Since my initial unboxing of the Acer Aspire One, I’ve managed to get my hands on a 6-cell version for testing. I was interested in seeing what this unit was like, considering that most complaints stemmed from the inadequate battery life of the 3-cell version, which was also evident to me. Here are some comparison pictures to help you decide whether the extra bulk is worth the additional run time. My opinion follows.

Update

I’ve since completed my full review of the Aspire One. Please read if you’re interested.

With the 3-cell battery you’re going to get less than three hours of run time on the Aspire One. Most reviews I’ve read report a battery life of around two and a half hours. I can confirm this, as I got just over 2h:35m of run time before the Windows power management automatically put the Aspire One into hibernate with 3% of battery life left.

This was with the wireless LAN enabled and the screen at just over half-way brightness. I was doing regular desktop activities like browsing the Internet for most of the time, though this is far from a scientific test as I didn’t keep track of exactly what I did or did not do. I have the subjective feeling that the Aspire One might have trouble making it through a full-length feature film during an airline flight with only the 3-cell battery.

Thankfully, that’s where the 6-cell comes into play. The 6-cell does not add that much bulk or weight to the overall package and even though it may look unsightly in the pictures, it is well worth the additional battery life. In any event, you will hardly notice its presence during use – I can wholeheartedly recommend the 6-cell version, especially with the recent price drops and introduction of an additional 6-cell version with a 160 GB HDD at a lower price than the previous top-of-the-line Aspire One.

Check out the rest of the photos here.

The 6-cell battery also adds some more tilt/slope to the Aspire One so that it’s more inclined towards you; supposedly this results at a better angle for typing but I didn’t perceive things to be better or worse after this. The 6-cell also prevents the screen from fully extending backwards, though as you’ll see from the photos, the screen can still swing back plenty.

Overall, getting 5+ hours of run time will make you confident that your Aspire One will make it through most movies and still leave you time for a game of solitaire.

As a final note, I’m still working on my full review of the Aspire One; expect it soon, depending on my schedule and free time.