Additional keys and indicators

And the well-known manufacturer Acer once again pleased with its products. In a series of strict and less restrained devices, noteworthy is the addition to the branded Aspire One HAPPY 2 line, namely, the “solar” netbook Acer One HAPPY 2 Yellow. An incredibly attractive mini-laptop will be the very device without which you will be “hands-free.” Surely you will notice that the netbook is aimed primarily at modern youth, since it has an extraordinary external design. Let's see what he's like at work.

Specifications

Design

The body colors of this netbook are not just attractive. They are able to cheer up their owner on any day. So, there is a choice Acer Aspire One HAPPY 2 in pink (Strawberry Yogurt), blue (Blueberry Shake), yellow (Banana Cream) and orange (Papaya Milk). Truly amazing colors, so no one, but a girl or a child, will definitely not pass by such a laptop. Well, the relief mark from a falling drop on the case cover is already known from earlier models. However, it still attracts attention with its originality.

It is worth noting that the One HAPPY2 body is made of durable plastic. The netbook is assembled with high quality, without gaps. Basically, we see glossy surfaces here. In particular, the frame around the display and the lid of the netbook are very dirty. True, fingerprints are not so visible on a white surface.

Inside we see not such abundance yellow. In fact, only the touch zone and the backlit power button are bright here. The rest of the surface is white. It looks like quite an interesting combination of colors. The hinges holding the display are small but quite strong. In any case, the screen will not wobble when open. Note that with their help the netbook opens up to 150 degrees.

On the bottom panel of the netbook you can see many ventilation holes and several comfortable rubberized feet located around the perimeter.

Display and sound

To communicate in Skype user will be able to use the built-in Acer Crystal Eye high-definition webcam. It is analog and has a resolution of 0.3 megapixels. The built-in microphone will also help. It is located under the display.

If we talk about the sound, it is quite loud. There is no doubt that the background sounds in the Aspire One HAPPY 2 will be acceptable. However, to truly appreciate its quality, you should connect headphones.

Keyboard and touchpad

But the touchpad was able to completely surprise. As a rule, the user is primarily interested in functionality. But in in this case, initially you pay attention to the design and size. As a tribute to the design, the manipulator is made in a bright sunny color and has a fairly large area. The smooth surface of the touchpad has clear markings that define the vertical scrolling area. The netbook also supports other multi-touch gestures, so you can rotate, scroll, or zoom images. As for sensitivity, it is so high that it will allow you to control the cursor with with the help of the lung touch.

The mouse button area is practically not separated from the touchpad. Manufacturers covered two keys with one “rocker”, so for better operation it is better to press it at the edges. If you don’t need the touchpad during your work, you can always turn it off using the + button combination.

Processor and performance

Equipping with an Intel Atom N570 processor with a clock frequency of 1.66 GHz made it possible, with the support of Hyper-Threading technology, to process several streams of information simultaneously, although the performance was relatively low.

The hardware is supplemented by 2 GB RAM DDR3-1066 MHz standard, hard drive 320 GB capacity and integrated Intel GMA 3150 graphics. In principle, the optimal set to cope with everyday tasks, for example, watching videos, web pages, typing texts, listening to music. True, there may be difficulties with processing 1080p video, but, in general, Full HD is reproduced, albeit with a barely noticeable stutter.

Regarding the drive, we can say that it operates at a speed of 5400 revolutions per minute. The hard drive stores two operating systems and a recovery partition. However, there is enough space for various content - music, video, software.

Ports and communications

There are two USB interfaces on the right side of the laptop. Next to them are audio connectors for connecting a microphone and headphones, as well as a built-in card reader that reads SD/MMC card formats. Separate from all the ports, at the end of the right side there is a Kensington lock hole.

There is another USB 2.0 on the left side. It can be seen at the very edge, closer to the front end. There is also an analogue VGA output, connector network controller and a charging socket. In addition to the interfaces, there is a small ventilation grill on the left.

As you can see, there is no digital HDMI here, so you will have to be content with what the manufacturers offer. Of course, such an interface would be very useful.

The owner will be able to use wireless communication. For this purpose, the netbook has Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0+HS. By the way, the presence of a SIM card under the battery will allow you to access the Internet via 3G.

Battery

Note that with a high load and Wi-Fi turned on, the battery charge lasted for more than 3 hours 43 minutes. Accordingly, during the execution of standard office tasks, offline time work without recharging will be an order of magnitude higher. For example, in the Power Saver power plan, the netbook lasted more than seven hours. This battery life can be achieved by working with an operating room Windows system 7. Unfortunately, “such heights” cannot be achieved on Android. The maximum that can be squeezed out is 4 hours maximum brightness display.

The 40-watt Acer MiniGo power supply is half the weight of standard chargers and also allows you to charge your netbook almost three times faster. An undoubted advantage is the replaceable plugs, which are suitable for any electrical outlet. This will allow you to use your netbook even if you are in another country.

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Conclusion

The market has long successfully accepted the niche of inexpensive ultra-mobile computers - netbooks. Devices of various shapes and colors are offered by many manufacturers, and Acer company does not lag behind others. Considering that most popular models are based on Intel Atom and there is no variety in the near future, Acer engineers decided to amaze the average person by installing two different operating systems. Read our review to see what came of it.

Acer Aspire One Happy design

The laptop itself is made in white (base) and lilac (lid), the thickness is just under 1", the body is made of plastic with a glossy finish.

The keyboard is membrane, numeric keypad and functions are accessible only through an additional key.

There is also a touchpad - its approximate dimensions can be estimated from the mouse simulator keys.

In the lower left corner we have the netbook status LEDs.

The monitor is mounted on two plastic hinges, and its diagonal is 10.1" with a resolution of 1024x600.

From the connectors on the netbook we have the following range:

• On the right are audio outputs (one for headphones and one for a microphone), one USB connector, a port for a Kensington lock, and a LAN port for a local network.

• On the left – connector for connection charger, video output VGA, two USB connectors.

Specifications Acer Aspire One Happy

Inside the netbook there is a single-core processor. Intel Atom 450 with a clock frequency of 1.6 GHz (however, there is also a modification on the market with a more productive dual-core Atom 550 solution, albeit with a lower clock frequency of 1.5 GHz).

There is also 1 GB of DDR2-800 RAM and hard drive capacity 250 GB.

CPU-Z also showed some information about the platform itself.

There are both wireless WiFi and Bluetooth modules, as well as a wired connection via a LAN connector of 10/100 Mbit/s. The sound is played through small speakers on the bottom.

The battery capacity is 4400 mAh with a design of six lithium-ion cells.

The 10.1" screen is powered by an integrated video accelerator. Intel GMA 3150, External VGA output is also supported.

The Crystal Eye webcam is located on the screen frame.

Acer Aspire One Happy – two operating systems in one bottle

As we already mentioned, the Android operating system loads before Windows.

Despite the presence of a fairly popular mobile OS version 2.1, the functionality of the netbook does not actually change and we will now tell you why.

Firstly, everyone knows the problem with power consumption in the Android operating system - clock frequency The processor is not scaled depending on the load and the result is wasted battery power running the processor "idle". As an example, we took the operating time of a netbook under the Windows operating system while cyclically playing an AVI file with a DVD-quality movie and then played the same file cyclically until it turned off under the Android OS. The results were:

• Windows – 4:38:13.
• Android – 4:14:34.

Yes, on communicators this issue can be solved by installing task managers and consumption settings using third party utilities, for example SetCPU. However, for the owner of this netbook, everything will not work out so simply.

But it won’t work because it’s a netbook Acer Aspire One Happy is not licensed for the Android Market - it is simply not there as such. Also no accounts Google, and other related services.

An experienced owner of an Android device will tell you that you can install an apk package using a special partition, which looks like a regular hard drive for Windows, but like a flash card for Android OS. Of course, this method will work, but with very significant limitations.

The first limitation is that the OS is ported to this platform, and there are few changes relative to the version in the communicator, and communicators with a screen resolution of 1024x600 are generally impossible to see at the moment. From here we have that most programs will work with a very distorted interface, “running” elements and other errors in operation, and these are the ones that can be installed - the majority will run into another limitation.

The second limitation was the legacy Linux-similar systems – strict delineation of user rights. We will not deny that access to the system and in communicators is quite limited, but it is usually enough to install and operate the vast majority of programs. And if you don’t have enough, then armed with Android SDK or unofficial firmware, you can achieve what you want, but a netbook is not a communicator, there is no direct USB connection for debugging. And in this netbook model, most attempts to install the software package ended with a creation error message needed by the program directory or file - user access is simply limited.

So, let's summarize the disadvantages:

• Active work time reduced by 9-10%.
• It is not possible to install applications directly from the Android Market.
• Inability to install most software packages due to non-standard screen resolution and strict rights restrictions.
• Some Internet pages are displayed as on the screen of a communicator - in a simplified form.

However, there are some positive points:

• Support for computer mice (however, only the left button and scroll wheel are fully functional, the right button will simply call up a menu like on communicators).

• Built-in webcam support.
• The pre-installed software is almost identical standard set for the communicator, there is also a built-in browser.

In addition, the developers of the ported version added mobile version browser Mozilla Firefox.

• Easy setup connections.
• High stability.

In conclusion, we can say that the Android OS is completely unsuitable for everyday use on this netbook, and in our opinion, the user will have to get acquainted with it only in three cases - the crash of Windows 7 without the possibility of recovery (and until it is restored), working in networks increased risk of infection with viruses (severe limitation of capabilities here becomes a plus) and just curiosity.

Switching to Windows is done by clicking on the page corner image in the upper left part of the screen.

Testing Acer Aspire One Happy

And now we will test the power of the netbook by running several synthetic benchmarks. True, the tests were limited - at first it was not gaming laptop, and secondly, the screen resolution is below the minimum for many 3D-benchmarks. So, the performance test results:

• Fritz Chess Benchmark (single stream) – 530 knodes/s.
• Fritz Chess Benchmark (two streams) – 797.
• Paint.NET int. benchmark – 353354 ms.
• SiSoft Sandra (arithmetic test) – 3.76 GOPS.
• SiSoft Sandra (multimedia test) – 7.88 MPixels/s.
• SiSoft Sandra ( throughput memory) – 3 GB/s.

As for battery performance, at full load in Battery Eater"05 we received the following graphs:

• Low battery.

• Battery charge.

Of course, at maximum load the promised “up to 8 hours of battery life” are not destined to come true, but the operating time is nevertheless impressive, especially since a normal “office” load is not able to fully load the resources of even a netbook, so under normal conditions the device will clearly demonstrate even more impressive results. Also noteworthy is the fact that the netbook refused to work or start when the battery was charged<5% – отсюда и небольшие "плато" на графиках.

Acer Aspire One Happy – to be or not to be?

Overall we can say that the netbook Acer Aspire One Happy– a viable device without frills, a niche product for those who do not need bulky solutions, and the range of tasks is quite narrow and includes maximum mobility. Aspire One Happy It is not at all intended for resource-intensive applications, the maximum possibilities are watching movies in DVD quality, Internet surfing, e-mail, simple toys and working with text documents; there is simply not enough computing power for anything else.

It’s not worth buying if you have the opportunity/need for a full-fledged laptop, and even more so, you shouldn’t look for a replacement for a desktop PC - for 11-12 thousand rubles you can assemble a good system unit, all you have to do is add a certain amount for the monitor and peripherals. A definite plus of the device is its small size and low power consumption, as a result of which even a standard battery lasts for more than four hours of very active work (and typing without network connections will allow you to use the device even more), and meanwhile there are also more capacious batteries on sale , however, they cost a lot separately.

As for the presence of two OS, we can say that Android is present only “for show” - the functionality of the system is very limited, and its expansion is a non-trivial task. Nevertheless, this option may be useful for the Internet and checking email on a potentially infected network, but Windows 7 Starter offers a full-fledged OS and therefore we still recommend using it on this device.

With Android as a "quick start system"

In the netbook market, Acer's offerings are almost always the cheapest, which guarantees them first place in search results and increased attention from buyers. But the lowest price does not mean the lowest quality or lowest functionality: these models are quite competitive. By the way, the second feature is a very large model range. The disadvantage of this approach is that it is easy to get confused in a wide product line, but there is a much more significant advantage: once you understand, you can choose a model that exactly matches your needs.

But today the main conversation will be about additional distinctive features of the Acer One Happy netbook we tested. In terms of hardware platform, it does not stand out from its peers: standard case size, standard Intel Atom platform. However, it has two interesting features that will undoubtedly attract additional attention to it from a variety of target audiences. So what is so attractive about the Acer One Happy netbook?

For women: “Oh, he’s lilac!!!”

For computer enthusiasts: “Ugh, he si... what?!? Does it have Android?!”

Here are two factors that attract users to a netbook (and users from, to put it mildly, different target groups): the cute color of the case and the included mobile system.

Line configuration

Finding the Acer Happy model on the manufacturer’s website is quite simple: it is listed in a separate item in the “Netbooks” section. The device has only one configuration, all hardware characteristics are the same. The four specified modifications differ from each other only in the colors of the case. The model name looks like AOHAPPY-2DQuu (for our model).

The description is drawn up in a traditionally careless manner: the name was not translated at all, leaving Benefits. Phrases like “Impressions with yourself” are often found.

Here again, the strange approach to describing the configuration of laptops, which I encountered while researching eMachines 732, manifests itself in all its glory. The table lists the general characteristics of the line (and very general ones at that), and the configuration of each model is indicated on another page in a line. It is very difficult to extract the necessary data from it. However, in our case, a single configuration for all models helps a lot. At least you can understand what's what.

The Acer Happy configuration does not present any surprises. Let's just say that it is at the level of minimum standards at the moment and with the minimum processor in the line. The six-cell battery is worth highlighting.

Appearance and ergonomics of the case

The top cover of the case is light lilac, a very interesting delicate shade. Most of the “common elements of the body” - the bottom, the battery, the sides - are snow-white. Overall, the color combination turned out very good, especially for the female audience. The netbook looks very clean and tidy. The line, as already mentioned, has models in other colors. The manufacturer specifies four color shades: green, blue, pink, purple (purple probably means the shade of our model). A netbook in lilac color is still more suitable for girls; it will look great in their hands.

As for the stability of the case during use, this time I can say absolutely for sure: the lilac part is paint and can be easily washed off. It seems that six transfers were enough (twice home and once for photography) for a white stripe to wear out on the sharp edge at the corner. I’m even afraid to guess what will happen to the Acer One Happy if it’s actively carried for a long time.

With the lid open, the impression remains: clean snow-white body panels and a single lilac-colored insert in front of the keyboard. In general, a netbook is like a netbook. He doesn't have any special features.

If we talk about design, it can be described in one word: simple. Acer has been using, if my memory serves me right, a single concept of minimalistic design almost since the beginning of the production of netbooks in general. Moreover, I would not say that this minimalism is so attractive; rather, it suggests thoughts of a simple and inexpensive device purchased for functionality.

The Acer One Happy has an interesting power adapter. Unlike most laptops and netbooks, it plugs directly into a power outlet.

By the way, the block has an interesting design: inside there are two contacts, onto which a tip with the socket configuration required in this country is put on by turning. The power cord is long enough, let's hope there won't be any problems with it not being enough to reach the table or chair where the user is sitting with the netbook.

Case ergonomics

Let's look at the location of the connectors.

There is nothing at the back, because the back panel is covered by an open lid. I don’t know if there is an extended battery for this model, I suspect there is. However, the additional row of elements can only go down, under the bottom of the netbook.

There are no connectors on the front edge; it is very sloping. Many netbooks have this design; apparently, this is done to make the netbook more convenient to carry in the palm of your hand, like a folder for papers.

On the left side there is a network connector, an output to an external monitor (analog VGA) and two USB ports. Between them there is a small ventilation grille. Please note that this is the only exhaust grille, all the hot air comes out (at least tries to come out) through it.

On the right side there is a card reader, audio connectors (there are two of them, they did not make a combined headset jack), another USB port, a Kensington lock port, and an RJ-45 wired network port.

The set of ports on this netbook is the bare minimum. It is the same for almost all modern netbooks and, in general, is enough for the vast majority of users. The only noticeable addition to this set is the HDMI port, but to accommodate it in a netbook you will have to significantly change the platform, and the price will increase.

Keyboard

The keyboard is also snowy white. Whether it will retain this virgin whiteness during use is difficult to say. The letters are printed in black, they are equally large in size, and are perfectly readable even in semi-darkness.

There are no special complaints about the layout; the keys are located in their places. It is worth noting that the keys of the over-cursor block are built directly into the cursor block (two of them are in combination with Fn). The solution itself is not bad, but the keys turned out to be very crowded, you constantly make mistakes and press two keys at the same time.

When typing, the keyboard is noisy and the typing is a little loose. Although typing a lot, like on any 10-inch laptop, is still inconvenient.

Additional keys and indicators

System indicators are located on the left side of the front edge. Traditionally for this arrangement, the indicators are covered by the wrist of the left hand when printing; in other cases, readability is quite good.

There are only four indicators: operation, battery status, hard drive access, wireless network operation.

This model does not have additional keys. The power button is recessed into the body, but is pressed quite easily. When the netbook is turned on, it glows blue.

Touchpad

The touchpad is small, but also feels average. It has a smooth surface that doesn't provide much feedback, and the cursor moves around the screen a little slower than you'd like.

As a rule, for the test I use the spider solitaire game opened full screen, and during the test I check whether or not I can move the card between the outer stacks. If it succeeds, then the acceleration settings in other applications will be optimal. If not, then, as a rule, in other programs (including browsers) the touchpad will seem slow and you will often have to make two movements on the touchpad instead of one. I’m not talking about the difficulties with drag’n’drop.

Screen

The screen of this netbook is quite ordinary, with a diagonal of 10 inches and a resolution of 1024x600. During normal work, such a resolution on this diagonal is not always convenient.

The screen is matte, which was a pleasant surprise. The second pleasant surprise: a very wide backlight range. The screen is bright at the maximum level, I think that the netbook can be used in bright sunshine (I couldn’t test this in winter). And very dark on minimum: when working in the dark, the screen can be made very dark, so that it does not hurt your eyes and does not light up the entire room. Although it is still impossible to work for a long time.

Sound

Acer Happy One has traditional tweeters. They have a very narrow range of reproduced frequencies and a low maximum volume. The most you can hope for: watch a film built on dialogues in silence. Nothing more. In all other cases, it is better to use headphones.

Testing

As already noted, there is only one hardware configuration in the line, so this table is no different from the table at the beginning of the article.

Actually, we won’t see anything new in this table, because the configuration is the same.

Testing in synthetic packages

The performance level of any netbook is at an extremely low level, some tests do not work on it or show strange results, others take a very long time. As a result, we left one test of the processor and video subsystem, Cinebench R10, but even from this it is clear that the performance is very weak.

The linear speed of the disk is at an average level. The average search time is slightly faster than average.

Battery life

Testing for battery life is carried out in two modes: minimal load mode (reading text from the screen) and when watching a movie. Tests are carried out without the use of test programs. Energy saving parameters: the power scheme is set to “balanced”; if the laptop manufacturer offers its own power scheme with similar characteristics, it is set. The monitor shutdown time is set to “never”. There are no other interventions in power management (switching graphics, turning off components, etc.), default values ​​remain. The screen brightness is set to maximum, wireless interfaces are disabled. During testing, the laptop reboots, all utilities installed by the manufacturer are launched (except for the antivirus program, which is uninstalled before testing).

When testing for battery life in reading mode, no programs are launched, except for a utility that measures battery life.

When testing to play a movie from a laptop’s hard drive, a file in avi format is launched. For playback, the portable version of Media Player Classic is used, which contains built-in codecs.

Battery life is very good, even for low-power netbooks. In minimum power mode, Acer Happy One runs for just under 7 hours. If you watch movies on it, it will last 5 hours - also an impressive result. In general, its autonomy is very good; this model can be used while traveling during the day. And given the presence of the Android operating system, where power consumption should be even less...

Charging the battery of a switched off netbook takes 1 hour 40 minutes.

Impressions from use, additional information

Let us now turn to a very interesting technical feature - the Android operating system.

Loading and appearance

Windows has a special utility where you can configure Android to start. In particular, it configures the preferred OS: either Windows loads immediately, or when turned on, Android loads, and from there you can load the main OS. The system does not offer a boot menu at startup, i.e. you need to either abandon Android, or every time you restart, first boot into it and then switch to Windows.

Android loads quickly: the system reaches a working state in 8-10 seconds. In appearance, the desktop looks more like a tablet than a phone due to the horizontal orientation of the screen. In the upper left corner there is immediately a large transition zone that allows you to go to loading Windows (you can get into it by accident), in the right there is a menu tab traditional for old Androids.

There are four applications on the desktop, and they clearly show what the manufacturer proposes to use this system for. So, on the desktop there is a browser icon (this is not a regular built-in browser, but a mobile Firefox (!), only it is called www), web mail (namely web, even a Google account is opened through the same Firefox), Google Talk and Calendar. The rest of the programs (and there are very few of them, these are standard Android applications) are in the menu.

Applications on the desktop can be launched in a couple of clicks, i.e. access to the Internet or mail is easy. But in order, for example, to set up WiFi, you have to go into the menu, and here the user will experience all the delights of working with a mobile finger-based system on a netbook.

In addition, I tried to surf the system and see what it can do and how convenient it is to use it on a netbook.

Ease of management

In general, the experience of interacting with the system was very funny. I use a communicator based on Windows Mobile, so I encounter Android quite rarely and mostly on tablets. Therefore, the experience is somewhat unique, after all, the tasks are different, and the screen is horizontal for the most part, and the size is completely different.

The main problem is that the Android OS is focused on finger control, but in Acer Happy you have to work with it using the touchpad and keyboard, which is extremely inconvenient.

Obviously, control almost always occurs through positioning devices - touchpad, mouse, etc. The connected mouse, by the way, was instantly recognized. However, both the mouse and touchpad on Android are very slow. The fact is that in Windows, cursor movement is characterized by two parameters: the speed of mouse movement and acceleration (if you move the mouse quickly, the cursor moves a greater distance than if you move it slowly). But in Android, which is quite obvious, there is no such parameter. Therefore, it is quite difficult to control, firstly, the response is different from the usual, and secondly, the cursor moves across the screen very slowly.

Plus, mouse control itself contradicts the concept of finger control. Imagine pulling out the menu on an Android phone: put your finger on a bookmark and drag it to the desktop - the menu pulls out with your finger. In the Windows interface, you must click on the menu icon - it will open. In our case, you have to move the cursor, hold down the left button and drag the bookmark - this is very difficult to do using the touchpad. No less problems arise with scrolling. Very often, the moment of releasing the left button (and without it you won’t be able to scroll through the menu) is perceived as selecting a menu item, i.e., on each scroll, a menu item will be selected.

The functions for working with the keyboard have been optimized, but I don’t know whether this is due to the operating system or whether Acer itself was involved in the improvements. The system knows that it has an external keyboard (if you click on the input box or address bar, the on-screen keyboard does not appear). And some keys on the keyboard function as Android hardware keys. For example, the back key is intuitive Esc. You can sometimes use Enter to confirm your input. Changing parameters (selecting from the menu) - space bar works. But you’ll never guess which key serves as the home button in Android phones (it returns the phone to the main menu). It's the Windows button! Still, there is something piquant about the fact that in order to get to the main menu of Google’s mobile OS, you have to click on the button with the Windows icon.

I was interested in the fact that the wireless network settings included Bluetooth, WiMAX, and even 3G cellular communications (although my netbook did not have them, so these menu items were not activated). Perhaps Acer's line of netbooks will include models that will have both these interfaces and Android OS. They, in my opinion, will be very interesting as portable devices for working anywhere.

Customizability and additional features

It would seem that the netbook has its own Android operating system installed! Under which a huge number of applications are distributed, including free ones! How many possibilities open up!

However, in reality everything turned out somewhat less rosy. Having difficulty opening the menu, you immediately notice the spartan package and... the absence of the Android Market application. So the easiest way to install applications is closed. In general, we are limited to what came in the main menu (and there are only built-in Android applications) and the four applications on the main screen that Acer provided the netbook with. In order to install something, you have to download installation packages and install them manually. And do not forget to enable the ability to install packages “on the left” in the system.

After some digging, I found a small collection of apk installation packages and tried to install them. In general, out of the ones we tried (and for some reason they were mostly games), not a single program worked correctly. Most of the games went completely crazy: the picture opened at a low resolution (it seems even 400x240) in the left corner of the screen, and the controls were in the center, i.e. they were off the screen. I got tired of it pretty quickly (especially since I couldn’t even exit most of the games; I had to reboot the system). It is likely that something will work, but with such a control interface it will still be extremely inconvenient to use the software.

Why do you need Android OS in a netbook?

So, an additional system is needed in order to quickly load the netbook, access the Internet or email, see what is needed, and turn off the netbook. By and large, this is some kind of functional analogue of the Expressgate quick launch system from ASUS.

On the one hand, in theory, Acer's solution seems more flexible. After all, there is a full-fledged operating system installed on which you can somehow install your applications. A good option for enthusiasts who can try to delve into the system and adjust it to suit themselves. On the other hand, out of the box it is not very functional: four applications without the possibility of expansion.

Among the general advantages, we can note a longer battery life. It was not possible to accurately measure it - there are no tools, and the system, left unattended, quickly fell asleep. But it feels like the netbook should work for a very long time.

Of the general disadvantages, I would first of all note the inconvenient controls.

User Experience

I’ll separately mention that with some surprise I was convinced that even modern second-generation Atom netbooks do not download Flash videos from the Internet. Most of the videos are from YouTube, but sometimes there are slowdowns even there. On Russian hostings everything is worse.

Flash works in Firefox under Android, and it seemed to me that it was a little faster than in Windows.

Positioning and output

In all technical characteristics, including platform, ports, etc., this netbook is at the average level or slightly below. This level of performance must necessarily be compensated by its main advantage: low price.

The second attention-grabbing factor is the cheerful lilac color, which, in combination with the snow-white parts of the body, gives it a lovely look. There is no arguing about the tastes of the fairer sex, but the girls to whom I showed the netbook invariably tried to take it away.

Android in this context should be considered more of a bonus. If you drive actively, this feature will save a little battery and make it easier to perform simple tasks on your netbook, but nothing more. It’s clearly not worth considering this as a full-fledged Android, suitable for working with any applications for this OS.

Although at the moment I have not seen the price advantage of this model,

Average current prices (number of offers) for a laptop in a tested configuration in Moscow retail: N/A(0)

The editors express gratitude to the company's representative office for providing the Acer One Happy netbook for testing

Sometimes, to do something new, you just need to embellish the old. Meet the Acer Aspire One Happy 2, a simple, pretty-colored netbook with 2 GB of RAM and a dual-core Intel Atom N570 processor. The solution, aimed at a young audience, with a couple of small features, is generally not bad, and does not leave any negative impressions.

Currently, the netbook market is quite saturated - from very budget models to devices that can hardly be called netbooks in the established sense of the word - for example, a gaming-oriented subnotebook from Alienware. The hardware base does not vary too much, mostly netbooks are built on the platform Intel Atom, although there are models with ULV versions of processors Intel Core or filling from ( Athlon Neo/AMD Fusion).

Manufacturers often have to contrive in order to get a little more money out of the consumer’s pocket, and, in general, the easiest way to do this is to give an already proven fighter an external gloss, or rather, slightly change the external design or simply paint the body in bright colors, come up with for the old-new model, a fashionable name and push it onto the market. And today we will see where the hero of this article can be classified.

Acer Aspire One Happy 2 Package Contents

The netbook arrived at our laboratory in a fairly standard compact package with a carrying handle. The box is decorated in soothing colors; It contains, in addition to the color variations of the netbook photographed from nice angles, information necessary for the consumer, such as: technical specifications of the model, a list of pre-installed licensed software and a serial number.

Inside the box, on an almost cardboard pedestal, the netbook itself was placed, covered with a heap of documentation, by the way, multilingual - including in Russian. There is also a warranty card, a list of Acer offices in the EMEA region, a piece of paper with CE and FCC certificates of conformity, and instructions for quickly getting the device into working order. No discs were found in the kit.

Of course, the box contained a charger of a rather interesting design - it itself is universal, but there are different power connector options for different regions. Here, of course, the European version was included.

More details about the configuration can be found in our video review:

Appearance of Acer Aspire One Happy 2

But it's time to bring the netbook itself into the light of day. So, before us is a device from the model range Aspire One with a 10-inch display. The design of the case is standard for Acer: smoothed lines, a slightly convex front edge that seems a little flimsy (although in reality it is not), a keyboard, a lid with a large logo and circles on the plastic running away from the letter “o” in the word One. We received a copy for testing with a cheerful blue lid; There are also yellow, terracotta and pink options.

Actually, the first complaint about the lid is that it is not painted very well; small flaws are visible along the edges. The rest of the netbook, except for the touchpad cover and power button designed to match, is white and, alas, will collect fingerprints from not very clean palms, especially the keyboard, so the netbook risks losing its presentation quite quickly.

On the inside of the lid there is a 10-inch LED display made using proprietary technology CineCrystal. Looking ahead, it’s worth saying that the display is really good and bright, marketers Acer They don't lie. The microphone is located on the lower right edge, and the 0.3 Mpx webcam eye is located exactly in the middle above the display.

The netbook charged in 3 hours 14 minutes (194 minutes).

You can also configure (using Acer Configuration Manager for Android) to automatically load Windows 7 10 seconds (or any other number of seconds) after Android loads. From Windows itself, however, there is no way to start Android - only by restarting the computer. Thus, it is optimal to configure the system so that Android loads by default, and after a few seconds, if inactive, Windows 7 loads. Do you want to quickly check your email? Turn on your netbook and work in Android. Do you plan to spend a lot of time on your netbook? Turn it on and do not touch it until Windows boots up.

Performance

Netbooks, as you know, are not known for high performance, and Acer Happy 2 was no exception. However, some netbooks are quite capable of playing high-definition video - and here our lucky contender clearly demonstrates how it is better than most of its competitors (if we take into account netbooks with a similar price).

The dual-core Intel Atom N570 processor and integrated Intel GMA 3150 graphics card are quite capable of playing video in resolutions of 1280x720 (HD ready) and even 1920x1080 (Full HD), although the latter with some reservations. Sometimes Full HD video still slows down, and not necessarily in dynamic scenes. Apparently, the main problem is in processing the volumetric data stream, and not in decoding. However, let me remind you that the screen of our netbook has a resolution of only 1024x600 pixels, so there is still no point in watching Full HD on it; 720p is quite enough.

Generally speaking, the Intel Atom N570 processor is a very interesting thing. Each of the two cores supports hyper-threading, so the system sees as many as 4 cores - and all this with low power consumption. Of course, the number of cores is not the point, but the processor is really faster than its single-core counterparts at the same frequency. Although far from 4 (or even 2) times, of course.

Battery

Why do people love netbooks? For mobility and autonomy. It's not worth taking seriously a netbook that can't last even 5 hours. As for Happy 2, this happy “little animal” can work up to 8 hours, and maybe more - it all depends on the mode of use. In any case, with such figures it is already difficult to talk about the working time “from start to finish”, because 8 hours is a whole working day. So even if you work on a netbook (this happens), we can say that the Happy 2's 6-cell battery will last for a day of work.