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Conclusion At the time I am writing this review analysis, the Acer Aspire One 521 is still one of the most powerful 10-inch netbook on the market. If you are in the market of netbook, you should know that almost all existing 10-inch netbook has a specs that combines Intel Atom processor with integrated GMA3150 graphic chips. This combination works perfectly fine for normal computing tasks but not for gaming or high-def videos playback. The Acer Aspire One 521 which runs on AMD 1.7GHz Athlon II Neo K125 processor and ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics performs way better than those Atom powered netbooks, and promises 1080p playback thanks to ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics. Shortter battery life however is the biggest drawback of this netbook. Under normal usage, it last for almost 5 hours, which is shorter than most Atom-based netbooks such as the Eee PC 1015PED and Toshiba NB305 which lasts for more than 8 hours from a sigle charge. For MSRP of $349 though, this netbook is a very attractive choice especially when battery life is not a main concern for you. |
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Design
The Acer Aspire One 521 has a glossy lid with a big Aspire One logo on it. While the huge logo design does not bother me much, some reviewers find it tacky. It depends on personal preference. Keyboard and touchpad of this netbook is pretty decent. It has the same chiclet keyboards that Acer’s been using on its recent netbooks, which the keys are big enough to be comfortably type on. The touchpad although is a bit small, is still usable and works fine for navigating. An improvement that you will find on the 521 compared to Acer’s previous netbook is that is that it has 2 dedicated right and left mouse buttons.
In terms of portability, it weights 2.8 pounds and measures 1.1-inch thick at its thickest point, making it a highly portable machine which you can carry around with easily.
Performance
Looking at the PCMark benchmark score, the performance of the Athlon II Neo CPU on the AO521 is right in between Intel Atom and Intel ULV CPUs. Everyday performance is relatively snappy especially after uninstalling McAfee Internet Suite. It has no problem handling multitasking even when playing a 720p video.
Graphics
With the ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphic chip, the Aspire One 521 plays local 720p and 1080p video flawlessly, even when outputted to a 40-inch HDTV via HDMI. It also has no problem playing 720p video from YouTube, but will start to show some shuttering when it plays 1080p video from YouTube. Engadget has tested playing War of Warcraft on this machine and gets 28 frame per second which is pretty good for a netbook.
Battery life
The Acer Aspire One 521 comes with a 6-cell 4400 mAh battery. It lasts for 4 hours on Engadget’s video rundown battery test, which loops the same standard def video at 65 percent screen brightness. And according to Brad from Liliputing, he gets close to 5 hours of run time under normal usage.
Conclusion
The Acer Aspire One 521 has better graphics and performance than almost every 10-inch netbook currently available on the market. While it has shorter battery life than other Atom-based netbooks, 4 to 5 hours of battery life should be good enough for most people’s everyday use. With this in mind the MSRP of $349 is very attractive. I certainly recommend this netbook.
Sebastian Jentsch from NotebookCheck says:
The Aspire One 521 is currently without competition in terms of performance for its size. This level of performance has previously only been seen in 11.6-inch machines or above. Nvidia Ion (I & II) systems are only available in 11.6-inch (e.g. Samsung N510 and 12-inch (Asus Eee PC 1215N) machines. The 10-inch Acer Aspire One 532g (Ion II) has been scrapped according to the latest rumours, and the Eee PC 1015N does not yet have a release date. With this in mind the price of around €329, only €40 more than most popular netbooks, is very attractive. We can certainly recommend buying this.
Brad Linder from Liliputing says:
While I wouldn’t recommend the Aspire One 521 as a primary computer for most users, any more than I would recommend an Atom-based netbook, the Acer Aspire One 521 offers significantly better performance than most netbooks. If the limited CPU or graphics performance were keeping you from trying a netbook, this may be the model to look at.
On the other hand, if battery life is more important to you than speed, you might be better off going with another netbook — or at least picking up a spare battery for the Aspire One 521.
Cisco Cheng from PCMag says:
While the Acer Aspire One AO521-3782 is noticeably speedier than its Intel Atom adversaries, it’s not as battery-efficient and runs warm during media playback.
Mark Kyrnin from About.com says:
Acer’s Aspire One 521 is definitely shaking up the netbook market by offering a significant boost in performance both for general applications and graphics. This netbook is fully capable of HD video playback and is a step up from the average Intel Atom based model. Battery life is better than past AMD netbooks but still falls short of the class leading Atom netbooks. Pricing is very reasonable especially considering competing ION based models.
| Weight (lbs) | 2.76 |
| Display Size | 10.1 |
| Resolution | 1024 x 600 |
| Display Type | Glossy |
| CPU | 1.7 AMD Athlon II Neo Processor K125 |
| RAM | 1 GB DDR3 |
| Hard Drive | 250GB HDD |
| Graphic Card | ATI Radeon HD 4225 |
| Battery | 6-cell (4400 mAh) |
| Max Battery Life | 5.5 hours |
| Webcam | 1.3MP |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Starter |
Acer Aspire not too expensive, but has good enough quality. It is suitable for economic class notebook.
Does this netbook heat up a lot when running graphically intense jobs?
Don’t waste your money. I went through tech support hell with these people and it still won’t connect to the internet consistently. Read the tech help areas before buying. The Altheros wireless device is horrid and won’t stay connected. And NO fix. Sent it back in the box. Looking for a Toshiba.