Acer Aspire One AO722 11" laptop. Easy ace upgrade, reviews.

After searching for months for a good little laptop I came across the Acer Aspire One 722 bz454. Wanting something more portable than a full sized 15-17" laptop but the 10" netbooks on the market feel too small, like little bigger versions of the toys my nephew plays with (DSi) At 11" the AO722 is the perfect fit. It has a full sized keyboard (minus the 10key). I'm not a big fan of the chicklet style keys but it's not so bad, and the screen looks closer to a full sized laptop than it's smaller 10" cousin. I like the multi-gesture touchpad, of course as good as the touchpad is I can't go without my LogitechM215, maybe it's just me but work goes much faster with a mouse -be sure to get one with an on/off switch to save on batteries. While it's not quite the 'Acer Air' -that title would have to go to the Acer Aspire S3 or now the even thinner S5, but at only 1" thin the 722 is very light and portable. The only thing I'm giving up is the dvd drive, no loss considering how often I never used one anyway. And the fact that this comes loaded with the full version of Windows7 Home Premium, not just the starter version with most netbooks, that you then have to upgrade, makes this a deal for around $300. Best Buy and Target have had these for online ordering only, wait for the sales.

I've followed several customer review threads on this and would recommend reading for anyone interested. Specifically Amazon.com reviewers Just My $.02 and B. Pearman. My.02 has one of the most indepth reviews I've seen and with over 275 posts adding to the discussion I was left more than impressed with this little machine. B.Pearman confirms what's been said about upgrading the RAM and SSD, and gives great info about the AMD C-50 processor.

I just got a great deal on Newegg.com for the RAM upgrade. I found the G.Skill 4gb for $18.99 -and they had a one or two day promo code for $5 off! Sometimes you just gotta be patient looking for these deals. Here's a link G.Skill 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO_DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9S-4GBSQ. If you're using an application like Photoshop CS5 you may want to look into upgrading to a solid state drive. SSD is still pretty expensive, I'd be spending almost as much for a solid state drive as I paid for this to begin with. It looks like it'd be worth it and would really make this a beast of a machine, but for now it's plenty fast for my needs and it's good to know I can do a great upgrade at some point when I want..

I'm not a techie so probably couldn't answer any hard questions, this is why I recommend reading as many reviews and have posted the best ones I've found.

I would recommend using Chrome as your main search engine, firefox being my second choice. This laptop's great for watching youtube or Hulu videos, I've never had a problem with skipping or or the irritating delays for buffering, movies and tv video's load right up. And with the HDMI you can even hook this up to your TV to watch movies. Subscribe to Netflix and download movies and play them on your TV. I'm not a gamer but from all I know of this it looks like a good fit for maybe all but the most hardcore gamers. People who are using Photoshop CS5 on this report great results, although you may want to upgrade to a SSD for that type of application.

I am a big fan of personalizing things. While the ripple effect on the cover adds a bit of interest it doesn't lend itself to much customizing, ie stickers and skins many like to put on their laptops. I went with the typical black, not the cool looking blue which made the ripple look better. Anyone have ideas to negate the effects of the glossy fingerprint magnet? while still looking somewhat classy and interesting? I've heard applying TurtleWax car polish will not show fingerprints, but then the wax wears off and needs reapplying every so often. I've even considered spray painting the cover with a Krylon paint, it even comes in metallic finishes, wonder how chrome would look? -Hey I told you I'm a fan of customizing your stuff, as my biker friend used to say (figuratively of course) "it ain't yours til you piss on it!". If anyone's done anything like this I'd love to see the results, post links to pics if you can.

I really wanted this site to be a convenient place to find anything related to the AO722. Including links to anything you might want or need, from upgrade ram to replacement parts. If you know a great deal on hard drives or a SSD for this please share your knowledge and include details, part numbers and links in the comment section and I'll do my best to get them on here.

• G.Skill 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO_DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9S-4GBSQ.
• LogitechM215

Keep your machine working like new, or better. What can I say, when I find something I like I want to keep it as long as possible while it suits my needs. In addition to the RAM and SSD upgrades mentioned above, here are some some resources for replacement parts.

• Keyboard- laptopking.com has many new factory replacement parts for this model. The keyboard part# PK130I22A00 is listed for $59.99.
• Replacement screens

1. laptopscreen.com -Item ID: 877489 $59.99
2. screencountry.com -looks like they have 2 screens compatible for the Acer Aspire One 11.6", one glossy ($71.99), one matte (66.99). I'm wondering how the matte screen would look.

• Battery- Again laptopking.com has new factory original battery, 11.1v, 6-cell battery Part#: AL10B31 for $59.99. I have also found them on eBay for around $30, just verify the part/model for compatibility.