The good: Big, 18-inch, 16:9 screen; surprisingly good battery life.

The bad: No Blu-ray drive for some configurations; touch controls not as responsive as they should be.

The bottom line: With a true 1080p display, the 18-inch Acer Aspire 8930 is a capable HD content playback machine, but we'd spend a bit more for a Blu-ray-equipped version.

Read full review of the Acer Aspire 8930G »

By Dan Ackerman, CNET.com
Feb 2, 2009

The original Acer Aspire 8920G was the very first 18-inch laptop we had a chance to review, and the follow-up Acer Aspire 8930G is similar in terms of its essentials, with only a handful of component upgrades. The display has the same native resolution as a 1080p HDTV. Coupled with a unique set of touch-sensitive media controls (although we weren't crazy about the volume slider), this Aspire make it an impressive package for movie watchers. That is as long as your HD content is downloadable because some regions don't get the Blu-ray drive. We'd probably shell out extra for the higher-end version which includes a Blu-ray combo drive.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Please check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design

The Acer Aspire 8930G is, like the 8920G before it, a boat of a laptop. As with other 18-inch models, the 16:9 display makes for a chassis that is wider but shorter than a typical 17-inch model that features a 16:10 screen. The entire system is decked out in black and dark gray, with a glossy black lid and keyboard, and textured, dark-gray plastic on the wrist rest and touchpad.

Features

We first saw the unique media controls on last year's Aspire 8920G, and this model has the same setup, with a touch panel on the left side of the keyboard tray. They are really just the same capacitive touch controls found on other laptops, arranged in roughly the shape of a handheld remote control. It's a clever idea--very eye-catching--that, once you get used to, works fairly well, with the exception of the large volume slider which was neither sensitive nor responsive enough for our tastes. To be fair, it's a common problem with touch-sensitive volume sliders, which usually really only jump between preset volume points, even though they look like analog controls.



We also appreciated the 5.1-speaker system which produced decent bass for a laptop, but not exactly room-filling sound. The 18.4-inch widescreen LCD display is the real star here. The native resolution of our 18-inch screen was 1,920 x 1,080 (you know, like Blu-ray), while a high-end 17-inch laptop is usually 1,920 x 1,200. That means Blu-ray or other HD content will fit the screen better.

Tags: Intel Core 2 Duo, Laptop Computer, Expresscard, Keyboard, Acer Inc.

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