Acer Aspire One D250 review

The first time we laid our hands on Acer’s Aspire One D250, we were quietly impressed. A slimline netbook with some nice design touches, it was only the stiff competition that left it floundering. Now, however, the D250 can lay claim to one feat none of its competitors can. Not only does it have Windows 7 Starter Edition installed, it’s also the first Android netbook.

Indeed, while neither the D250’s figure nor its specifications are liable to excite uncontrollable lust, the presence of Android raises its appeal above the average netbook. First impressions are good, with Android booting up in just 15 seconds, and it also looks far neater than any instant-on OS we’ve seen before. Alas, anyone who’s had the chance to meet Android on a smartphone should prepare for disappointment.

Spend just a few minutes with the D250 and it’s clear Android wasn’t built with a trackpad and keyboard in mind. The inclusion of both Android’s webkit-based browser and the more recognisable Mozilla Firefox almost seems to admit as much.

Indeed, where Android’s browser makes sense on a smartphone’s touchscreen, it just doesn’t translate here. The process of clicking and holding the left mouse button, while pushing up to scroll the page down, seems clunky and counter-intuitive, and the lack of Flash support soon left us running back to Firefox’s familiar embrace.

Even that Android-friendly incarnation of Firefox is less than stellar. It does at least support Flash, allowing you to catch up with the latest additions to iPlayer or YouTube, but jerky, unwatchable playback completely spoils the show.

That would be disappointing enough, but then there’s the conspicuous lack of the Android Market to contend with. There’s an option in the settings to allow software to be installed but, frustratingly, no way of actually buying any applications – at least at this early stage.

It’s an omission that immediately curtails Android’s aspirations. Checking email and perusing websites is possible, as is using Google Apps, and while there are music and photo applications, these come as some little recompense since they also prove clunky and unsophisticated.

It’s a shame to admit it, but for most users it won’t be long at all before the temptation to switch straight over to Windows 7 kicks in – a task, thankfully, made easy by the shortcut at the top-left of Android’s home screen.

The burning question, though, is why anyone would opt against booting into Windows 7 in the first place. Cold booting does admittedly take about three times as long as Android – about 45 seconds or so before a usable desktop appears – but waking from hibernation takes a mere 20 seconds, just five seconds longer than the quick OS.

Windows 7 might feel a touch more sluggish than XP Home – the Acer scored just 0.30 in our benchmarks – but its refinement and ease of use come as ample reward, and importantly it suffers none of the aggravating limitations of its Google-powered rival.

Physically, very little has changed. The D250’s figure is as slim as ever, and our review unit came finished in a two-tone combination of gloss white and textured matte black, the hinges enlivened with a silver flourish and a lime-green Aspire logo.

We still haven’t warmed to its looks, though, and for all Acer’s efforts it still looks a touch plain next to the likes of the Samsung N110.

Build quality is the same as ever, too – that’s to say, not quite up with the best in its class. The D250’s slim base is impressively stiff, but both the lid and the hinges beneath it feel too flexible and insubstantial to truly inspire confidence.

It has put on a few grams and now weighs in at 1.24kg, thanks to the six-cell battery jutting out at its rear. That battery is a welcome sight and, where the original D250 expired after less than three hours of light use, it now keeps going for a far more substantial 7hrs 57mins.

Ergonomically, though, the Acer Aspire D250 trails the best the netbook crop has to offer. The keyboard is quite usable, but the light-feeling keys and small trackpad aren’t great. The display also fails to excel. Despite reasonable brightness and passable colour reproduction, like many of its netbook ilk it finds itself let down by poor contrast. Only the loud, competent speakers (in netbook terms) really impress.

It’s a classic case of missed opportunities. If the Aspire D250 was as physically accomplished as some of its competitors, the presence of Google’s Android, despite its flaws, might have been a selling point.

As it stands, the novelty merely serves as a brief distraction from the D250’s competent, but unremarkable charms. We still hope future updates will reinstate the marketplace and make more of Android’s obvious potential, but there are much better netbooks available for less.

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