After all of the comments people have been leaving on the site I finally decide to go and buy my own EM250-1162 to give it a spin.  I ended up paying $228 + tax ($240 in Maryland) and made my way home to unbox this beauty.  The first thing you’ll notice is that the box this netbook comes in is absolutely tiny.

Once you open the box there really isn’t too much to get too excited about.  The netbook, battery, ac adapter, power cord, and manual are all included.

The first time you turn it on it will take about 3 – 5 minutes for the computer to finish setting up Windows 7 for you.  From there you enter in your personal information, name the computer and get taken to the Windows Home Screen.  There is a lot of added software which you just don’t need.  Before doing anything make sure to uninstall what you don’t need.  This will declutter your computer, give you back precious hard drive space, and help it start up and shut down faster.

First Impressions, Build Quality

When I first started using the EM250 I couldn’t get over how light it was.  This is due, in part to the 3 cell battery 2200 mAh battery which powers it.  My Asus 1000HE feels a lot heavier by comparison.  The case doesn’t feel too malleable or rubber.  I touched the top of the netbook’s black case and it does a decent job of covering up fingerprints.  Even though it’s not a matte covering it seems to conceal fingerprints unless you’re looking at them directly in a bright room.  The battery snaps in and is flush with the rest of the case.  I was also blown away by access panels for memory, hard drive, and a Mini PCI-e slot.

Keyboard/Trackpad

Typing on the EM250 took a little getting used to.  The keys felt slightly cramped compared to my 1000HE.  Since I’m left handed I haven’t noticed that the right Shift key is smaller.  This isn’t the case with the EM250.  It looks like eMachines took some space away from the Function keys to allow the rest of the keys to have more room.  Once I got used to the keyboard I was able to type about 70 words per minute.

The trackpad took me a little longer to get used to.  Instead of two buttons the EM250 only has one button and detects where you clicked to determine if it registers it as a left click or right click.  The other strike against it is that the trackpad is amazingly small.  I didn’t have a rule on hand but the width of the gesture area is slightly more than the big part of my thumb.

Video

One of the first things I downloaded when I turned on the EM250 is the new Adobe Flash player.  After I did that watching Hulu was almost too easy.  When I had several browser tabs open or different browsers open I noticed that sometimes the video would stutter.  YouTube videos loaded quickly and smoothly.  I watched some HD online videos from TV.com and was suprised by how well the netbook handled those too.  I didn’t play any games but I’d imagine that simple web based games would play but little past that.

Sound

Sound quality was better than what I would have expected. Emachines give you advanced settings to improve the way the sound is delivered by the netbook’s speakers.  When I had it sitting on a table audio was easily heard and relatively sharp.  Since the speakers are on the bottom of the netbook in the front sound was muffled when placing the netbook on my lap and listening to audio.  Volume was more than adequate through the speakers or by using a headset.

Heat

Heat wasn’t a problem using the EM250.  After about 90 minutes of usage the back left section of the netbook got warm.  The wrist rest, the keyboard remained cool.  The netbook operates very quietly with the occasional flowing of warm out from the left side of the netbook.

Battery

Battery life of the EM250 was a slight disappointment.  The 3 cell battery only managed to get me 2 hours and 15 minutes.  This was with the screen turned down almost the whole way, on Wifi, typing and watching online video.  The battery in the EM250 appears to be compatible with some Acer Aspire One models.  6, 9, and even 12 cell batteries are available for you if you’re looking to make an upgrade.

Final Word:

At $229, this 10.1″ netbook has a 250GB hard drive with 1GB of memory.  The unit I reviewed had DDR2 PC6400 memory.  Windows 7 Starter combined with a 3 cell battery doesn’t yield long battery life but the overall experience was pleasant.  There aren’t many netbooks available at this price point and when they are available they usually have Linux on them which leads to higher returns.  A good upgrade would be to go from 1 to 2GB of RAM to allow for better multitasking.

1. Specs For The Asus 1215N ION2 Netbook Revealed

2. Netbook Owners Crave Keyboards With Backlight

3. U230-040US MSI Netbook Gets Reviewed

4. My Asus Eee PC 1000HE Review