The netbook looks very neat and not at all fragile. The operating system is very easy to use, looks quite like Windows and is very fast to boot up. Setting up WiFi took only a minute. I've bought it for my sister who only needed it for net surfing and is very pleased with it. Word processor is from OpenOffice which will give it quite good functionality. I haven't tried multimedia but am sure that it will be good too. I might get a copy of Linpus to try on an old laptop (1.8GHz processor, 256 ram (to which I might add another 512), 30gb hard disc).

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Firstly the only evidence when my Acer arrived that it was referbished was some slight wear to the outside packaging, otherwise I would've never been able to tell. It performs very well for it's modest spec with the Linpus OS. Acer seem to have done a good job of not making it too scarey for windows users. When I get the chance I'm planning to put Ubuntu netbook remix on it though, I prefer the freedom of it. It'll probably be worth putting another 1gb of memory in it too but with 512MB its still a nippy little machine. Oh, I was also impressed with the out-of-the-box ability to watch pretty much any web videos my wife could through at it!

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I bought this from Dabs a couple of months ago when it was more expensive it arrived in original box, in perfect condition and with all original media. As long as you are not expecting a full featured Laptop you will not be disappointed. I have since upgraded the memory to 1.5Gb and installed a number of applications for media viewing etc. I was a Linux noobie before getting this and I haven't had any problems with it. You may have to do a bit of research on the Internet but it is all out there. If you want familiarity then go for an XP version. Web browsing is what this device does best although I have used it for watching movies and listening to music while on my travels. I have no qualms about recommending this "Netbook" and remember it is a “Netbook” not a laptop.

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Wanted this for portable online tv viewing, youtube, forums, video streaming, email etc. So didn't need lots of storage. Lunux lasted about 5 minutes once I realised fullscreen video was horrible. With windows this is a great little unit. One warning the 8gb ssd is horribly slow as it comes. Was going to dismemeber and add a 30gb hdd. But came across a little driver created by some university students that speeded the ssd up about 3 times. So now the only add on I have or need is an 8 hour battery pack. Great bit of kit - but realistically needs setting up much better than acer have done and I found linplus to be true idiot software.

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I took the box apart and found a another battery pack in the bottom. Was I lucky or not? In normal usage I found the battery power only lasted upto 2 hours! Added 4Gb SD card to increase docs directory, but not sure about the need to upgrade RAM? Light user only.

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Refurbished unit in excellent condition - works perfectly and no dead pixels.

Slows down a lot when running multiple apps or even multiple browser tabs, but that's to be expected from a low-power machine like this.

A few issues with the OS - the auto-updates don't work without a bit of hacking, for a start, and installing new software means trawling the forums to find out how.

Battery life is pretty poor - as reported elsewhere.

Overall though, very happy with it. Great for basic websurfing and E-mailing while wandering round the house, and doing simple office stuff. Just don't expect all the performance of a fully-featured laptop, and you won't be disappointed.

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• Ease of use
• Value for money