Acer Aspire 8920G (Core 2 Duo T9300 Processor 2.5GHz, 3GB RAM)

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Features

The 8920G claims 5.1 surround Dolby-certified sound, and this time it gets close to the promise of decent sound--however, despite the large amount of tweaking done in the three separate areas of sound management (under the sound device's properties, through the Empowering technology bar, and through Acer HD Audio Manager in the control panel), we couldn't achieve an acceptable level of clarity, probably down to the fact that there are so many speakers jammed into such a small space, all trying to do different things.

If you're sitting at a distance watching a movie, the end effect is far too much treble to the point of wincing. If you're sitting at the laptop, the effect is a lack of definition regardless of how many of the sound profiles you cycle through, or how you alter the Room Correction settings. It handled Muse's Hysteria reasonably well, a track that typically punishes laptop speakers with distortion and clipping, but the end effect simply felt hollow and restrained. We're afraid as usual that for those who like decent-quality audio, it's still headphones, HDMI-out into a decent system, or the combined optical/3.5mm audio jack into some good speakers.

The Acer Empowerment menu, accessible from the big "e" marked button in the top right has received an upgrade, but remains one of the most useful vendor-created laptop customization tools we've used, this time with the aforementioned added sound profiles. A fingerprint scanner is nestled between the mouse buttons, while a Webcam and microphone are situated at the top of the monitor.

We mentioned earlier that the laptop features a 16:9 aspect ratio compared with the usual 16:10, to give a more movie-like feel--as well as the 5.1 sound Acer has added in a Blu-ray optical drive, 320GB hard drive and a digital TV tuner to seal the experience, all driven by a Core 2 Duo T8300, 3GB RAM and Nvidia GeForce 9500M GS. In short, this thing was designed, born and bred to be a media laptop, even if it is missing a second TV tuner which would allow you to both record and watch different channels.

Ports offered are modem, Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, four USB, S/PDIF/headphone, speaker and microphone, as well as SD/xD-Picture Card/MMC/MS card reader and ExpressCard/54 slot, in which the included VoIP phone can be docked when not in use. Tellingly, there's a complete lack of FireWire.

Performance And Battery Life

Given the specs, performance was quite good, with 3DMark06 pulling in 3,158 and PCMark taking 5,475. This makes it suitable for all things media and production, and means it should run older games like Half-Life 2 just fine.

Turning off all power-saving features and setting screen brightness to maximum while we played back a DVD, the laptop battery lasted 1 hour 37 minutes and 47 seconds. For a laptop of this size that's quite impressive and indicates the presence of a high-capacity eight-cell battery.

While we have been justifiably harsh on the Aspire 8920G in some areas, there's no doubt it represents exceptional value. At S$3,298 (US$2,371.47), an 18.4-inch screen with Blu-ray capability can't be ignored. If you're looking for a desktop replacement that won't break the bank, this is a decent option.

Service And Support

This notebook comes with an international one-year warranty from Acer. Recognizing that mobile computing has become a key activity for executives, the Taiwan company promises to fix any hardware issued within 2 hours, or it will deliver the unit to your preferred location free. However, this delivery service is available only in some regions so check with the local distributor if it applies to your country. Extended warranty can be purchased from the service center, with packages ranging from S$249 (US$163.82) to S$397 (US$261.18), depending on the degree of coverage and service required. For DIY troubleshooting, a toll-free telephone helpdesk is available for assistance. Acer support Web site offers downloads of updated drivers as well as an email for notebook issues. In the event that further technical assistance is required, the machine can be brought to any Acer service center worldwide for diagnosis.

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