Acer Aspire 5920G laptop review

Can Acer do design?

24 September 2007 11:00 GMT / By Stephen Patrick

Notebooks are evolving and no more so than in their presentation.

There was a time when manufacturers would be happy with a simple grey box. Now, they’re trying to tempt us with an array of designs and styles.

Take, the new Aspire 5920G, which has been designed by the BMW Designworks and to a large extent shows, as the glossy black finish at first appearance looks like the finish found on a car.

What’s more important is the quality of the finish and this has to be commended. We found the 5920G solid and firm to the touch.

The keyboard is large and the keys feel exceedingly firm to the touch – this is a great keyboard if you need to write a lot of reports, as it doesn’t force you to press too hard to respond. We weren't convinced by the touchpad and mouse buttons, which proved less responsive. You'll find touch-sensitive media buttons to the right of the keyboard, and hotkeys to the left, making it easy to launch applications and manage your movies or music.

Weighing in at 3.3kg, this machine isn’t designed for carrying about too often and with a battery life a little under 3 hours, we found it was useful for using when sat on the sofa but not for the daily commute.

There are two reasons for the weight. The first is the use of a 15.4-inch Super-TFT screen, which is sufficiently bright enough for the price but it’s not the best screen we’ve seen. When watched a DVD, for instance, we had to turn it up to full brightness to get the best from it, which is no good if you’re on battery power.

More importantly, the chassis is rather bulky but it needs to be in order to fit in the specification. Powered by Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor and 2GB of memory, this is a powerful machine that easily handles tasks. The 160GB of storage space is also impressive and allows you to store plenty of files and folders.

Making the most of the impressive screen, there’s a Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT. This is the latest mainstream graphics card and is ideal for most games without you having to pay a premium or opt for a gaming machine.

In terms of extras, you’ll find 802.11n wireless LAN built in, which is the fastest Wi-Fi connection you can currently get. As is the Gigabit Ethernet for fixed connections. With a DVD rewriter and 1.3-megapixel webcam, this has everything the average family needs for multimedia purposes.

Verdict

Acer has been making a lot of noise about the design of the new Aspire line and while it’s a sturdy enough design, it does have a love it or loath it factor that will split opinion.

However, it’s the specification that makes this machine, as the for the asking price it more than delivers.

If you’re looking for a machine that can be shared amongst a household, this is well worth the price.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Acer
Price as reviewed: £770
The good: Decent battery, powerful specification
The bad: Average screen quality
Quick verdict: The design may not be to everyone’s task but there is no denying the specification more than makes up for it
Score