The new machine is not without its charms, but with the similarly specified Eee PC 1000HE boasting 802.11n, a better keyboard and a barn-storming nine-hour maximum battery life, we suspect many will opt for Asus' offering, especially since it costs the same.

Naturally, the Eee PC 1000HE's long battery life means a bigger battery and, in turn, a heavier 1.45kg netbook – it's almost twice as thick, too - it's up to you whether you think it's worth the extra 350g. ®

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