Text 49688, 77 rader
Skriven 2008-10-05 23:19:20 av August Abolins (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 49672 av Jean Parrot (1:167/133.0)
Ärende: $398 ACER report!
=========================
Jean Parrot -> Charles Scaglione said the following
 on 10/5/2008 4:42 PM:

 JP>         A friend of August got one, we are still waiting for some
 JP>    report on it, mainly the mouse. Aside from a new laptop, there was
 JP>    the Vista to be learned.

I didn't get the laptop on Wednesday as originally planned.  I only received it
on Saturday.  But now I am pretty much ready to report!

I'm generally impressed with the hardware features and capabilities.

I couldn't find anything wrong with the mouse that was originally reported.  I
guess the user didn't wait long enough for Vista to settle down.

It *was* fairly busy trying to fetch McAfee updates and Windows updates.  There
doesn't seem to be a way to disable McAfee from doing its updates.   This was
extremely annoying when I was already on a dialup (over my shared network at
home).  I couldn't really test browser/internet performance.

The mouse pad features a middle "joy stick" (rather more like a sunken button
that swivels) that allows up-down left-right scolling on websites.  The
mousepad also features an active right-edge that allows up-down scrolling the
same as on a Thinkpad's pad.  In addition, the Acer features an active bottom
edge for scrolling sideways.

On the sides:
3 USB 2.0 ports
1 S-video/TV Out
1 ExpressCard slot
1 VGA out
1 Ethernet and 1 modem ports.

On the front:
Headphone and Microphone jacks.
There's a microphone parked on the top edge of the screen too.

The DVD unit is a Multi-player/burner that claims to support
DVD+R+RW+RWDL/-R-RW-RWDL

I was able to sucessfully create a DVD image from a DVD+R disc at 8x, and burn
the image to another DVD+R at 4x.  To do this, Acer includes a product called
PowerProducer v4.  It would be the equivalent to Nero, I think.

The 15" wide-screen is actually quite bright and renders colours well.  Next to
my old Thinkpad, it makes the Thinkpad display look pale and dull.  The screen
at 1280x800 max, isn't as sharp and detailed as my TP's at 1440x1050.   I can
see the "dots" on the Acer screen.  The TP screen is "solid".

The battery only ran for 90 minutes.

Overall construction: despite the "ceramic look-n-feel", the laptop still comes
off feeling like cheap plastic - which it probably is.  A gentle drop would
probably be catastrophic for this unit.  It feels rather bulky to lug around as
well.  But maybe that's because I'm so used to carrying my super-thin and light
Thinkpad all the time.

A big MINUS, imho: the fan exhaust is on the BOTTOM.  So, this unit would not
be suitable for actual use on one's lap.  The laptop needs a solid surface; a
"pillow-desk" would work.

But.. for $448 CDN ($398 on sale), I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the unit
for a 1st time buyer who wants a full-featured inexpensive 15" laptop.  I would
however, recommend trashing the annoying McAfee.  I would also recommend
turning off many of the special display effects that Vista HB enables.



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