This new Acer Aspire One 721 is a pretty interesting unit. It sits between the Aspire One 751 running the low-power Atom Z520 and the Timeline 1801tz running a dual-core Pentium ULV. Check our full review after the jump.
The Aspire One 721 also has one of the first units to run the new AMD Athlon II Neo K125 processor running at 1.7GHz.
The netbook has this nice mesh-textured finish on the lid cover which is a slight departure from the usual dark glossy ones of the previous 11.6-inchers of Acer.
At under an inch thick, this ultraportable is one of the slimmest and lightest we’ve reviewed in its category. It’s got a full-sized keyboard and a brushed-metal finish on the palm-rest area.
The trackpad area is a bit small and is only separated from the palm-rest by a thin protruding line. The friction from that brushed metal finish on the trackpad area is a bit uncomfortable though (they should have done a polished finish like in the Timeline 1801tz).
The 11.6″ display has glossy finish but is bright and crisp. However, it is also prone to glare in the outdoors or against bright light sources.
With an on-board graphics chip powered by an ATI Radeon HD 4225, the system can do some decent gaming performance (at low resolution). The built-in HDMI is an added bonus if you want to play HD videos and output it to a larger TV or monitor.
Performance is above average when compared to your normal netbooks, thanks to the CPU and GPU combo paired with a 2GB DDR3 RAM. It can even play YouTube HD @ 720p effortlessly although it becomes choppy at 1080p.
The Aspire One 721 sports a single-core AMD Athlon II Neo running a clock speed of 1.7GHz. Windows Experience Index gives it a base score of 3.4 taken from the graphics card but gets a nice 3.7 sub-score for the CPU. This puts the Athlon II Neo way better then previous Neo MV40 (WEI: 3.1) and slightly edging over the Athlon X2 L310 (WEI: 3.6).
See more benchmarks (Passmark) of the AO721 over at the PC Labs.
Battery life isn’t as impressive as the other Aspire Ones but a median time of around 4 hours on a single charge (based on BatteryBar) isn’t bad at all considering you get a more powerful CPU and graphics combo.
Besides, the 6-cell battery is only rated at 4400mAh. It would have performed better if it were in the 5600mAh range.
Acer Aspire One 721
11.6″ display @ 1366×768 pixels
AMD Athlon II Neo K125 @ 1.7GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 w/ 336MB RAM
2GB DDR3 RAM (max 4GB)
250GB HDD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
3 USB 2.0 ports
HDMI port
Windows 7 Home Basic 64bit
The Aspire One 721 is selling in stores for a suggested retail price of Php24,900 — almost the price of a regular netbook but a performance of an ultraportable. It offers a compromise between system performance and battery life but at that price point, it’s a good alternative compared to the more expensive CULV notebooks.
Where is this available?
i had bad experience with acer laptop,,
hi! is this loaded w/ an O.S.? thanks!
I prefer Home Premium or Ultimate para sa netbooks na naka-2GB and above basta 32-bit ang OS nito
How’s the performance when decoding 1080p videos? (seems that the GPU isn’t accelerating those HD flash based streams)
hmmm pwede na… para sa akin ang price nito ay below 20k….
[...] Acer Aspire One 721 Review This new Acer Aspire One 721 is a pretty interesting unit. It sits between the Aspire One 751 running the low-power Atom Z520 and the Timeline 1801tz running a dual-core Pentium ULV. Check our full review after the jump. The Aspire One 721 also has one of the first units to run the new AMD [...] Related posts: Acer Aspire One 721 unboxed So we finally got one of the new Aspire One… Acer Aspire … Read more on YugaTech [...]
Twitter: Teknisyan
says:
everything looks good except for the battery.
My brother purchased this ultraportable a couple of days ago. Compared to the pictures above, in person the notebook looks actually a bit darker, more of a bronze shade which is very nice and modern looking. Definitely this notebook will not look out of place in an office
As for performance my brother says it’s fast enough for his needs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, minor Photo editing, and movies) and the battery life is adequate at around 3.5 – 4 hours on average.
Another good thing is that the charger it comes with is relatively small and compact (compared to a regular notebook) so not much weight is added when you bring it along.
Overall not bad for Php 22K which is about the price of a top of the line 10-inch netbook. Let’s just hope that the dual core version of this notebook (AMD Athlon II Neo K325) will be made available by the local Acer distros
Twitter: technokyletwit
says:
sa totoo lang astig tong netbook na toh, parehas xa nung msi wind u230 dual core at 350gb lang ang msi wind u230. at lamang xa sa dedicated video memory pero halos same ang price kung card ang gagamitin
Sir yuga, does this unit comes with an OS? And where is this available? Acer store in megamall doesn’t have this unit yet, where can i buy this? Specific store name please. .
i got the ao521 with the same specs as this one except for the smaller screen. its really fast compared to your usual netbook and it can decode 1080p streaming from youtube very well. it last longer than its bigger brother for about an hour which is a big plus and the portability is just whacked. really lovin my lil baby.. ^_^
I bought this laptop for my gf yesterday, same color used in this review. So far, satisfied ako with its overall performance and the design is good. The only drawback I can see so far is the battery life. It took almost 4 hours to consume full battery with average use. CPU temp range from 62C – 75C. I didn’t tried yet playing latest games.
@Jaq: I bought it at PC Corner in Gilmore for the price of P21995 for cash, +2k if card. I think it is the best deal among few shops that sells this model.
@Yuga: I’m a bit confused if this model has bluetooth or not. There is no bluetooth device in Device Manager BUT when I check the bottom of the laptop, I can see a sticker saying that the unit has bluetooth. It even has the bluetooth logo on it. Can you verify that on the unit you reviewed?
[...] K325 has the same TDP (12 watts) as the K125 of the Aspire One 721 I reviewed earlier. I’m expecting the K325 to perform better while consuming the same amount of juice. [...]
@ben10, try ti press FN + F3 below the F3 you can see the bluetooth logo.
@levs: already made it work. thanks for that. =D
where can i buy acer ao721? do you have contact number for the store? thanks.
@julie: I bought mine at PC Corner in Gilmore. contact numbers: 723-1737 / 723-1718
Cel no.: 0926-6751902 / 0917-505-3888
@ben10 – Thanks for your response. do they give freebies like external dvd and broadband or some sort? with os na po ba yun?
@julie: I just got an acer laptop sleeve which is included in the package. Windows 7 Home Basic is already pre-installed which is a plus for me. I think its already a bargain price for me coz according to the review of yuga, its market price is 24,900. =D
Thanks Ben10, just got one yesterday. colors avail is Red, black and silver only. got mine Red. i am so happy. they gave me the price at p21995.
i am now using the laptop and friends told me that its a great deal. thanks for this blog. it really helped consumers to know the pros and cons of each product and decide what to buy. =)
Thanks to yugatech!
Twitter: Cindy
says:
@Julie – Where did you buy your unit? Thanks! :>
@ cindy: i bought mine also at pc corner. i’m enjoying using it…
sa pc gilmore – gilmore ko na nabili itong 721 ko. kasi walang black sa pc corner.. ang price kay pc gilmore ay 22,490 pero nong ipakita ko yong flyers ni pc corner na 21,995, ginawa na ni pc gilmore na 22 thou sarado plus sleeve plus 8gb flash drive.. not bad ehhh… so far very good performance po siya.. hataw..
got mine in microstation in cyberzone sm north.
i think the sleeve comes with netbook na talaga. pwede ba to palitan ng OS?? how?? thanks!