Personal Profile:

I am an absolute Power User of computers: tonnes of browsing, photoshop and video editing, sound editing, skype, gaming, music: you name it, I do it on my trusty Acer Aspire. You can definately trust this review.

Tech specs:

15.6 inch, Intel Pentium Dual Core Mobile Processor T4200 2.0 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, Vista Home Premium.

If this doesn't mean much to you, this is a moderately powerful laptop computer, with plenty of memory. The processor is designed to be less of a drain on battery life. Measured diagonally, the laptop measures 15.6 inches (fairly big, really).

It has a microphone and a good quality webcam. It has 4 USB ports and a CD drive. IT has HDMI-out, somewhere to plug in headphones/external speakers, and somewhere for a microphone.

The keyboard is different to most: the keys are quite separate and are "floating", which makes it quicker and easier to type but is a little noisier.

Pros:

- Hugely reliable. I think it has broken down once since I got it in October 2009 (a year and a half ago)
- Stand-out "Dolby home theatre virtual surround sound" speakers. These occupy a long strip next to the keyboard, under the screen. My friends' laptops have a woefully weak set of speakers, with little volume. On this laptop,however the speakers pack a punch and can really fill a room. If you're watching films or listening to music, this is a real selling point!
- HDMI-out - this means that if you buy a HDMI cable, and have a HD tv, you can use the TV as the laptop's display, and work off that. Alternatively you could use the HDTV to increase your desktop space by using the Tv as a second display.
- It has a numpad - this is the 'calculator' layout set of buttons which on a desktop keyboard are found on the right hand side of the keyboard. I bought the laptop for this reason - a numpad is invaluable is you want to type accented characters quicky.
- The built-in camera and microphone is really convenient. Just stick on skype and as long as there is a connection, fire away!
-Quiet as a mouse. I occasionally hear the whirr of the CD spinning, but no noise from the fan or processor.

Cons:

- 1.5 years I've had it and the battery is really giving up the ghost. The computer is telling me that it needs replacing and now only lasts about 45 mins on full charge. At the start the battery life was really quite excellent, especially with the backlight turned down.
- The placement of the trackpad (to control the mouse) is pretty stupid. It runs the length of the spacebar and is directly below it. It's not lowered in the case to stop the fleshy part of your hand from touching it. There IS a button next to it to disable it, but i find myself forgetting and the cursor sometimes interrupts my typing - how annoying!
- The cardreader on mine occasionally malfunctions. I don't think this is a common problem, but it may happen. It doesn't

What this Laptop ISN'T:

This laptop is not a gaming powerhouse. Titles that run perfectly include: Conquer online MMORPG, Warcraft III, Braid, Project 64 (The N64 emulator), Machinarium. I could play "Company of heroes", however not on the maximum settings. The laptop does not boast a dedicated graphics card.

It does not have bluetooth, or 3G, but you can get a cheap USB dongle to repleace either. It does not have a blu-ray player.

What this Laptop IS:

A good all rounder that will satisfy 99% of users.

Other than a better graphics card, this laptop wants for nothing. I have never had memory problems. My Ram is currently tolerating 5 tabs of firefox, spotify, 2 tabs of google chrome, windows media player, and adobe photoshop which has a 14megapixel photo in it. No slowdown at all.

You may want a faster processor If you want to render a lot of videos (that is, you are creating videos) because this lappy can take a while