Previously on As The Battery Life Turns, we tested the battery that came with our review unit of the Acer Aspire One 10-inch and got a result of 7 hours and 57 minutes, which blew away every other netbook battery out there. This was due not only to the number of cells in the battery (6) but the high capacity of the cells (5800-mAh/milliamp-hours). Oh, but wait. We then discovered that the Aspire One was supposed to ship with a lower capacity battery -- still six cells, but only 4400-mAh. The better battery will only come with the first batch of Aspire Ones, so customers that pre-ordered them may get lucky. Everyone else will get the "normal" battery. This week we were finally able to test the 4400-mAh battery most Aspire Ones will come with. We previously predicted that it would get between 4.5 and 5.5 hours. The result? (cue Dramatic Pause) 4:24. Yes, it is a bit disappointing, but 4:24 is still decent, particularly for a $350 netbook. However, for $50 more you can buy the Eee PC 1000HE that gets more than 7 hours (and has a much improved keyboard).
