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Hello all.....

I know some of you were considering purchasing this laptop so i figured this review might help you out.

Specs

1.8ghz Dothan
128mb ATI Radeon Mobility 9700
512mb RAM
80gig HD (4200rpm i assume)
15.4" WXGA
Super Multi DVD Drive
B/G WIFI
Bluetooth
4-in-1 Card Reader
XP Pro
6.6lbs

Total Cost: $2400
Planned Additions: Extra AC Adapter: $70
3yr Warranty: $200

Build/Appearance
Great build quality: metal LCD cover, very strong case (I think the palm rest area is aluminum, but i could be wrong.) No keyboard flexing.
Of all the laptops I've had, this is by far the best looking one of the bunch. Nice silver/black scheme and thin/wide design. Not too heavy either.

Screen
Awesome screen. Very brigt and uniform backlighting. Really nice viewing angles (both vertical and horizontal - see pics). Oh yeah, and no dead pixels

Features
The Aspire front buttons are useful, especially volume control. The little LCD tells you the time and the battery life. They don't interfere with keyboard use. There are four programmable buttons, with a flashing email light, which is kind of cool. I really like the WIFI button on the front (glows orange when on) and the Bluetooth button (glows blue)

The slot load DVD+/-R drive is really convenient, but a bit loud.
The unit also has a 4-in-1 card reader which i haven't tried out yet
With general use, i get about 3.5-4 hours of battery life

Keyboard and Touchpad
Keyboard has no flexing and pretty good response. The touchpad is standard, but the scroll button is useful. The buttons are a bit loud/stiff.

Sound
Its a laptop so you can't expect too much, but they're not bad. Loud enough for personal use and the built in subwoofer defintely helps out a lot.

Performance
Installed Omega Drivers: Numbers using default clock 390/202

3dmark03: 2,950
3dmark01SE: 10,500
Aquamark3: 23,090
UT2k3 Demo Flybys: 2 ran at about 120fps, 1 ran at 190fps

Overall daily use performance is excellent (Office/explorer/etc), but i'm sure this is the case for all new lappys.

Noise
Fan generally not on during general use, but can get loud when gaming.


Issues/Cons

1. The Radeon card doesn't seem to have much tolerance for overclocking. I start to see artifacts/freezes with just a 20hz bump in the core. I wouldn't overclock anyway, but it would be nice to know that there is some room for it.

2. The notebook's back panel and touchpad buttons/arcade area are prone to smudging.

3. The headphone port is on the front...not convenient for connecting external speakers

4. Battery life in the 3-4 hour range with wifi on. Short of Acer's 5 hr claim, (but that was prob w/ wifioff)


Overall Assessment
Very happy with this laptop: I don't game all too often, but wanted something that was game-capable and yet still a laptop (ie portable and decent battery life). This laptop certainly meets that requirement.

PICS

Front View
Right View
From Above
Screen
Screen2
Left View
Closed
Screen Comparison with my old laptop (acer travlemate 737)