Overview
The Acer Aspire One 532h is a budget netbook that dosn't deliver the best design and performance, but offers one of the best price. Users will have no problem performing general computing tasks on this netbook; ergonomic experience is acceptable; and battery life is pretty good at 8.5 hours under normal usage.
While the Acer Aspire One 532h is not the best netbook in the market, its starting price of just $297 definitely offers great value for the money.
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Design
In terms of design, the Acer Aspire One 532h looks pretty similar to the Aspire One 751h. The only thing that’s noticeably different is the multicolored, metallic-like lid. Instead of a solid color, the lid fades from a dark metallic color to black, which definitely makes it look more refined. The 532h is available in Onyx Blue, Garnet Red, and Silver Matrix.
The keyboard of the 532h is neither an island style nor a traditional style keyboard found on its predecessor. Instead, the it comes with an Acer’s FineTip keyboard, which is completely flat on top, and has a slight space between each key. Both the keyboard and touchpad (measuring 2.6 x 1.4 inches) of the Aspire One 532h is larger than its predecessor, and is pretty comfortable to use.
Performance And Battery Life
In terms of performance, the new Atom N450 processor does not give any extra processing power to the netbook. The 532h scored 1,332 on PCMark05 which is pretty average for a netbook, and is able to perform tasks like web surfing, chatting through skype, and streaming Hulu videos (not in full screen though) pretty well. The new processor does give a longer battery life to the netbook. Laptop Magazine manage to get 8 hours and 36 minutes of battery life from the 6-cell model in their battery test, which involve continuous web surfing over WiFi.
Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 >> Read Customer Reviews
Video Reviews
Sascha from netbooknews.com has done a great video review on the Acer Aspire One 532h. Check it out below:
Availability
The Acer Aspire One 532h is available in 2 set of specs:
- The model with 160GB HDD and 8 hours battery life (maximum) is available for $297
- The model with 250GB HDD and 10 hours battery life (maximum) is available for $319
Conclusion
The Acer Aspire One 532h has a pretty good design and performance for a netbook. While it’s not the best in the market, the starting price of just $297 definitely offers great value for the money.
Michael A. Prospero from Laptop Magazine says:
In most respects, the Acer Aspire One 532h is a lot like every other netbook: specs include a 1.66-GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM, Windows 7
Starter Edition, and a 250GB hard drive. Its performance, too, is almost identical to such netbooks as the Toshiba mini NB305 and the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE-P. Where Acer has everyone else beat, though, is price. At $349, the company has undercut the longer-lasting 1005PE-P by $30, and the NB305 by $50. If you don’t mind a smaller hard drive (and presumably less battery life), you can pick up a 532h for just $299. That’s a price that would let us overlook the less-than-ideal keyboard. Overall, the 532h’s stylish design and excellent endurance make it a strong value.
Dan Ackerman from CNet says:
The Acer Aspire One 532h-2326 is just as good for basic tasks as Netbooks costing $100 more, making it a solid sub-$300 option.
Joanna Stern from Engadget says:
We have no doubt that Acer will sell loads of Aspire One 532hs. No, not because it’s the best netbook on the market, but because it’s the one with the best price. Sure, it doesn’t have the keyboard or battery life of the $380 Eee PC 1005PE, but that’s the difference $80 (or $30 if you go with the higher end version of the 532h) makes. If you can spend a bit more money, at the moment we’d recommend the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE for its stellar battery life, but if you’re looking for a small laptop that can get the job done on-the-go for $300 — a netbook that’s truly a netbook — the 532h makes a fine companion.
Ardjuna Seghers from Trusted Reviews says:
While not a bad effort, the Acer Aspire One 532h-2Dr suffers for being very similar to its Packard Bell sibling and not offering enough incentive over cheaper, previous generation machines that are considerably cheaper. It won’t let you down, but neither will it blow you away.
| Weight (lbs) | 2.80 |
| Display Size | 10.1 |
| Resolution | 1024 x 600 |
| Display Type | Glossy |
| CPU | 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 |
| RAM | 1 GB |
| Hard Drive | 160GB |
| Graphic Card | Intel GMA 3150 |
| Battery | 6-cell |
| Max Battery Life | 10 hours |
| Webcam | 0.3MP |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Operating System | Windows XP Home |
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