I wouldn't give a £200 laptop to our sixteen-year-old, because I know (from bitter experience) what would happen the first time its wireless connection failed when he was in the middle of chatting to some underaged floozy.
I know what you mean Ken. It used to be the case in reviews that a lazy reviewer would say that you would buy a new PC for yourself and 'then give your old PC to the kids'. The problem is that kids put quite a load on laptops and PCs as they have a gazillion windows open and thrash the thing with Flash animations and music galore. The fact is that most of us adults are able to work with an oldish PC while kids need dual cores and all that good stuff.
The question is, will we pay for it.
As for the battery Craig I've read reviews of the 2920 that refer to significantly better life however I can only report what I saw myself.
If this is anything like the 5920G then expect great battery life #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 13:34 GMT
6 months after buying my 5920G, which is used every day still holds an excellent charge, I can expect at least 5 1/2 hours battery on power saving mode with the speakers turned off, cranked up to over 6 hours with wifi disabled.
Turn it to maximum performance and the battery life drops to 3 1/2 - 4 hours or around 2 1/2 hours gaming.
The screen is fantastic, really bright and vibrant and with an HDMI output on the laptop, can easily be used on a big widescreen.
My only problem is those silly soft touch media buttons, why on earth they put them on the right-side of the keyboard instead of below the screen I will never know. They are easy enough to disable regardless, and I see they are not included in the 29xx series.
If the 29xx series is anything like the more expensive 59xx series then expect fantastic results!
I'm typing this on my low-cost EEE PC (4G with webcam @ £215 inc delivery) and that is closer to a "budget" laptop in my book.
For me, a budget laptop is less than £250 new or £100 on eBay ... so if you must give the little monkeys something to waste their "study" time on then buy some old kit on eBay ... or make them go out and work and buy their own (paper round and saturday job got me my first 8-bit micro nearly 30 years ago 8-)
Yes, this has been noted... but jeez, here in the backwards USA, *best buy* has a Dell Inspiron with (albeit) an AMD 64 X2, 2gb, 250gb, and a 17" screen. And it's $949 instead of the $1050 that this Acer is.
To get to $1050 on Best Buy's site you have to go through about seventy laptops!
Velocity Micro Edge Z30 Midsize Desktop (2.66GHz Intel Core i5 750, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVD±RW DL, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit)
Apple iMac All-In-One Desktop (3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR2, 1TB, DVD+-RW DL, Mac OS X v10.5 Snow Leopard, 27" LCD)
HP (Hewlett-Packard) Pavilion p6210f Mini-Tower Desktop (2.6GHz Athlon II X4 620, 6GB DDR2, 640GB HDD, DVD±RW DL, Windows 7 Home Premium)
HP (Hewlett-Packard) Compaq Presario CQ5210F Mini-Tower Desktop (2.7GHz Athlon 64 X2 215, 3GB DDR2, 500GB, DVD±RW DL, Windows 7 Home Premium)
Apple iMac All-In-One Desktop (3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR2, 500GB, DVD+-RW DL, Mac OS X v10.5 Snow Leopard, 21.5" LCD)
Acer Aspire 2920 budget laptop
Ken Hagan
Maybe I'm just stingy... #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 12:21 GMT
...but *I* wouldn't give a £500 laptop to a 7-year old.
Craig
SZ4 ? #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 12:39 GMT
I don't know if that's an old model, but I have a SZ65 and can get a good 4-5 hours out of it
The Jon
Budget? #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 13:32 GMT
I thought I was being extravagent shelling out 600 sovs on a Samsung R700 to replace my ageing desktop.
You could get 2.5 Eees for that money - if portability is your thing.
David S
No, just sensible. #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 13:34 GMT
I wouldn't give a £200 laptop to our sixteen-year-old, because I know (from bitter experience) what would happen the first time its wireless connection failed when he was in the middle of chatting to some underaged floozy.
Kids, eh? Tch.
Leo Waldock
@ Ken and @Craig #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 13:34 GMT
I know what you mean Ken. It used to be the case in reviews that a lazy reviewer would say that you would buy a new PC for yourself and 'then give your old PC to the kids'. The problem is that kids put quite a load on laptops and PCs as they have a gazillion windows open and thrash the thing with Flash animations and music galore. The fact is that most of us adults are able to work with an oldish PC while kids need dual cores and all that good stuff.
The question is, will we pay for it.
As for the battery Craig I've read reviews of the 2920 that refer to significantly better life however I can only report what I saw myself.
Anonymous Coward
Pricey #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 13:34 GMT
£550 is not what I'd class as budget...
Anonymous Coward
Budget #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 13:34 GMT
Just how does 550quid count as budget? especially the the week that elonex are due to release their £99 laptop
horrors of tesco
If this is anything like the 5920G then expect great battery life #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 13:34 GMT
6 months after buying my 5920G, which is used every day still holds an excellent charge, I can expect at least 5 1/2 hours battery on power saving mode with the speakers turned off, cranked up to over 6 hours with wifi disabled.
Turn it to maximum performance and the battery life drops to 3 1/2 - 4 hours or around 2 1/2 hours gaming.
The screen is fantastic, really bright and vibrant and with an HDMI output on the laptop, can easily be used on a big widescreen.
My only problem is those silly soft touch media buttons, why on earth they put them on the right-side of the keyboard instead of below the screen I will never know. They are easy enough to disable regardless, and I see they are not included in the 29xx series.
If the 29xx series is anything like the more expensive 59xx series then expect fantastic results!
Richard
Certainly not budget! #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 15:21 GMT
I'm typing this on my low-cost EEE PC (4G with webcam @ £215 inc delivery) and that is closer to a "budget" laptop in my book.
For me, a budget laptop is less than £250 new or £100 on eBay ... so if you must give the little monkeys something to waste their "study" time on then buy some old kit on eBay ... or make them go out and work and buy their own (paper round and saturday job got me my first 8-bit micro nearly 30 years ago 8-)
Ryan Stewart
problem with the price #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 16:28 GMT
$550 is budget, £550 is not.
Joe
Wrong spec #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 16:28 GMT
It comes with a Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 - 1.66GHz CPU not a T7300 2 GHz.
Leo Waldock
CPU #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 20:48 GMT
Joe
I got the CPU spec from running CPU-Z and have just checked with Acer which confirms that I was correct in my review.
Joe
Re: CPU #
Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 23:35 GMT
My apologies. They need to update the acerdirect website because the price link from this review states 1.66 GHz.
David Wiernicki
Budget? #
Posted Thursday 28th February 2008 03:52 GMT
Yes, this has been noted... but jeez, here in the backwards USA, *best buy* has a Dell Inspiron with (albeit) an AMD 64 X2, 2gb, 250gb, and a 17" screen. And it's $949 instead of the $1050 that this Acer is.
To get to $1050 on Best Buy's site you have to go through about seventy laptops!