I have spent a fair bit of time using netbooks, and while the increased size of the aspire 1410 does make it ever so slightly less lap worthy, the screen’s usability more than makes up. I would have to say that 10-12 inches is perfect for a laptop that is used primarily to surf the web.

As for the performance, the only thing it cannot do, that you might reasonably expect or want it to do (this is obviously not a machine to do high end cad work on…) is HD video. Here it is somewhat hit or miss depending on what application, plug in, source, full screen or not, etc. you are trying to view. Currently, you cannot have guaranteed smooth HD video in this form factor for $399 (price I paid at BJs) from any manufacturer as far as I can tell.

As for usability, the keyboard and trackpad are great, it has HDMI out and I sometimes plug it into my LCD tv to look at pictures etc. – this works flawlessly. Negative comments regarding the keyboard or trackpad should largely be disregarded. Having read a million reviews for laptops, I think this is a very personal thing, and you should try the keyboard and trackpad before you buy if you can (like at best buy etc.) One guys rough trackpad is perfect for somebody else. If the mouse jumps because at this size with your hands the inside meat of your palms brushes the trackpad, is that a design flaw (note this is an example, I don’t actually have this problem)? Overall it is one of the nicer trackpad/keyboard combos for me… I like a trackpad that feels like matte finish plastic (vs. smooth, shiny plastic or really fine grit sandpaper) and that is what this has.

What else… no CDROM is obviously a huge BENEFIT for form factor. Yes you’ll need an external if you want back up DVDs… It would be nice if you could make a backup USB instead, but you can’t. I made the DVDs and can restore if I need to.

The screen is gorgeous.
Windows 7 rocks (about time, microsoft)

Ger one!