INTRO
I purchased the Acer Aspire 5520G laptop from Tesco Direct for the cost of £499, about 3 months ago. I purchased the laptop as my third laptop after two very unsuccessful Gateway Laptops earlier in 2007. These two laptops were both around £100 cheaper and as it was nearly a year ago neither of them was as high a spec as this one, which is currently around the highest spec laptop I have seen under £700, even though it cost much less than that!

OPERATING SYSTEM
The Acer Aspire 5520G runs Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium as an operating system, which is a very good operating system indeed. Everything is very easy to do, easy to navigate around and in general the operating system is a pleasure to use, but for more information you should read my separate review of Windows Vista Home Premium. One thing worth mentioning here is that it runs the 32-bit operating system as apposed to the 64-bit system that seems to be causing many problems for many people. Although in general computing terms higher numbers mean better specs this is not the case for Windows Vista.

RAM
There is 2 GB of RAM (sometimes known as just memory) on this system which is more than enough to play games, browse the web, create a word processing document and run a virus scan all at once!!!, Although I wouldn't recommend doing that as it may slow down the processor (as it isn't quad core), it really is a great amount to have. Windows Vista is perfectly capable of running on 1 GB despite what some people may say, however 2 GB will greatly increase the life of your computer and will also ensure that you can get the most of it. My brother has a laptop also running Vista Home premium, with only 1 GB of RAM and that uses 64% of the RAM in idle usage, where as this varies from 28% to 33% in idle usage. The RAM also helps to make the system incredibly fast, which is very good in today's modern world, as speed is the key in this fast paced world. To put this into context and explain how good this is in normal everyday language the best way to do so is to use a technical thingy-ma-jag. The windows experience index gives scores with the maximum score being 6, this gains 5.9, so it goes without saying that this is extremely good. It should probably also be said though, that many new computers now come with 2 GB of RAM whereas it was less common when I bought this.

SOUND
The sound is also second to none with Dolby Digital Live virtual surround sound. Great for listening to music or watching movies the sound will never let you down and is the best sound by far I have ever known on a laptop. The sound is not at all tinny when used on the right mode, however it can sometimes be that, if you want the best sound for playing music you have to go into Acer Empowering Technology programmes and switch the sound to music mode, to turn the surround off, since the surround is mostly designed for movies and games, and is extraordinarily good for them. The sound doesn't echo in the slightest, just perfect crystal clear sound, so long as it is in the right mode.

HARD DRIVE
There is a 250 GB hard drive to the machine which is split into two parts, the C: drive and the D: drive. Each is apparently 111 GB, now to me 111x2=222, so it would seem that28 GB got lost in transit somewhere, somehow, sometime, for some reason, however this is still more than many people will use in the lifetime of the laptop, me included. My family of three haven't even used 60 GB between us on our shared desktop with a large majority of our files, folders game etc on it, so this is absolutely plenty for me. Now the hard drive's only set back is that it is a pretty standard 5400rpm, compared to some more modern desktops which use 7200rpm. Either way this is plenty fast enough for the vast majority of users and is still a decent speed. The hard disk and speed get a windows experience index of 5.3, once again a very very good score.

SOFTWARE
As the laptop is made by Acer it comes with Acer's own software installed when you buy it, and many computers that come with pre-installed software have very pointless software that absolutely no-one is likely to use, however this is an exception. The software included is both usable and practical. It actually has a point to it and is easy to use. It can make it easy to manage files and photos, easy to manage battery settings, easy to connect to the internet and also includes Acer Game Zone. The whole package is Called Acer Arcade, and this specific laptop also has Acer Arcade deluxe too. All in all this built in software makes use of the laptop easier for many things and does not affect the other parts of it. Norton Internet Security and Microsoft Office 2007 trials are also included. I have used none of these as I already had the full version of Office 2003 student and teacher edition, which I prefer to 2007 which I have on one of my desktops, and I have heard several bad reports about Norton, so I chose not to use them.

LOOKS
Finally onto the looks and feel of the machine. From the outside the laptop is a speckled black colour, almost like a granite finish with a small strip in piano black which looks very pretty. There is a silver slide on the bottom half in the centre of the front of the laptop (that probably sounds confusing) which releases the catch to open the laptop. On most laptops the slider would be on top to move the latches but on this one the slider is on the bottom and moves the holes. Either way it works. Once opened the screen is black on a black lid, and the keyboard section is a very nice grey colour. Some people may admittedly dislike the grey colour and think of it as an ugly dirty looking colour however I like it and think it looks very smart but also very fun and unique. There are several buttons at the far side of the keyboard including the power button in the centre and several buttons in a line in front of it. There is a pointing device (touchpad) in the centre at the front which blends nicely with the colour of the keypad. The equivalent of left and right mouse buttons are silver and between them is a scroll button which you can use to scroll up, down, left and right through a document or a webpage which is quite handy. The keyboard feels a little wobbly to begin with but is fine when you get used to it, and is really more of a cushioned affect. It is very similar to use to that of a real keyboard and very easy to type with. The keyboard section is also very easy on the eyes as it is not a striking black or silver colour but the nice grey. Above the monitor is a built in webcam and a built in microphone. All in all the laptop feels very sturdy however for a laptop it is very heavy-around 3kg which although not that heavy really, for a laptop and for carrying around is a little on the heavy side. Now in all the laptop is part of Acer's new 'gemstone concept' which is supposed to mirror things and look like what you would see in nature. Now I'm not sure I have aver seen a laptop in nature before, but never the less I suppose it does not really matter what they say it is supposed to look like, it is more important that it does what it does and what it claims to be able to do technically