The all new Gemstone Blue series notebooks from Acer offer a cinematic experience with a 16-inch 16:9 ratio display, built-in subwoofer, and touch-sensitive multimedia control panel. Going beyond the multimedia experience, Acer also give this Gemstone notebook one of the most innovative designs we have seen in years. From a semi-transparent LCD cover with an LED outlined company logo to blue LED illuminated chrome screen hinges Acer really went all out to make this notebook stand out from the competition. Now does Acer really deliver a "true cinematic experience?" Read on to find out. Specifications: Build and Design Build quality of the Acer Aspire 6920 is very solid and held up quite well during our testing. Whether it was being tossed inside of a backpack haphazardly or carried around by the edge of the palmrest, it didn't make one creak of noise. The plastics used throughout the notebook are high quality, and give it a tough feel (might even be subliminal with the brick textured palmrest) which doesn't bend under a strong grip. The glossy plastic bits located throughout, including the media control panel, held up well without showing much wear or scuffing. Those thinking about stuffing the notebook into a backpack full of heavy textbook needn't worry, as the screen cover resists a strong push without distorting the LCD, although I wouldn't go as far as standing on it. The design of the Gemstone Blue series is a bit unlike anything I have played with or experienced before. Acer paid attention to all of the minor details when designing this notebook, leaving no surface untouched of some sort of special feature. The screen cover which can generally be a pretty basic element of a notebook has a very advanced look to it. It consisted of multiple layers and soft gradient changes from dark blue around the edges to a semi-transparent blue in the center. It is a subtle touch that you don't notice at first, but once you do it is pretty awesome. LED lighting is another design element used throughout the design of this notebook, and they can be found in many areas: The only areas Acer didn't really add to the design of this notebook are found on the lower end configuration models. Acer shares the same plastic trim and palmrest between models, and if your notebook didn't come equipted with HDMI, TV-Tuner, or Fingerprint scanner you are left with tacky looking blanks. The worst one is the fingerprint scanner blank, which makes it look like you have one, but it is actually black plastic bar. This even confused a few retail sites which list lower configurations as having a fingerprint scanner, even though they don't. Screen The 16:9 Acer CineCrystal LCD rates average compared to other notebooks, having good color and contrast, but lacking a wide viewing range. The display has a very narrow viewing sweet spot and even a small 5-10 degree change up or down will start to invert colors on the top or bottom half of the screen. Side to side viewing angles were better, but still lacking compared to other displays. The aspect ratio of the screen does help reduce the some of the aspect ratio correcting bars found while watching some movies, but doesn't entirely get rid of them which some might think. Depending on the movie you watch you will still have some bars, either super small, or upwards of an inch tall. Keyboard and Touchpad From the first day seeing this Acer notebook opened, I wasn't sure how much I would like the keyboard with the angled spacebar and right ALT key. Well I am happy to say that although the design is a bit odd, it didn't impede my typing abilities, which I was nervous about at first. The keys are great, with a shallow cupped surface, and good quiet feedback when typing. Support underneath the keyboard could be better, with some mild sag under moderate finger pressure. The layout and spacing were great and I didn't miss a full number pad, although it could have fit one if it didn't have the media controls. The touchpad surface was great to use, with a unique brick-like surface texture that let you finger effortlessly slip across it even if your hand was a bit sweaty. Sensitivity was excellent out of the box, and if you wanted to, you could adjust it further through the control panel. The scrolling region of the touchpad was defined with a small ridge that separated it from the main area, which had a tendency to confuse you during use. Your finger would slide over and try to scroll inside the main area, since you would think you were hitting the far edge of the touchpad. Input and Output Ports Port selection on the Acer Gemston Blue was decent, but was missing a few common ports that we would have liked to see. Firewire was nowhere to be found, and for those who selected lower configurations, all you get is a blank HDMI and TV tuner port. Acer included 4 USB ports, instead of just 3 which you sometimes find on 15" or even 17" notebooks. Below is the full port selection list: eSata and a true docking connection were also missing. I would have personally enjoyed not seeing a modem jack and the extra space used for eSata or a proprietary docking connection. Front: 5-in-1 multi-card reader Rear: Subwoofer Left: AC Power, Modem, VGA, LAN, 1 USB, Headphone/Mic/Line-in Right: Optical Drive, 3 USB, Kensington Lock Slot Performance and Benchmarks The Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 processor found in our review configuration isn't exactly the fastest processor on the market, but it was more than fast enough for your average workload. Office productivity applications and internet browsers were no problems for this computer. Even more difficult tasks such as compressing audio or video files in iTunes completed without much delay. Overall most users will have a hard time telling the difference between a top of the line processor and base budget model during day to day work. Gaming and more stressful applications where something with that amount of grunt is needed. The lack gaming abilities of the X3100 integrated graphics chipset on the other hand really put a damper on any fun with this notebook. Without a more powerful dedicated graphics chipset, you won't be able to play current or even last generation games without horrible frame rates, or even getting the game to load at all. Another downside to the X3100 graphics on this notebook is the removal of the HDMI port (come standard in higher configurations), leaving you with only VGA out for connection to a larger display. WPrime 32M comparison results WPrime is a benchmark similar to Super Pi in that it forces the processor to do intense mathematical calculations, but the difference is this application is multi-threaded and represents dual core processors better. Lower numbers indicate better performance. PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance based on processor, hard drive, operating system, RAM, and graphics (higher scores are better): 3DMark06 comparison results for graphics performance (higher scores are better): HDTune results: Speakers and Audio Audio performance of the speakers found on this Acer notebook fall between above average and "sounds like earbuds cranked up." Acer included a subwoofer tube built into the hinge section of the display, which helps to add life into the music or movies that you might be watching. However, if you disable the subwoofer, the regular speakers sound horrific. They lack all midrange and bass, and sound just like small earbud headphones cranked up to a higher volume. The overall speaker performance could have been greatly improved with slightly better main speakers, but as it stands, they still rate fairly good if you keep the subwoofer turned on. The headphone jack worked very well without any static or hiss if you were watching a movie or listening to music in a more private setting. For a notebook, I still think a users best friend is a good set of "cans." Battery Life On the balanced profile with screen brightness set to 60% and wireless enabled, the Acer Gemstone pulled off 4 hours and 6 minutes of battery life with the 4400mAh battery. This is well above average, even compared against notebooks equipped with much higher capacity batteries. Heat and Noise Thermal performance is better than average, where even under heavy stress, like in the middle of benchmarking, the notebook is barely above room temperature in all of the important areas. The palmrests were slightly above room temperature and the bottom of the was fairly cool as well. The only warm spot that you notice with it sitting on your lap is right at the back corner of the notebook near the CPU exhaust vent. Even while maintaining a very cool outside temperature, the system doesn't really emit much fan noise. During normal operation the system has the fan completely off or at a very slow speed, which you can only hear if your head is right above the exhaust vent. During stressful activities such as benchmarking or encoding video, the fan increases speed, but still within the whisper range. Conclusion The Acer Gemstone Blue series has one of the coolest designs we have seen in our office in quite a long time. The attention to detail is astounding, especially with the screen cover where you realize the color isn't a solid blue, but instead a smooth transition to a lighter color towards centered Acer logo. Even the screen hinges weren't overlooked, with the chrome accents and inner blue LED lighting when plugged in. While our review model lacked HDMI out and a Blu-ray drive, it still handled downloaded HD content (720P) and DVD movies just fine. The built-in subwoofer performed well, but covered up the anemic audio that the main drivers put out. For the going price of $899 this notebook configuration is a lukewarm deal, but if you find it on sale for $699 (which we have seen) it turns into a great deal for all that you get. 
Buying Choices for the Acer Aspire 6920 
Amazon.com | $849.99 
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(view large image) Notebook / CPU wPrime 32M time Acer Aspire 6920 (Core 2 Duo T5750 @ 2.0GHz) 44.457s Sony VAIO FW (Core 2 Duo T9400 @ 2.53GHz) 30.373s Dell Studio 15 (Core 2 Duo T5750 @ 2.0GHz) 41.246s HP Pavilion dv5z (Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 @ 2.1GHz) 39.745s Dell Vostro 1510 (Core 2 Duo T5670 @ 1.8GHz) 51.875s Dell Inspiron 1525 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz) 43.569s Dell XPS M1530 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 37.485s HP Pavilion dv6500z (Turion 64 X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz) 40.759s Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz) 58.233s Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 38.343s Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 37.299s HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz) 40.965s Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 37.705s HP Pavilion dv6000z (Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz) 38.720s Notebook PCMark05 Score Acer Aspire 6920 (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100) 4,179 PCMarks Sony VAIO FW (2.53GHz Intel T9400, ATI Radeon HD 3470) 6,002 PCMarks Dell Studio 15 (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100) 3,998 PCMarks HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200) 3,994 PCMarks Dell Vostro 1510 (1.8GHz Intel T5670, Intel X3100) 3,568 PCMarks Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100) 4,149 PCMarks Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB) 5,412 PCMarks Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT) 4,616 PCMarks Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100) 3,283 PCMarks Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB) 4,189 PCMarks HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400) 4,234 PCMarks Notebook 3DMark06 Score Acer Aspire 6920 (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100) 605 3DMarks Sony VAIO FW (2.53GHz Intel T9400, ATI Radeon HD 3470) 2,598 3DMarks Dell Studio 15 (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100) 493 3DMarks HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200) 1,599 3DMarks Dell Vostro 1510 (1.8GHz Intel T5670, Intel X3100) 519 3DMarks Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100) 545 3DMarks HP Pavilion dv6500z (2.0GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60, NVIDIA 8400m GS) 1,551 3DMarks Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100) 504 3DMarks Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB) 4,332 3DMarks Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT) 2,905 3DMarks HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400) 827 3DMarks 
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(view large image)Buying Choices for the Acer Aspire 6920 Amazon.com | $849.99
(source http://www.notebookreview.com)
Acer Aspire 6920
Acer Aspire 5920 Laptop
My chosen notebook was the Acer Aspire 5920-6313 equipped with the following specs: Reason For Buying After looking for a desktop replacement notebook with gaming capabilities I found the Acer 5920-6313 offered unparalleled specs for the money. At the time of purchase it beat even the Inspiron 1520 when compared in a spec-to-spec analysis. Acer: 1, Dell: 0. Buying Experience laptop Best Buy had the Acer 5920-6313 for $1,049 but I missed that deal so I had to find mine on ebay. I bought one from "HD Gamer store," one of the many aliases of a company called Dealtree which specialize in Best Buy returns. But instead of getting the advertised "Like new in its original box" I got a non-working, physically broken notebook with no box or accessories what so ever. This company wouldn't take responsibility and fix the problem so I had to send the notebook to an Acer certified lab, pay extra cash for the repair and wait for another five weeks. The tech determined the notebook screen to be faulty with no relation to the physical damage which wouldn't have happened anyway had the notebook been in its original box and not so poorly packed, but still Dealtree refused to acknowledge their fault and take full responsibility. In short, this was the worst ebay experience to date but there is another reason why I'm telling you all this. While waiting for the notebook to come back from the lab I bought another 5920-6313 from a different seller. That allowed me to pit two 5920's in this review as well as comparing the original screen with the replacement screen on the repaired unit. Build and Design laptop Acer marketing named their new Aspire line style "Gemstone" but we'll call it the pebble. A rounded, dark outer form combined with the yellowish gray stone-like inside reminds me of natural river pebbles. However, nature stops when it comes to the keyboard area. The somewhat eccentric keyboard has a high tech look combing lots of blue LEDs, grooved geometric lines and angles including a slanted space bar. You can love it or hate it but you have to applaud Acer for the innovative style, especially in contrast with Dell's 1520/1720 styling statement which mainly consists of different colors for the lid. Another point for Acer. Too bad the pebble doesn't come without design flaws. The glossy lid looks quite nice with the "floating" Acer logo but is a finger print magnet. The lid prevents any rippling to the screen and is opened with a car boot like handle, but it isn't as easy to use as the traditional slider. In addition, I don't feel comfortable applying more upward pressure to the handle when lifting the lid all the way up so I only use it to free the latch and then raise the lid by holding the non-moving screen bezel instead. The lid hinges, while solid, pose another problem. They tilt the screen backwards and down so it's blocking part of the rear side, resulting in no ports aside from the DC jack. When the lid is open it's harder to plug in the power plug (properly built with a 90 degree angle to reduce possible stress on the DC jack). The lowered screen also eliminates a proper vent that could have been located there. Acer: 2 Dell: 1. I feel the need to address some claims concerning the right side USB port proximity to the optical drive tray. Using a USB mouse the tray is free to open and close without touching the USB plug. However, it is sometimes hindered by the mouse cord ... but that's not that big of a deal. The notebook in general feels pretty much solid as it should be for its size and 6.6 pounds weight. Screen Acer boasts its Crystalbrite screen with 220 nits brightness and 8ms response time and the screen is very bright indeed. Unfortunately, that is all I can say in favor of this screen. There is very little contrast to the point the blacks are only dark grays at best. Even though it can not display proper blacks the screen manages to be annoyingly reflective. The problem is compounded by the poor viewing angles at all directions, did I say angles? I meant an angle. You would think it's just a bad screen but luckily (or unluckily if you ask me) we can compare two Acer 5920 screens side by side. In the image below the notebook on the right features the original AU Optronics panel and the notebook on the left is the replacement Chi Mei Optoelectronics panel which shows no real improvement. To be fair, most consumer laptops today exhibit glossy screens that sometimes sacrifice black and contrast for vivid colors in an attempt to lure in buyers. Still, I'd rather have a choice of a matte screen with deeper blacks and high contrast. No points awarded. Speakers and Microphones laptop The sound system on the pebble 5920 is composed of two speakers hidden under a stylish grill located above the keyboard and a subwoofer built in the underside. The combination produces acceptable results that are well above average for notebook sound. However, having a Dell notebook with a subwoofer in the past I expected a more impressive leap out of a newer notebook. The attached Realtek sound driver has an abundance of options and settings though. Having a volume dial is a good thing, but the dial has no feedback nor resistance which makes it move at the slightest touch and hard to set to the right volume. It also lacks a "stop point" so you can't know when you reached the top/lowest point unless you are using the on-screen volume display. Its location in the front under the lower "lip" means it isn't easy to reach when the notebook is resting on your lap. Likewise with the headphone ports location at the front which always strike me as prone to stress damage. For video conferencing Acer included a built-in VGA web cam into the lid handle with built-in microphones on each side. Nothing spectacular but all in all not bad for a 15" notebook. Acer: 4, Dell: 1. Keyboard, Touchpad and Media Controls The weird looking keyboard is on par with today's average, however, it has a noticeable amount of flex in the right shift area which should not appear in a modern notebook of that size and weight. The even surface touch pad is responsive and easy to use thanks to the texture and wide aspect ratio, it's so wide I sometimes found myself inadvertently moving the cursor. Fortunately, you can switch it off and on with the designated FN+F7 combination. Acer managed to squeeze in a third middle button that is supposed to act as a four-way joystick for quick scrolling and navigating. As expected from a media notebook there are plenty of shortcut buttons on the keyboard sides for turning the wireless communication on/off, launching a web browser, email client and the Acer arcade. The right side has a blue backlit media player touch panel. On Acer's behalf, it looks like the entire palm rest area, keyboard, touchpad and buttons are made of solid non-painted plastic which hopefully means it will not wear off after a while. You may think this gray hue isn't attractive but on the bright side it will look gray even years from now. Add (or subtract) a point for that. Ports and Features laptop The 5920 spec list continues with a rich selection of ports: quite an achievement with the back profile blocked. Again I wish some of the ports (like LAN and video ports) were in the back. As fitting a proper entertainment notebook Acer combined a HD DVD drive with a HDMI port as standard. Now surely that's worth a point. Software The amount of bloatware preinstalled with the notebook was quite bearable, but let's take a closer look at Acer's "empowering technology." Contrary to what you might think, pressing the "empowering" button does not turn you into a strong black woman, instead it opens a nice looking control panel with an assortment of Acer utilities designed to help beginners take control of their laptop: Along with there "empowering" tools Acer includes Arcade deluxe, a media control center. All in all it's not a bad package for the novice user, even if there is no real technology here and the name is plain silly. No points awarded because we are not about competition when it comes to bloatware. XP compatibility This is a new review category I made up. Nevertheless, in a world of Vista-only notebooks it is useful to know whether you'd be able to run your favorite proven OS on your new 5920. Well, you can and quite easily as the supplied Vista drivers are compatible with XP. Thanks to some tips from NBR forums members the install process was even easier, updating the bios to the latest version allowed switching the SATA interface to IDE. Then it was a simple XP install using an old XP SP2 disc. Surprisingly the laptop worked quite well (webcam included) even before I installed the Acer drivers. I have yet to find a way to get XP working in SATA ACHI mode which might be the cause of the HD Tune test results. Performance and Benchmarks laptop A distinctive advantage of the 5920 is the Nvidia 8600m GT video card, while not the DDR3 version it's still one of the fastest 8xxx GPU available at the time of the review and certainly the top in the 15.4" form factor segment. In addition, it comes in a MXM II slot with easy access, another high point in the specification. Playing games proved once again that even the low T5250 was not the limiting factor in this setup, meaning you don't have to spend money on a higher CPU for that purpose alone. Having two identical 5920's I was able to pit them against each other it those benchmarks, one running XP Home SP2, the other keeping the original Vista Home premium install. PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance: Heat and Noise Having so many ports limits the air vent to the lower left side, and the lid design comes back to haunt us as it limits the space allocated for the back vent profile. The result is somewhat warmer than appreciated inner idling temperatures with the CPU hovering at 50+ °C and the GPU in the 60°C area. Under load the left side gets noticeably hotter with the GPU peaking to 90 °C and once freezing on me. The notebook might be designed to handle that amount of heat but I'm still uncomfortable with that. Both machines exhibited erratic fan behavior which would come on at full power for a short burst every few seconds. I'd much rather have it work constantly at a low rpm, keeping the notebook cool and quiet as the fan is silent by itself. I couldn't find a way to enable speedstepping in the bios. NHC doesn't show the CPU to throttle down while CPU-Z shows only 33% slowing to 1000Mhz and SpeedFan wouldn't control the fans. The 8600m GT driver will not allow throttling down on DC power either, nor to downclock the GPU speeds. This is where a proper ePower management should have let me control the fan operation and speed as well as enable an aggressive CPU and GPU throttling. It has some sort of CPU power options but I have not seen any big difference. All points melted down. Battery Life Interestingly the XP unit reported an estimate of 3:04 hours on a full battery and maximum screen brightness loosing about one percent battery power every two minutes idling, while the Vista unit reported an extra hour with a 4:10 hours estimate. Yet another unfulfilled promise by Windows Vista. Conclusion Despite its many flaws the Acer Aspire 5920 is one of the best buys today thanks to its rich specification, wealth of features and relative low price. I believe a proper new bios would solve the fan issue and CPU management, and a new Nvidia driver should let us use powermizer to reduce GPU heat. That leaves us waiting for a decent LCD panel from Acer or getting one of those LCD films to enhance the blacks. Like its name suggests, the Acer 5920 gemstone is truly a diamond in the rough and with a bit of polishing would shine. Pros Cons
Acer doesn't hide its aspiration to dominate the notebook market using the same formula that got Dell to first place in the past with its Inspiron line, top specs for the dollar.
Acer doesn't hide its aspiration to dominate the notebook market using the same formula that got Dell to first place in the past with its Inspiron line, top specs for the dollar. The "Gemstone" is their latest line and the Aspire 5920 is the top model. But does it deliver?Buying Choices for the Acer Aspire 5920 (Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 200GB HDD, Vista Ultimate) 
Newegg.com | $1,899.99
Best Buy for Business | $1,833.99
California Computer Center | $1,749.00
TheNerds.net | $1,801.63
Next Warehouse | $1,756.18
view detailed pricing from 13 stores starting at $1,749.00
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CMO 1526 left AUO 2774 right (view large image) 
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Front profile view: CIR port, memory card reader, dual headphone out, microphone in, and volume dial. (view large image)
Left side: VGA out, LAN, modem, 2x USB 2.0, HDMI, S-Video, USB 2.0, firewire, express card slot. (view large image) 
Right side: Kensington lock, RF-in (on select models), USB 2.0, HD DVD drive. (view large image) 
Back profile view: DC jack. (view large image) 
empowering button -- you go girl. (view large image)
Notebook / CPU XP/Vista wPrime 32M time Acer Aspire 5920 (1.5GHz Intel T5250, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB )
63.218s/57.564s
Dell XPS M1530 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)
37.485s Portable One SXS37 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)
41.908s
Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz) 58.233s Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 38.343s Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 37.299s HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz) 40.965s Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz) 76.240s Zepto 6024W (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz) 42.385s Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 37.705s Alienware M5750 (Core 2 Duo T7600 @ 2.33GHz) 38.327s Hewlett Packard DV6000z (Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz) 38.720s Samsung Q70 (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2.0GHz) 42.218s Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi (Core Duo T2500 @ 2.0GHz) 42.947s Samsung X60plus (Core 2 Duo T7200 @ 2.0GHz) 44.922s Zepto Znote 6224W (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2.0GHz) 45.788s Samsung Q35 (Core 2 Duo T5600 @ 1.83GHz) 46.274s Samsung R20 (Core Duo T2250 @ 1.73GHz) 47.563s
Notebook XP/Vista PCMark05 Score Acer Aspire 5920 (1.5GHz Intel T5250, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB ) 3,880/3,821 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB) 5,412 PCMarks Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT) 4,616 PCMarks Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS) 4,591 PCMarks Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) 4,153 PCMarks Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) 3,987 PCMarks Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB) 4,189 PCMarks HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400) 4,234 PCMarks Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400) 3,487 PCMarks Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX) 5,597 PCMarks Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400) 3,637 PCMarks Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400) 3,646 PCMarks
HDTune results ( XP/Vista ) :
Same HDD, different interface (view large image)
Its packing heat -- literally. (view large image)Buying Choices for the Acer Aspire 5920 (Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 200GB HDD, Vista Ultimate) Newegg.com | $1,899.99
Best Buy for Business | $1,833.99
California Computer Center | $1,749.00
TheNerds.net | $1,801.63
Next Warehouse | $1,756.18
view detailed pricing from 13 stores starting at $1,749.00
( From http://www.notebookreview.com )
Acer Acer Aspire 5520 laptop
Acer Acer Aspire 5520-5912 - Turion 64 X2 TL-58 1.9 GHz - 15.4 Screen Size: 15.4 inches
Weight: 6 lbs
Processor Options: AMD Turion X2
Graphics Options: nVidia Go 8400m (Dedicated)
Boasting powerful yet affordable AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology, the Aspire 5520 is suited to any home computing or entertainment environment. NVIDIA graphics, a 15.4" Acer CrystalBrite widescreen, and ultra-realistic Dolby Surround sound provide alluring audio/video playback, gaming and more.General Laptop
Processor laptop
Cache Memory laptop
RAM laptop
Storage laptop
Optical Storage laptop
Optical Storage (2nd)
Card Reader laptop
Display laptop
Video laptop
Audio laptop
Notebook Camera
Input Device(s)
Telecom
Networking laptop
Expansion / Connectivity
Miscellaneous laptop
Power laptop
Battery laptop
Operating System / Software
Manufacturer Warranty
( From http://www.notebookreview.com )
Acer Aspire 5102WLMi laptop
The Acer Aspire 5102 WLMi is a 15.4-inch widescreen home/office multimedia notebook featuring the AMD Turion64 x2 processor. While this is a completely new offering from Acer, it utilizes many components from other Acer notebooks, primarily being from the Aspire 3100. It is so new, in fact, that instead of having its own drivers it shares many of the same drivers as the 3100. So new that many of the specs released by Acer America were wrong. I'll write more on that later. Where and Why Bought: This notebook was on sale at Circuit City for a mere $849 in store price without rebate. It also came with a free printer, notebook bag, and router. With the Circuit City Advantage Plus Protection plan (which covers for accidental drops and spills), the total price was exactly $1000. I am a college student and need a notebook that I can take to class, run engineering programs on, and play some games. I was originally looking at the Acer Aspire 5672, but this notebook was a steal at the $849 price (or so I thought at the time) since it came with a dual core processor and a webcam for less than the Aspire 5672. Turns out I was missing some key components found on other Acer notebooks. I will get to that later. Quick Specs of the 5102 as reviewed: Design and Build: The Aspire 5102 features the common folio design found on all Aspire models. It is housed in silver painted plastic with black trim on the sides. The screen has almost no flex, which is an improvement over some previous models, and the hinges are tight enough that you need two hands to open it, one to hold the notebook down and the other to lift. It is fairly lightweight, at around 6 pounds depending on configuration. At the time that I bought the notebook, only two configurations were available: 1 GB or 2 GB of memory and Bluetooth or no Bluetooth. Screen: The screen is one of the best I've seen on a notebook. It is bright and evenly illuminated. After just 4 days with the notebook, I noticed 2 dead pixels, which isn't enough for a replacement. They are off in the corner and are not bothersome, but even one dead pixel is cause for concern as to the overall long-term quality of the notebook. The screen has a 16 ms response time, although I haven't noticed a difference compared with 20 ms flat panel monitor performance. Talking about flat panels, the Acer doesn't formulate characters (i.e. letters) as well as desktop monitors. While some people complain about the glossiness of most laptops these days, I have found the screen on my Acer to be comfortable for long viewing durations. Speakers: laptop The speakers are on the front of the notebook and supposedly have high def. support. Whether that is true or not, I can't determine, as the speaker sounds distant with almost no bass. They are adequate however for everyday tasks. Processor and Performance: laptop While this computer does have a dual core processor, it is nowhere as fast as an Intel Core Duo T2300, or even the stripped Intel T2050. After startup, the processor needs time to warm up before it becomes responsive. The included Acer empowering technology utilities allows the user to control overall processor performance, from medium to max. To save battery and lower the amount of heat generated, I consistently use medium CPU speed. Using PCMark05, it returned a score of just over 2400, which is on par with Intel Core Duo notebooks. Benchmarks: laptop Super Pi calculation to 32 million digits was finished in 2 min 22 sec for 1/24 iterations. To 2 million digits, it finished in 2 min 11 sec for all 20 iterations. This is about 40 sec longer than most Intel Duo T2300 processors, and this was accomplished with the CPU set on Max. SuperPi: Notebook Time Acer Aspire 5102WLMi (Turion64 x2 TL-50 1.6 GHz) 2m 22s Dell Inspiron 6400 (1.83GHz Core Duo) 1m 22s Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo) 1m 16s Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo) 1m 18s Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo) 1m 18s Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo) 1m 29s Dell XPS M140 (1.86 GHz Pentium M) 1m 41s Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M) 1m 53s IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M) 1m 45s PCMark05 Acer Aspire 5102WLMi (Turion64 x2 TL-50 1.6 GHz) Heat and Noise: laptop Under AC power, the computer quickly gets warm, especially under the palm rests where the hard drive is located. Most of the time, the fan is off, and like with the Aspire 5672, you can hear the hard drive. This is especially so since this is a 4200 rpm hard drive, and it has to strain itself. I wish it was at least 5400 RPM, but you get what you pay for. To avoid uncomfortable heat, I always use medium CPU speed. When playing graphics intensive games, the fan is constantly on and the palm rests do get hot but not uncomfortable. Just don't do too much gaming if you don't want to hear the fan. Keyboard and Touchpad: The keyboard has a spongy feel to it, and towards the center, it flexes. However, it is ultimately comfortable enough. The piano black multimedia keys that were originally listed as a specification is non-existent, and a call to Acer support confirms that they do not intend to include it. Seems like the keys were a misunderstanding / miscommunication. This is one of the few gripes that I have: I wanted those keys! The touchpad is responsive and includes a four-way scroll button between the two buttons. A couple of keyboard views of the Aspire 5102WLMi Input and Output ports: The 5102 has three USB 2.0 ports, LAN, and a VGA out port. It also includes a 5 in 1 card reader and a PC card slot. The typical headphone, microphone and line-in jacks are found on the front of the notebook. Below is an example of a picture taken using the built-in web camera of the Aspire 5102. It's a picture of all the stuff that came with the purchase (notebook box, printer, bag -- quite a deal). Wireless: The Atheros 802.11 a/b/g wireless card provides strong performance. On initial boot, it detected over 10 of my neighbors wireless networks (most had security enabled). Battery: laptop The official Acer specification lists the 8-cell battery as achieving 2 hours of battery life. However, I have discovered that by setting my CPU speed to medium and screen brightness to 20%, I can get over 4 hours of life. Medium speed is more than enough for everyday tasks like email, internet, music, and word processing. Photo and video editing would require high or max speed, and battery performance degrades rapidly. A nice feature is that the battery can be charged to 80% full in a little under 1 hour. Operating System and Software: laptop Over the past few years, Acer has earned a reputation with their Acer Arcade software. This was noticeably lacking on the 5102. Instead, it came with PowerDVD and is quite a disappointment since it can't pre-boot. The 5102 comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with roll-up 2. It is not as good as XP Professional and I have been experiencing standby/hibernation issues that I have never experienced with Pro. Acer doesn't include a lot of junk programs, and I haven't had to reformat or do a clean install. However, the systems folder indicates a lot of uninstalled software that I guess Acer wants the user to discover on their own. One interesting thing that I discovered is that lightscribe software is included, but the DVD burner doesn't mention support for lightscribe. It is important to note that the 120 GB HD comes in 2 60 GB FAT32 partitions. I just converted to NTFS and left the partitions alone. Customer Support: Acer support is horrible, at least through email. They are much better on the phone. When I emailed them twice about two different issues, I received the same email detailing the same step twice: go to their website! The website has most common questions answered, and phone support is quick and decent. They certainly cleared up most of my issues in less than 5 minutes. I guess that was because my questions dealt with what they didn't give me and weren't really challenging. Acer includes a 1 year warranty on hardware and 90 days on software. I purchased Circuit City's Protection Plan for safety as it covers for accidental damage due to drops and spills. Conclusion: The Acer Aspire 5102 WLMi is a notebook that will satisfy general users. While the Aspire 5102 lacks some of the features found in other Aspire notebooks, most notably the Aspire 5672, it is still an extremely good buy. With a dual core processor, 1 GB RAM and 120 GB hard drive for under $900, it is a better deal than even many Dell notebooks. It is quiet, offers plenty of power for the average user, and provides decent entertainment. It is a perfect notebook for the college student and mainstream home user who doesn't require extensive calculations or demanding games. Pros: laptop Cons:
Screen Size: 15.4 inches
Weight: 6 lbs
Processor Options: AMD Turion X2
Graphics Options: Integrated
The Aspire 5102 is a dual core Turion notebook with a 15.4" screen
Acer Aspire 5102 (view large image)
Acer Aspire 5102 above view (view large image)
Screen view of Acer Aspire 5102WLMi (view large image)
PCMark05 returned 2413.
Notebook PCMark05 Score 2,413 PCMarks Fujitsu Q2010 (1.20 GHz Intel Core Solo Ultra Low Voltage) 1,943 PCMarks Gateway E-100M (1.20GHz Intel Core Solo Ultra Low Voltage) 1,648 PCMarks Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400) 3,637 PCMarks Dell Inspiron e1405 (1.66 GHz Intel T2300) 2,879 PCMarks Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400) 3,646 PCMarks Toshiba Satellite M70 (Pentium M 1.86GHz) 1,877 PCMarks 
Acer Aspire 5102 front view of ports (view large image)
Acer Aspire 5102 left view of ports (view large image)
Acer Aspire 5102 right view (view large image)
Acer Aspire 5102 back view (view large image)
( From http://www.notebookreview.com )
