Acer Aspire 5755G Battery |
Posted: October 8, 2014 |
A distinctive advantage of the 5920 is the Nvidia 8600m GT video card, while not the DDR3 version it’s still one of the fastest 8xxx GPU available at the time of the review and certainly the top in the 15.4" form factor segment. In addition, it comes in a MXM II slot with easy access, another high point in the specification. Playing games proved once again that even the low T5250 was not the limiting factor in this setup, meaning you don’t have to spend money on a higher CPU for that purpose alone. Regardless of the looks, the 5920G is definitely a rock solid laptop. While the entire laptop is constructed from plastic, the chassis appears extremely tough. The only place that flexes slightly is a small area near the power button. Surprisingly, the laptop also does not feel thick at all. This comes as a huge surprise after years with my all-plastic Inspiron, which is the exact opposite. The hinges supporting the screen on the Aspire are also very sturdy and do not stick out. The hinges are strong enough that I have to hold down the laptop while opening the lid. However, the screen does wobble slightly when I poke it. The excellent build quality of the 5920G is a relief for me considering that the laptop weighs about seven pounds. For a 15-inch screen laptop, the Aspire is undoubtedly on the higher end of the weight scale, and traveling with this notebook will be an unpleasant experience. On the other hand, it is still easy enough to move the notebook around the house.The 5920G is only offered with a glossy CrystalBright screen with WXGA resolution (1280800). This may be a disappointment for people who want additional screen real estate. On the other hand, personally I find this resolution to be perfect for a 15 inch laptop since anything higher makes everything stressful to see. Lower resolution also means better GPU performance. Of course, glossy screen means annoying reflections. When turned off, the 5920G’s screen is a perfect mirror. Luckily, you won’t notice any reflections using the laptop indoors. As for the build quality, hardly any ripples appear when I press the back of the screen’s lid, and the screen does not twist easily. Most of the time the fan is barely audible. Under light load the system stays very cool in general. During intensive gaming and benchmarking, the palm rest and especially the upper area next to the power button on the left noticeably heats up due to the hard drive and graphic card. After 30 to 40 minutes in that condition, the laptop becomes much too hot to be used on the lap. On the other hand, the entire right side stays cool throughout intensive use. Fan noise does go up a notch with the rising temperature, but it is still fairly quiet and unobtrusive. The fan of 5920G running at its highest speed produces roughly the same amount of noise as my old Inspiron 6000 under lightest load.
The tray of the optical drive is so flimsy that I was afraid that I would break it as I carefully snapped in a disk the first time. The tray surely feels out of place with the excellent build-quality of the rest of the laptop. Aside from that, there is little to no vibration when the drive operates but it gets obtrusively loud. I’ve burned a few DVDs so far with no problems.Typing on the Aspire keyboard is quiet and comfortable. The keys are just the perfect size for my fingers. Generally, it feels just like most laptop keyboards. The keyboard does express noticeable flexes and occasionally misses a few inputs. However, this might be a software issue since it tends to happen only in certain applications. Acer placed quite a few handy shortcuts among the keys, such as turning off the screen, putting the laptop to sleep, and disabling the touchpad. Overall, the keyboard is just average.The touchpad is probably the worst thing about this laptop. The spacious touchpad is designed to “blend” with the palm rests, thus typing on the keyboard without making contact with the touchpad is impossible. With default setting, using the laptop proves to be a nightmare. I cannot type a single Word document without experiencing crazy movement throughout. Luckily, turning off the virtual scrolling feature solves the problem. Losing this useful feature can partly be compensated by a tiny scrolling device between the two mouse buttons. Lastly, the buttons of 5920G’s touchpad are extremely loud and stiff. The annoying clicking sound is easily heard several feet away. Predictably, the system is equipped with the 32-bit Vista Home Premium. Unlike most laptop manufacturers, the bundled software on the Aspire isn’t just useless bloatware. My previous Dell was stuffed with numerous bloatware and crappy, badly-programmed utilities, so my expectation for the Acer wasn’t very high. To my surprise, not a single trial software package except for Microsoft Office is installed. The system comes with a full-version of Norton Antivirus, Acer Arcade Deluxe, Acer Empowering Tools, Cyberlink PowerProducer, and NTI CD-Maker/Backup. Furthermore, these softwares aren’t just some crappy junk that manufacturers usually throw at you. Even though I kept almost all factory installed software, my laptop still runs snappily and smoothly after a few adjustments. The Acer Empowering utilities, especially, is amazingly useful and user-friendly. The eRecovery tool, for example, allows you to easily create recovery disks yourself and backup the entire system. No complicated steps are involved, and everything is straight forward and easy. Acer customer service support at Taiwan is great. Fortunately I’ve never need customer service support so far except for switching the OS to English, which the support staff happily did for free. My system comes with 2 year Taiwanese warranty and 1 year global warranty. I’ve yet to see how the US Acer division performs.When Chromebooks were first introduced, the most common reaction from consumers was, “If I’m not browsing the web or working in Google Docs, this machine is useless to me.” While these low-cost laptops are still great for doing those activities, the Chromebook experience has improved greatly over the last two years thanks to many new apps and notably better capabilities. As a Chromebook, the C720 requires an internet connection to access most of its functionality. The C720 features 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, but does not feature a physical Ethernet port. As there are only two USB ports on the device (one USB 2.0 on the right side, one USB 3.0 on the left), using a network-to-USB dongle is not always a great option for most users, so wireless connectivity is something that is needed wherever this computer goes.The C720 has Bluetooth 4.0 capability, which is easily turned on or off via the Chrome Settings menu to alleviate the lack of spare USB ports for external mice or other accessories. An HDMI port on the left side allows the C720 to be connected to an external monitor as well, and a Kensington PC lock slot and snappy SD card reader on the right (handy for getting one’s photos onto Google Drive quickly) rounds out the package. Google’s ChromeOS, which is what makes a Chromebook a Chromebook, is a unique operating system that is very different from the standard executable-running Windows or Mac OS X. On ChromeOS, all applications (be they for web browsing, document editing, music, games or instant messaging) are run through the Google Chrome browser.The Linux-based operating system is optimized to run Chrome, and that’s it; PC executables cannot be installed or run on ChromeOS. While it has the obvious drawback of preventing programs like the Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office, desktop games, or even Skype from running on the machine, it also keeps the computer safer. Executables are a dangerous file format, and by preventing them from running, ChromeOS keeps the computer safe from any bundled malicious code that may be embedded within these programs. Many viruses simply do not work on the Chromebook. The C720’s 1366×768 pixel, 11.6-inch LED screen is not a full HD display, but it’s small enough that the pixel density is higher than on a larger laptop with the same resolution. Deep blacks are a bit washed out looking, and the screen is a bit dim overall, even on the highest brightness setting. Due to its matte finish negating reflections, this should still be fine for most environments though. Acer also make a $299 touchscreen Chromebook, the C720P. When flexed, there is some rippling on the screen, but overall the screen does not bend too easily, so it should be a non-issue for most users. The glossy black area around the screen does attract fingerprints and smudges very easily, but this is the only place on the laptop where this readily occurs. The internal speakers, located near the hinge of the device and hidden within the chassis, can easily fill an entire apartment at maximum volume. However, since they’re small, there is a bit of tinniness as the volume increases, and the overall sound lacks much depth (despite being very loud for their size). Audiophiles would be advised to use separate speakers or headphones when listening to their favorite songs, especially heavily layered ones such as metal or orchestral tracks, which tended to sound a bit muddled. The speakers are fine for watching YouTube videos and the like though, and are about as good as you can expect for the price. The Search button is handy due to its easy placement; when pressed, it brings up a window with all installed apps from the corner of the screen, making it seem like the Windows Start menu. However, if a user starts typing in the Apps window, it will search not only the computer for that keyword or App, but also the Chrome Web Store and the web via Google proper.Since the Alt and Ctrl keys are located where the Caps Lock would normally be on the left, they’re both much wider than on other keyboards. The Up and Down arrow keys are each half-height compared to the other keys, and take up the space of one whole key in between the Left and Right keys. While it took some getting used to, it may make playing certain games a bit trickier for users unaccustomed to the layout.
The buttonless touchpad is smooth, and its a slightly darker matte gray color than the rest of the chassis. The touchpad slopes down slightly towards the user, leaving a tiny bit of a ridge inside the bottom edge of it. This is not overly noticeable during use, however, and the touchpad features tap-to-click capability (toggled on or off via the Chrome Settings menu) and two-finger ‘flicking’ and scrolling.This Windows 8 Ultrabook features a beautiful 13.3-inch 1080p touch-enabled display, superb build quality and a stylish design. Is it worth $1,650? Read our review to find out. The Gorilla Glass 2 on the screen surface is good for the touch screen aspect; I’m not too crazy about it covering the back of the lid though as it smudges up easily. The 11.6″ version of the Aspire S7 uses an aluminum backing.Upgrading the Aspire S7 isn’t a simple task and requires removing all of the torx screws on the bottom of the chassis. This Ultrabook is limited to 4GB of RAM.The Aspire S7 has a respectable port selection for an Ultrabook including mini-HDMI, two USB 3.0 ports and a media card reader. Adapters are thankfully included for VGA and Ethernet. It’s worth mentioning that the location of the power button is troublesome; it is easy to accidentally hit white picking up the notebook. I unintentionally pressed the power button several times during the review process.The full-size keyboard has a Chiclet style layout as do most new notebook PCs. It’s neatly integrated into the one-piece palm rest which says a lot about the quality of this machine. The Aspire S7′s thinness means the key travel distance is short; on too many Ultrabooks this means a vague typing experience since there’s not enough tactile feedback, but the Aspire S7′s keyboard has precise action. The metallic feel and sound is surprisingly pleasant.
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