Acer Acer Aspire 2020

I used this site as a place to help me gather information for my notebook purchase, so I'm here to contrbute what I can after making a purchase of the new Acer 2012. This is the 2012 with the Radeon 9700 64MB and DVD+/-RW.

Fan/Quietness: The thing is nearly inaudible when the fan is off. You can barely make out the hard drive working, and unless you are focused on hearing it, you probably won't. If you have the computer running for over an hour or so the fan will occasionally kick in. The tray loading DVD starts with a "whoosh", but isn't that bad once running. It is probably on par with other notebook dvds. All in all, I can't imagine a 15.4" notebook being much quieter than this one.

Build: I notice very little flex across the machine. It looks and feels incredibly sturdy. There isn't one part of the machine that I think looks cheap, or feel there is a chance that it might break off. The casing is plastic, not aluminum like the 2025, but it looks sharp with the silver outer casing.

Appearance: This is my favorite notebook in appearance. The silver accents and notebook lid coupled with the black finish looks fantastic. There are lots of cool lights and buttons that also add a little flair to the machine. In the looks department, this one takes the cake.

Trackpad and buttons: The pad buttons are a little stiff like people mention, but nothing taxing. For general purpose use like web surfing it is a non-issue. For intense gaming, it "might" be an issue. The trackpad works perfectly, and coupled with the 4-way scroll button, I prefer it over the other trackpads with the scroll area on the trackpad. There is no button to turn the trackpad off, but I have not once had a mishap typing because of the trackpad.

Keyboard: It does sit a little high, and the keys require more than a feather's touch, but it works well. No issues with the "ii" "in" or whatever the problem was with the 2000 Acer model. The keyboard feels like it will last. This is my first notebook so it is hard for me to compare the feel of the keyboard to others.

Screen: The screen is very sharp and very bright. The 15.4 WXGA provides more horizontal room than I would have thought. While the screen is not as good as the fujitsu crystal clear, I think it is better than everything else I have seen (all other major models) with the exception of the xbrite and toshibas if you don't mind the glare from those. I personally don't mind te glare, so I would take an Xbrite over this screen, but I'm still very happy with the screen.

Heat: Another great thing about this notebook is that the palm rests NEVER get warm. They maybe don't stay cool like plastic would, but they don't get warm either. I would say that the palm rests go to ambient temp after some useage. All other laptops I tried out had palm rests that would get warm to some degree--this one does not!

This is the only laptop I have used on my lap, so I can't compare to others, so take this with a grain of salt, but it can become uncomfortable on your lap under certain conditions. If it's warm, and you have been using it for a while on your lap, I start to get bothered by it, especially if I have pants on. It's not a painful hot, it's just an uncomfortable feeling, like maybe when you are a little warm because you still have yuor socks on during a warm evening. Same thing.

Performance: Haven't done any tests, so I can't say much, except that it boots much faster than my Athlon 1.7 desktop that will soon enter the junk heap. I have had no crashes or any mishaps in the few weeks that I have now had it.

Included Software: Comes with a licensed version of XP Pro including the cd-rom. Has some software for dvds and music, but I use my own. Not too much to get excited about.

Sound: The speakers are excellent for a laptop. i would compare them to the HP with the bose. They can get relatively loud for laptop spekaers. My only complaint is that at the minimum setting when using the keyboard controls, it isn't quite at a minimum--it's really at 2 steps up. For example, when using media jukebox, if I use the keyboard controls for the volume and set it to one click above off, the volume is at the equivalent level for 2 clicks of volume on media jukebox. When I want the music or sound to be at it's lowest before actually being off, I need to go into the program itself to adjust the volume. Not sure if other notebooks are like this as well.

Another thing to mention is that unlike most laptops with seperate audio controls, this one uses a the arrow keys on the bottom right of the keyboard coupled with a function key to turn the volume up and down. The left and right are for screen brightness, and the up and down are for volume. They are even marked with a blue picture to tell you the function. I think this design works really well and I actually prefer it to seperate buttons you might accidentally press. All of the major functions that involve use of the "Fn" key are labeled on the keys themselves: mute, screen off, hibernate, etc..

Wireless Connection: I had read that the previous Acer had problems connecting at times to wireless networks, the 2012 does not. I have not once lost a connection, and the signal strength is usually excellent with the full 54 MBps. There is a pretty orange button that lights up on the front right of the notebook when the lan is on. You can disable it by pressing it. I have once accidentally disabled it.

Battery life: Haven't really tested it out yet, but the reviews are very good for its battery life.

Did I miss anything? Hope this helps a buyer or two come to an informed decision. Overall, I'm extremely happy with my purchase and I would highly reccomend this laptop. If you are wanting a WXGA with a great video card, I think this is the best lap top out there for someone who wants a truly mobile (read: relatively light [6.6lbs] and long battery life [3-5hrs]) laptop.

Dave