SlashGear Japan
The Acer Aspire One 751 is such a good looking netbook that we were willing to give it a second chance. After disappointing with the first round of testing, primarily because of the underpowered Intel Atom Z520 1.3GHz processor, we crossed our fingers that a second round would prove them to be some bizarre aberration. Sadly, going by the figures at NetbookNews.it, our hopes are unfounded.
Video of the 751 falling flat after the cut
YouTube HD videos played reasonably well, with – aside from the occasional visual glitch – nothing going wrong, although CPU use hovers around 100-percent for the duration of playback. Vimeo HD videos, however, were unwatchable, with the processor at 100-percent and even that not being enough. Reviewer Riccardo even re-installed Windows, thinking perhaps something had gone wrong initially, and disabled every possible CPU hog he could find. Even then, the Aspire One 751 failed to deliver.
Benchmarks showed that hard-drive and RAM performance are pretty much on a par with other netbooks, really leaving only the Atom Z520 to blame. Full details – and comparisons with other models – over at NetbookNews.it; sadly, this could be the end of the road for our Aspire One 751 love affair.
3 Responses to “Acer Aspire One 751 benchmarks show Atom Z520 grossly underpowered”
pierrodelon May 20, 2009
Probably should not rely on NetbookNews or anyone else. If they reinstalled Vista that might explain the problem. Install XP or Win 7 and run your own tests before making pronouncements, else you’re just the wagging tail on some uncertain dog.
Plus, communicate with yr friends at NetbookNews and find out what OS they reinstalled.
Users I’ve talked to say the 751 may be slightly sluggish compared to the 1000HE and similar, but maybe not as far off as suggested here and at NN. Of course, they assume you and NN are not using the same set of numbers to start with.
NeutralChris Davies May 21, 2009
Thanks for your feedback pierrodelon! The reinstall was XP, not Vista/Win7, just to clarify.
I agree that the Z520 isn’t a complete failure – general netbook tasks, like casual web browsing and the odd bit of document editing will run fine – but when you have a screen that’s advertised as being 720p-capable it seems reasonable that people will expect high-definition playback with no glitches or stutters. Overall, the 751 is a great looking, decent priced netbook, but I worry that people buying it may end up disappointed when the CPU can’t keep up with all they want to do with it.
+5desertskymc September 27, 2009
I just returned one of these PCs it runs vista slow and barely functional with video webcam apps like skype\. Surprisingly is very disfunctional and slow with Ubuntu, I love the screen and keyboard, mouse track is a bit awkward, .I have been searching for one configured with an Atom 1.66 at least, I read they make the z520 processor as a 1.33 1.66 and 1,88, give us one equiped with the later and we would be cooking with gas, especially if it came with os x! lol
Neutral