Acer Aspire 3692WLMi - Celeron M 420 - 15.4" TFT > Reviews > Decent laptop for the home

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Fast
Look & Feel	Excellent
Comfort & Portability	Good
Robustness & Durability	Good
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	Lightweight and nice big screen
Disadvantages:	Poor battery and dodgy screen brightness

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I'm not a technical person, so if you want a technical review then this isn't the one for you.

I previously had a Toshiba, which I was happy with, but I needed to upgrade the memory and processor, so I decided to buy a new one.

I took advantage of the New Year Sale at Comet Online, and got this one.

At 1Gb it has more than enough RAM, and I can't see I'll ever need to upgrade that.
The HDD is 60 Gb, and even with some of the programmes you get these days, I can't see me ever using that either. I store a lot of photos on my laptop, and I've hardly made a dent in the memory.

The screen is nice and big and clear, but the big drawback is that it keeps changing brightness. There is a way to increase the brightness by pressing Fn+> but it really shouldn't keep changing. I was used to this happening when i was working on battery power, but this happens even though I am on mains.

I don't play games but I do watch occasional DVD's. The picture quality and sound on this laptop compared tomy old laptop is amazing! So much better. unfortunately, I can no longer watch a DVD in bed on battery power, which I could on my old machine.

It is much lighter and slimmer than my old laptop, which is quite important for me, as I do the books for a friend, and I carry it round a lot with me.

The keyboard is easy to use, but some of the buttons do stick occasionally. The sound is easy to control as well, being at the side of the keyboard.
I chose this model, as I have a home network, and it has the correct port for plugging the cable in to. It does have a wireless modem, but I am very wary of using these so I have turned it off. (The first thing it did when I turned it on was find a wireless network, which I think may have been my next door neighbours. Obviously efficient, but I'm a bit wary of security issues).

It also has 4 USB ports, which is 2 more than my old machine, and a port for a good old fashioned dial up internet connection, which I do use occasionally.

I didn't get any discs in case I ever need to reformat the machine, but I did have to create some discs when I first set up the laptop. it didn't make it clear, but I think these were the back up discs in case I ever need to do that. Very time consuming, but probably worthwhile.

I tried to use the help feature, but like most online help facilities, it is aimed at those with technical knowledge, and not your average man (or woman) in the street like me.
All in all a good laptop for the money, and one which you can do most things with. The only main drawback with this is the battery.