Review: Acer Aspire One D250 with Android

MORE: read our full review of the Android netbook by clicking here

We’ve looked at a few versions of the Acer Aspire netbook computer over the last couple of years.

This one is a little different – it comes with the Starter edition of Windows 7 loaded onto it, but it also has the Google Android operating system installed. That’s the same operating system as what’s installed on several current phones such as the T-Mobile G1 and the HTC Hero.

It’s very much cut-down compared with Windows, although if you have used an Android phone you will find everything quite familiar. The main screen shows the Android clock and you can click the area at the side to get to the menu, which is actually a palette of icons.

Acer has missed a trick by making the screen a standard model rather than a touch-sensitive one – that would have been a good way to control it, whereas currently you’re stuck with the keyboard and the irritatingly small trackpad.

There’s a web browser installed, as well as an email program, and as you’d expect it integrates well with Google Mail, calendar and contacts. It’s not possible to make phone calls with the netbook, though.

MORE: read our full review of the Android netbook by clicking here