Acer.Aspire.AS1410 8414

Acer LX.SA90X.059
Acer Aspire AS1410-8414 11.6-Inch Sapphire Blue Laptop - 6 Hour Battery Life

This is a handy little computer. Bigger than a netbook but smaller than a typical laptop. Pros:- Lightweight very portable- Superb Battery Life- Great screen for watching movies (a bit of reflection but not too bad)- Very comfortable keyboard full size- Cheap ($449) but you get what you pay for...good and bad Cons:- Hard to find a Sleeve / Protector that fits properly. The standard sizes for sleeves are 9-10 inches 13-15 inches etc. This computer is 11.6 inches -- falls right in the middle.- Pre-loaded with TOO MUCH BLOATWARE. I spent a lot of time the first few weeks uninstalling all this junk. But still it leaves some files and icons and shortcuts installed which have to be manually removed.- Performance is good but could be better. It seems to degrade over time. Its fine for watching movies Hulu net surfing playing basic games. I suspect that the lower performance is a residual effect of the pre-installed bloatware and services that startup in default.- Terrible customer service. Almost non-existent. Really bad. Impossible to escalate or get a direct answer.Boring Details of my Windows 7 Upgrade and Customer Service:I purchased this in Aug 2009 before Windows 7 was released so it included a free upgrade to Windows 7 to be mailed at a later date. I called and inquired if this would be available in USB format because the laptop does not come with an optical (CD/DVD) drive. They said no problem.Months later the Windows 7 install arrived in the mail -- in CD format. I called the 3rd party distributor (Mentor Media) who did not return my calls. So I called Acer Tech support based in India. They were no help at all -- told me I was required to buy an optical drive in order to install it. They missed the point completely - which was that Acer said it would be available in USB format -- else I might not have bought this computer.I registered my computer after I bought it - a prompt on startup walks you through this process. When I called customer support they claimed they could not help me because I had not registered my computer. So I let them re-register me (takes 30 minutes over the phone). Then they told me they could not help me further even though I spent that time registering. 30 minutes later...very frustrating.Their tech support has no escalation procedures - they claim there is no supervisor or manager to speak with. I asked if I could have the number to the Corporate Customer Relations or similar corporate department. They claim that the only department is technical at Acer. Huh??? An hour later - and Im still in the same position. Just a waste of my time and their time. I just hope that something serious (hard drive crash OS hung etc) doesnt happen to this computer because I could only imagine how painful it will be to go through their customer service.Next time Ill splurge and get a MacBook -- they are pricey but they are honest have good customer support sound products and dont come with all that bloatware.