Top 10 laptops of April

April was an exciting month for consumers. The second iteration of Acer's Gemstone design was unleashed in the form of the Acer Aspire 8920G and Acer Aspire 6920G, both decked out with uncommon screen sizes. This was in order to fit the 16:9 aspect ratio displays (most widescreen notebooks offer 16:10 aspect ratios). While the pioneering batch of Gemstone machines had a questionable look, the new laptops certainly upped the bar in the aesthetics department.

The long-awaited ASUS Eee PC 900 was also announced in the same month. Aside from a larger screen and bigger storage capacity, the new budget sub-notebook also includes a multitouch trackpad. There is a slight price premium over its popular 7-inch cousin, but at S$798 (US$507.70) the Eee PC 900 still represents the best value in its class.

If you are looking for an upmarket machine, Toshiba had recently refreshed its lineup and the new range is decorated with the Toshiba Fusion Finish look. In an unusual move, FM tuner functionality has been integrated into its Satellite series instead of TV reception. We like the new design, though we have serious doubts about Toshiba's decision to overlay the keyboard with a glossy coat that picks up fingerprints with ease.

So which were the heavy hitters for the month? We polled what readers searched for on our site, as well as sales figures from Singapore stores AAAs Com Solution and MC2, for our latest chart-busters.

	1.	Acer Aspire 4920G (Core 2 Duo T7100 Processor 1.8GHz, 1GB RAM) Outlook The Aspire 4920G may be cheap, but it's definitely not boring with its Gemstone design. Billed as a portable entertainment notebook, it sports a dedicated ATI graphics card for additional video performance. Users who frequently edit videos or produce presentations will appreciate this affordable Acer PC. See full specs | Rate this
	2.	Acer Aspire 4520 (AMD Turion 64 MK-38 Processor 2.2GHz, 512MB RAM) Outlook The Acer Aspire 4520 is based on the AMD chipset with decent features like a DVD Super Multi drive. But what is amazing is that for just over S$1,000 (US$636.21), this machine possesses a discrete Nvidia GeForce Go graphics card. At this price it offers one of the best price-to-performance ratios in the market, even among budget portables. See full specs | Rate this
	3.	Acer Aspire 2920Z (Pentium Dual-Core T2330 Processor 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM)   CNET Asia rating: 8 out of 10 The good: Good connectivity options; reasonable performance for the size. The bad: Speakers aren't great; no digital video-out. The bottom line: The Aspire 2920 should suit most people who are on a budget and like to stay portable, but still need a bit of grunt. If it had an HDMI port, it'd almost be the perfect solution. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	4.	Acer TravelMate 6292-602G16MN (Core 2 Duo T7500 Processor 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM)   CNET Asia rating: 7.5 out of 10 The good: Rugged; good battery life; value for money. The bad: Old school design feels like new technology shoe-horned into an old chassis; air vent on the side. The bottom line: The Acer TravelMate 6292 passes muster, but there are better alternatives out there. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	5.	Compaq Presario V3700 series (Core 2 Duo T7500 Processor 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM) Outlook The HP Compaq Presario V3000 delivers a strong set of components and decent basic features for a competitive price. Optional addons like the HP XB 3000 expansion base further expand the functionality of this series with more connectivity ports and a better speaker setup. See full specs | Rate this