Less Than £600, lots of features, good specs, reliable
Disadvantages:
Soft screen, hot touchpad
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
This laptop is called the Acer Aspire 5672, it comes with three different sets of specs and it has many extra features. I bought this laptop in the summer of 2006 for about £600 and have found it reliable and quick and I have not really had many problems with it.
Acer Aspire 5672 Detailed Specification:
General Platform Technology: Intel Centrino Duo
System Type: Notebook
Built-in Devices: Stereo speakers, wireless LAN aerial
Width: 36.4 cm
Depth: 27.5 cm
Height: 3.6 cm
Weight: 3 kg
Localisation: United Kingdom
Processor Processor: Intel Core Duo T2300 / 1.66 GHz
Manufacturer warranty Service & Support: 1 year warranty
Service & Support Details: Traveller warranty - 1 year
Speed ---------- The speed of this machine is fairly good. It has a 1.66GHz dual core processor which makes it do things twice as fast as a normal processor of the same speed and it has a 1GB RAM which also helps the machine to run along at a nice speed. This machine is good and barely ever gets stuck because it's doing to many things. The Aspire can handle many tasks at once because of it's good speed. I am always doing lots of things at once on the computer such as writing documents, surfing the net and playing games all at once and the acer aspire never has any problems with this.
Look &Feel ---------------- The Acer Aspire is a fairly good looking machine. It has the common colour scheme of silver and black but this is my favourite colour scheme and I happen to think the machine looks fairly stylish. The acer aspire has a nice silver finish with rounded edges and a black keyboard and touchpad. One of the things that lets the machine down is the feel of the keyboard. I have always liked the laptop keyboards over conventional keyboards but this one feels a bit soft and mushy especially if you press on the keys hard. The touchpad is nice and easy to use as well as the left and right click buttons. The only other discrepancy I have is with the heat this machine produces. It is not bad for the machine because it is fine for computer parts to reach temperatures of 50 degrees but the touchpad feels really hot at times and it hurts my fingers. Anyway to solve this problem I bought a great little USB mouse.
Hard Drive Space ---------------------- The Acer Aspire 5672 gives you a 80GB hard drive. This is the same size as an apple ipod video. The storage space is quite small as in the end you only get about 70GB due to the system files and various other things which cannot be removed. The hard drive has ample space for me but if you wish to store loads of movies and games as well as your music you will struggle with the amount of space this machine gives you. If your just after a machine to store a few games, some music and documents it will be fine but don't go expecting to fit loads of stuff on this fairly small hard drive.
Graphics ----------- The graphics on the laptop are good and it has a 128MB graphics card. The graphics card isn't the best but it can handle most games fairly well. There are only a few games it will struggle to handle graphically. As well as the 128MB the graphics card can use up to 512MB of HyperMemory meaning it can steal a bit of memory to help the machine perform graphically. So far it has never had to use it well I've been playing games but I don't have many highly intensive graphically demanding games. The Acer can handle graphics averagely but don't expect it to handle the best games.
Portability -------------- I find the Acer Aspire 5672 is not the best portable laptop. This is because it has a fairly big 15.4” screen and it does get quite hot. If you were going for a portable laptop though you wouldn't really go for this laptop but you can take it out with you if you want. Another factor that will stop you taking it on long business trips is the battery life. The battery life on this machine is only about 3 hours at the very most. I only tend to get about 2 hours out of it so I wouldn't use it on long trips. The laptop weighs 3kg which is fairly heavy so you wouldn't want to be lugging it round all day.
Toughness ------------- The machine isn't very tough and I found this out straight away when looking in the instruction manual as it said, 'don't place anything on top of the laptop'. I immediately pressed my hand on top of it and realised the screen can be squashed quite easily with little force. Although the screen isn't very robust the actual main body of the laptop is quite strong although I wouldn't recommend dropping your laptop as you'll probably dent it at the very least.
Extra Features -------------------- The Acer Aspire 5672 comes with some great extra programs, some of them come pre installed and some of them come as CD-ROM's which you have to install.
The first great piece of software that comes with the laptop is called 'Empowering Technology'. Within the Empowering Technology program there are eight separate programs: Acer eData Security Management – Helps you encrypt files and set the administrator password. Acer eLock Management – This can lock or unlock floppy disk drives, optical drives and removable data devices for extra security. Acer ePerformance Management – Removes temporary files, optimizes memory and optimizes speed. Basically it improves your computers speed when it's low on memory and removes rubbish from your computer. Acer eRecovery Management – Backs up system files or loads old settings. Acer eSettings Management – Tells you system info and lets you change boot settings. Acer eNet Management – Handles all types of internet connection. Acer ePower Management - Gives you options for to reduce or extend battery life. Acer ePresentation Management – Extra software to help you do presentations from your laptop.
There is also a great program called the Acer Arcade, this is like Windows Media Center. When loaded you can watch DVD's, watch videos, view pictures, play music and even watch digital TV if you have an aerial for your laptop.
With the Laptop you also get Norton Anti Virus but this is only a trial for 90 days. After this you have to buy the software. I didn't use this as I don't like the program and I already have better anti-virus software and Norton seems to clash with other programs.
As well as all this you get NTI CD & DVD Maker 7 which lets you put anything onto a CD or DVD and it is good enough so you won't need to buy a CD burning program.
The laptop also has Acer Signal Up technology which makes wireless internet connections stronger. My wireless router is downstairs and my laptop is upstairs and there on different sides of the house and I always have an excellent signal so this seems to work well.
On the side of the laptop there is a set of buttons for controlling multimedia, there is volume up, volume down, play/pause, stop, fast forward and rewind, this makes it easier to control multimedia so you don't have to use the mouse.
Instruction Manual ------------------------- The instruction manual is written for the whole range of Acer Aspire 5620/5670 so it is not always specific enough in places. Although the manual is quite short and is written for about six similar laptops it is very much to the point and has good diagrams. It also tells you what all the buttons do and how to use some of the software. It tells you what not to do and it also tells you the best conditions to keep your laptop in. Overall the instruction manual is rather good. Another thing that is good is that it is all in English. You don't get 100 extra pages of writing because it's in different languages which I find is rather good.
Conclusion ---------------- Overall if you don't have loads to spend on a laptop then this is an excellent option. You can get it for under £600 and it has good specs. You can play most games well apart from ones using top end graphics and it can handle everyday tasks such as playing music and writing documents simultaneously without any slow up in performance. The only downsides to this laptop are the soft screen and the hot touchpad, basically the build quality isn't the best .If these things don't put you off and you want a good mid range laptop I would definitely recommend this laptop or a laptop that is similar to it. You can get a lot of acer aspire machines that are all pretty similar in spec and price. So far after having my laptop nearly a year I have had virtually no problems with it and I've never had to call Acer up with any issues. If you need any firmware or drivers they are all on the acer website so you don't really need to ring acer if you have a missing driver, just get on the web. This laptop would be great for anyone looking for a mid range desktop replacement or their own personal laptop for work and games. The laptop is ideal if your on a medium sized budget and if you are wanting a future proof laptop. The laptop is vista capable and this means you can buy vista and upgrade your machine by yourself. The laptop has served me well and I fully recommend it to anyone with a £600 budget that is looking for a good modern laptop.
