Sub-$300 notebook pushes netbooks aside

People do it with their cars. People do it when buying homes. People tend to do it with consumer electronics purchases such as notebook computers: They tend to super size it. You may want all of the bells and whistles, but what do you really need?

A low-end notebook or desktop computer has pretty much everything most people need for day to day use. If you're not into gaming or looking for a heavy duty multimedia console, why spend more than you have to? That was my strategy as I began shopping for a replacement for a five-year-old emachines desktop.

Ok, so I'm cheap (I prefer the term "frugal"). I bought my current machine from Circuit City on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, in 2004. I paid $250 after rebates, in a package that included a monitor and printer. It wasn't a  powerful machine in its day. But you know what? As a general purpose Windows XP desktop it's been damned reliable, and plenty good enough for a litle Web surfing, checking e-mail, running home finance software and other household computing chores.

I was considering a sub-$300 netbook this time around. The units I checked out have about 1 GB of RAM, run Windows XP, and generally have pretty tiny keyboards and screens. But I figured I could make it work. I'd just hook up my external keyboard and display when it's in the home office.

If you do a little shopping, however, you can find a low end laptop for less than $400. This weekend I ended up buying an Acer Aspire 5516 at my local Staples for $299.99. That places the unit squarely into netbook territory.

The 5516 is no screamer. It has only a single core Athlon processor. It's merely an OK machine. But it's more than enough for my needs. And I bet it would meet the basic needs of 95% of people out there who spend $600 to $1,200 for a new laptop. In these tough economic times, why spend more?

What this unit does offer for under $300 is remarkable. It runs Vista, not the older XP (that could be a pro or a con, depending on how you feel about Vista). It has a rather large laptop keyboard, a bright, 15.5 inch high resolution display, 2 GBytes of memory, Wi-Fi, a 160 GB hard disk drive and a CD/DVD recorder/reader. You can find this model online for $349. I got mine for less from Staples, which said Acer was discontinuing this specific unit (AS5516-5474) to make way for a new model.

The sales rep then used that fact to try to sell a two-year "protection plan" for $60. Since the machine is being discontinued, he argued, Acer's one year warranty might not be enough. Nice try.

While the warranty is probably fine for the first year, notebook computers aren't easy to repair and do tend to fail more often than desktops. If you move yours around quite a bit the $60 payment - 20% of the purchase price - might be worthwhile. I decided to pass. Frankly, at 300 bucks the Aspire 5516 is almost a disposable item.

My expectations for the unit weren't high. So far, though, I have been pleasantly surprised at the performance and versatility of this machine. That's not to say that it's perfect. It's limited to two multifunction USB/card reader ports, an external VGA connector, Ethernet jack and a microphone and earphone connector. No fancy stuff like HDMI output here.

Like most notebook computers, this model has all the usual crapware on it (Works, a trial edition of Office, and other sundry programs I don't need). I'm still in the process of stripping all of those off. Overall the fit and finish is fine, with one exception. The outer skin on the top of the clamshell case, which protects the back of the LCD panel, is a bit flimsy. So I'm careful when opening and closing the unit.

I also had my first run-in with Vista. Shortly after turning the device on for the first time, I closed the lid, putting the machine in suspend mode. When I returned a few hours later Vista Home Basic had crashed. (Fortunately, that hasn't happened since. And there's always Linux).

Despite those little glitches, however, I remain optimistic that the Aspire will be a good enough home office machine.