Last Updated on November 22, 2016 by Dave Farquhar
I set up an Acer Aspire One 722 netbook this week. This is my Acer Aspire One 722 review. I imagine the return rates on these things is horrendous, because the out-of-box experience is pathetic.
This one won’t be going back though. Tune it up, and it’s an adequate performer. It’s still a netbook–all that talk of the AMD C-50 and C-60 chips delivering Celeron-like performance was just rumor–but it can match an Atom’s CPU performance and delivers better graphics performance than Intel.
PC Decrapifier goes a long way toward making the machine tolerable. Actually, pretty much everything I say to do to an aging laptop helps this one, but PC Decrapifier makes the machine 100% better in about five minutes.
Next, uninstall McAfee Antivirus and install Microsoft Security Essentials. It’s more lightweight than the McAfee suite.
For most people that’s probably enough. If I have time to do it, I’d really prefer to just get a Windows 7 image, slipstream it, format the hard drive, and do a clean install.
Do something along those lines, and it’s a perfectly acceptable netbook-class computer. Nice, even, considering it has niceties like an HDMI port that you don’t usually see in Intel-based netbooks. The keyboard is also bigger than most Intel netbooks–the alphanumeric keys are full-size and just the keys on the edges are shrunken. It makes for a much nicer typing experience. And unlike earlier generation netbooks, it delivers 1366×768 screen resolution. The 1024×600 resolution on earlier netbooks makes some programs unhappy, since a lot of software expects at least 1024×768 resolution. Plus, 1366×768 is a lot nicer for watching video.
I don’t recommend paying full retail for one, but if you can get one on sale, or as an open-box discount item for under $300 and you’re willing to do some cleanup work, you can turn one into a pretty nice computer.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.