Aspire One and Eee 901 Head to Head
Over at Crave/CNET UK a very interesting review and photo set went up yesterday from Rory Reid. He was reviewing the Aspire One, Acer’s entry in the “MY UMPC is Cooler than YOUR UMPC” sweepstakes. Through the course of the stand alone review (which was overall very positive, in case you were on the edge of your seat about it) Reid stacks the device directly up against the Asus Eee 901. As these two devices share pretty much the same market space and specs (pricing wise, the Eee is a good deal more expensive, perhaps dealbreakingly so) this seemed to me a good thing, since a lot of consumers will be doing the exact same thing over the next couple months as the “back to school/holiday” season arrives.
Not surprisingly, it was largely a draw. Reid gave the Aspire One some raves about the keyboard (a bit larger then the Eee, as is the entire device) while the Eee gets the nod on battery life and trackpad usability. Wireless is also a bit of a tako, as the Aspire One lacks the Eee 901s built-in bluetooth but has a slot behind the battery to accept a 3G SIM card.
The review in a nutshell is as follows:
In some respects, the Acer Aspire One is better than an Eee PC 901. It has an excellent keyboard, solid performance and is highly portable. The Eee PC 901 still has the edge in terms of battery life and mouse input, so it’s a close call between the two machines.
Both devices got a solid 8.8 rating.
If you are debating between the two UMPCs, this review may make your job even harder as it doesn’t declare a clear winner….but it is still an excellent run down of the strengths and weaknesses of the two much-anticipated devices.
Read the entire review HERE, and click HERE for a further gallery of comparison shots from Crave.