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I am not a tech junkie. I am a college student and am very computer literate, but am I in no way an expert. What I am giving you is an honest review of a very affordable notebook under $250.

It was about a month ago when my old Gateway laptop had finally died on me. I had been keeping it on life support throughout the last year and had it hooked up to an external monitor because the screen no longer functioned. Then just one day it would no longer turn on anymore. This just happened to be the day when I had a midterm due the very next day. So I jumped onto craigslist looking for a notebook under $250 I could find. Being a lowly college student, cost was my biggest concern. I noticed many people selling this Acer computers for about $350, all advertised as “new”, or “still in box.” All of them seemed like a very reasonable price to me, and were at about the peak of my budget, but I was still holding out for a notebook under $250.

I decided to dig a little deeper and found the Extensa on a special at Best Buy for $249.99, the same ones many people were advertising on craigslist for $350. I rushed over to my nearest Best Buy only to found out they had just sold out. The sales rep there called the nearest store and told me they had nine in stock, but by the time I got there, which was about 15 minutes, there were two left. With that in mind I decided to pick up my Acer. Out of curiosity, I asked the Best Buy salesman what he thought of the computer and his response was “It’s a piece of junk.” he said. “You’ll be lucky to get a month out of it. It’s a notebook under $250, what do you expect?” Well here I am, a month into my purchase, typing up this review.

Let me outline the specs of the computer for you:

-Processor: Intel Celeron M 900 2.2 Ghz
-2 GB Ram
-160 GB hard drive
-Operating system: Windows 7
-DVD RW Drive/DVD RAM
-Battery Life: Roughly 2 hours
-Built in webcam and microphone
-13 inch screen

As soon as I booted up the computer, I was immediately impressed. The vibrant colors of the screen and the fluidity of windows 7 are something that is definitely a plus. Because it was such a cheap purchase, the computer had virtually no pre-loaded software on it, another plus in my opinion. It was not bogged down with programs running that I virtually had no idea what they were for. I immediately installed my essential programs: iTunes, Guitar Pro, Microsoft Office, Firefox, and even some Dvd burning software. I recently uploaded some Rosetta Stone software which runs amazingly with no problems whatsoever. Not bad for a notebook under $250.

This computer does everything I need. Keep in mind, I wanted a cheap computer that would allow me to do research online, type up papers, and do simple multimedia tasks such as store small amounts of music and software. This computer has far exceeded my expectations. The webcam was not a big selling point in my opinion, but it is great for things such as Skype chatting. The 2 GB of ram can be upgraded, but as long as I keep my tasks to a minimum, I don’t foresee it becoming a problem. The 160 GB hard drive seems huge compared to my 60 GB drive I had on my previous laptop, which was only 3 years old. The battery life holds it charge and is consistently accurate with remaining life.

All in all, this computer does everything I need it to do and much more. I set out looking for any kind of notebook under $250 I could find and ended up with a notebook that perfectly suited my needs. Will it be a long term replacement for a high tech computer? Of course not. But in these economic times, its a perfect computer to simply have around to get some work done. Shop around because this deal comes and goes without much warning, but if you can find it, I would highly recommend it.