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Almost every netbook we've seen is powered by an Intel Atom processor, and the Aspire One 533 again sticks to tradition in this respect. An Atom N455 processor provides the juice, notable for its support of speedy DDR3 memory that is found in most modern laptops.
Although 1024MB of DDR3 memory is present, we noticed very little improvement over the Aspire One 532. There's enough power for basic tasks such as browsing the web and fiddling with your spreadsheets, but don't expect to get any more out of the Aspire One 533.
Only basic integrated graphics are available, which uses the main system memory due to a lack of on-board video memory. Multimedia ability is highly limited, as with all netbooks, and even playing HD video will cause the Aspire One 533 to stutter and grind.
Gaming is also out for all but the most basic of titles. Games that are a few years old run fine, as do simple web-based games, but running anything more complex than Peggle will make the Aspire One 533 hate you.
The combination of low-powered processor and substantial battery unsurprisingly aids the Aspire One 533's longevity. On a single charge we managed 480 minutes of productivity away from the mains, enough for a full day's work on the move.
However, while this is over two hours longer than the Acer Aspire One 532's battery life, it is bettered by several netbooks already on the market. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3T has a similarly bulky battery and survives for over ten hours, while the Samsung N220 lasts 575 minutes on one charge.
