| Product: |
Acer Aspire 1703SC |
| Date: |
17/12/03 (504 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: All the basic features needed, gorgeous screen size
Disadvantages: bulkier than less bulky models
Supposedly I've been after a computer of my own since I was a toddler, sitting on my mother's lap screeching "'puter, 'puter", reaching for the Spectrum we had at that time while darling big sis got to play on it. 20 odd years later I have a machine that's mine and mine alone, and it's a rather lovely one at that. While I was doing my work placement last year, I had a colleague called John who not only was the department's computer guy, but who also used to do the same job back here in the UK at the uni I attend. Being computer guy at a computer company and computer guy in the computing department of a technology based establishment meant, well, he knew a bit about the things. I asked him to recommend something and this was his choice.
The Acer Aspire is officially a machine for SMEs (small / medium enterprises - it's a term frequently used in my lectures) and self employed people who are after a portable machine with a good sized screen. I don't fit into either of these categories but it still seemed like a good machine for me - one with decent specs, a fantastic screen for watching films on (I don't have a TV) and portable from home to uni to anywhere else the wind might take me.
The laptop comes with an Intel Pentium 4 processor 3.06GHz with Hyper-Threading technology and 512KB Cache. I can just about explain what cache is (a quickly accessible short term memory thing) but A Level computing didn't get me much further than that. What I can say though is that the machine works very quickly on and offline, lets me save lots and boots up and shuts down in seconds. It has 128MB RAM (random access memory) which, though at the low end of what is desirable according to computer buying guides, seems to be working fine for me. Finally, it has a 120GB hard drive which sounds nice and big to me.
It has a 17" SXGA colour LCD screen. Get that, 17 inches! That's bigger than mos
t of the monitors I've ever used at school, uni or work. 17 inches is bigger than our TV at home, too, and means I can watch DVDs and feel like I'm at the cinema (almost....) The keyboard is a full desktop one with both the normal keys and the additional right hand side keypad, perfect for all the ë's I need to type (and much more convenient than having those keys as extra functions on existing ones - shift for capitals I can cope with, but control + alt + x + y all to get one little letter gets a bit much). It comes with easy-launch keys for the internet and email, and 2 others that you can program to launch whatever you want. There is a touch pad in the bottom centre of the keyboard which you use like a mouse There are also two ways of selecting something - wither by clicking the keys just below it, or my doing the double-tap thing on the pad itself. Additionally there's a useful 4-directional button thingy that lets you page up, page down and also page left and page right.
It has both a CD/DVD Re-writer and a floppy drive (not all portables do), both of which usually work ok though I have had to resort to the jabbing-with-an-unbent-paperclip trick on the CD drive a couple of times. However I think it was just getting annoyed at me copying CD after CD for hours on end, because the next day it was working normally again. A bit like when you do a lot of exercise and you get the whole lactic acid build up - the day, if not the hour after you're back to normal again. Both drives are on the same side of the machine which is useful if you use either infrequently as you don't need to search. There are 2 built in stereo speakers which are powerful enough for me to listen to music on without any problems, usually only having it at level 1 sound (it goes up to level 16 which is deafening). There're also microphone in and headphone out ports - the latter allowing you to listen using any old walkman headphones while keeping your music or f
ilm silent from the rest of the room.
The machine has a 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet, something essential if you want to use it to access a university server, for example from your college owned accommodation. For people who understand (ie not me) it also boasts 56K MDC V.90/V.92 data/fax modem (with international PTT approval) a Wi-Fi 802.11b wireless LAN and is Wake-on-Ring ready. The back of the machine is an array of holes and slots and connectory bits (aka ports) through which you can attach almost any peripheral to it - printers, mice, microphones and so on. They're set out in a nice way though, so the most used ports aren't next to each other, making it easier to add and remove pieces - similarly, the Ethernet port is at the back, while the standard internet one is at the side.
The machine is into saving power and has both standby and hibernation modes which kick after various periods of inactivity, though these settings can be altered to shorter or longer time periods to suit you. You can run it plugged in, off a battery or alone, though the power will run out after a while. If you charge it properly when you get it (letting the battery die completely, recharging, and repeating several times) you can get the maximum battery life from the thing.
The machine comes with Windows XP Home preloaded (pretty is nothing else), and Adobe Acrobat, Norton Anti Virus and NTI CD Maker Gold (!) installed. It took literally minutes to set up when I first got it - a few "enter your name", "select your language" questions and I was away. As well as the laptop, when you buy it you get a useful, well-written manual, an AC adapter, battery pack and recovery CD which luckily I've yet to use. It comes with a one year collect and return warranty as standard, upgradeable to 5 years for a fee.
It's an odd size for a machine - it's a lot smaller than a desktop, but larger (and heavier) than most laptops. I like it
because it's like having a portable desktop - I don't travel with it that much, but I can take it with me if I need to. It measures 378 x 320 x 50 mm or thereabouts which is rather large for a portable machine, and weighs a worrying 7kg. I only managed to find one case available for this size of machine, but luckily it wasn't expensive and is nice and plain. I quite wanted an aluminium one but those only go up to ~15' and larger ones are customer built so hideously expensive.
I am very happy with the machine, and am glad I chose this model. Though I don't know much about the technical side of things, I don't have to in order to use it, and so far have had no problems with any part of the system, despite using it all day every day. I bought it from laptop shop online because they were selling it for the lowest price, but other stockists were offering it too. In total, for the laptop and the case I paid around £1150 which, though not super-cheap, seemed at the time, and still seems pretty good value for money to me. It's not the most easy to transport machine, nor probably the highest specification on the market, but for a good, solid laptop that seems pretty durable, I would recommend this.
Summary:
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