Acer Laptop.....Good For A Starter (Acer Aspire 5920-302G16MN)

Member Name: Budster2005

Product:	Acer Aspire 5920-302G16MN
Date:	27/01/09 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, Design, Extra Features

Disadvantages: Graphics, Chunkyness, Weight, Webcam Adjustment

i managed to snap one of these up online for £399.99 i added an extra 1gb RAM stick to up it up to 3gb.

Speed.

it features the Core 2 Duo T7300 processor at 2ghz with a very nice 800 Mhz FSB, i tried several things to determine how fast it can perform with several things opening, i fired up windows media player and Age of empires both at the same time, they loaded quite slow and i wasnt sure why but i then found out from reading the manual that there are 3 different performance settings that can be enabled on the power options which are Balanced, Power Saver and High Performance so obviously i kicked it to high and loading was about 5x faster but noticably the battery life drops incredibley low. ill give it 4/5 for speed.

Graphics.

My version features 358mb Mobile Intel Graphic Media Accelerator X3100, its very basic and cant run any fancy games like Bioschock or Oblivion but it does do well on Age Of Empires or old FPS' like Delta Force, for anyone who enjoys picture editing running Photoshop can cause problems, i read that for applictions such as photo or video editing a good graphics card is essential but i always thought it was just about speed for those but it turns out you will need something alot more basic, the programme does tend to freeze and lags when inserting text or adding brushes and once you get more in depth on the picture it will respond very slowly even on High Performance.

Sound.

It features an in built subwoofer which performs well on high bass music but when listening to lyrics from the laptop itself with no output speakers it does have that tinny effect and the sub bass does drown out the lyrics.

Extra Features.

Nice little extras include the inibuilt webcam which has a good resolution but you cant adjust the angle without adjusting the screen as its fixed, the added WLAN is standard in todays laptops but not all of them feature a/b/g/n frequencys and is handy for larger homes. The dvd-rw does what it says on the tin. the LCD display seems clear and bright with acer's CrystalBrite technology but i dont have another laptop to compare it to to notice any differences.

The Look

This is what attracted me the most, the glossy black top lid with a silver Acer logo built in the middle and primarily all blue lit from the inside, the keyboard is a nice white but after a while will obviously become dirty but nothing a damp cloth wont fix.

Overall

Im very impressed for what i got for 399. its fast for what i need and nothing has failed on me yet, the only downside is the chunkyness i would say roughly 6-8cms when closed and it does have a bit of weight to it.

Summary: 4/5

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