Acer Aspire One D260-23797

Acer Aspire One D260-23797

The Aspire One line of Netbooks has long been a bright spot in Acer's laptop lineup, thanks to the company's firm commitment to rock-bottom prices and decent, if unexciting, design and construction. The latest version, called the Acer Aspire One D260-23797 (one of several fixed configurations of the D260, each with slightly different components), scores points for being small, thin, and light, even for a 10-inch Netbook, despite having a decent-size keyboard and touch pad. Currently available for $329 (but we've seen it previously for as little as $299), the D260 is right in the mainstream of entry-level Netbook prices, despite the good looks and smart design. Even more interesting, this is the first Netbook we've seen with the newer Intel Atom N475 CPU, instead of the more common N450 version. This new CPU runs at 1.83GHz, instead of the N450's 1.66GHz, but it didn't help the Acer Aspire D260 feel any faster than typical Netbooks; in anecdotal use, it actually felt more sluggish than we expected. Of course, even fast Netbooks are still pretty basic machines, good for Web surfing, e-mail, and not much more.