Acer Aspire 5920G is only offered with a glossy Crystal Bright screen with WXGA resolution (1280*800). 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, Acer Aspire 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.
In general, the screen is really crisp and bright. In fact, the screen is so bright that everything actually looks a little washed out. Not a single dead pixel exists. Unfortunately, the viewing angle, especially from the top, is not very good. From side to side the screen looks passable. There is also quite a bit of light leakage from the bottom of the screen.
Acer Aspire 5920G Webcam and Built-in Microphone
Above the screen, the webcam seems to stand out. After all, it is also the latch. When the webcam turns on, a tiny green LED next to it will light up. At first, the webcam appears to be a total disappointment considering that it is only 0.3 megapixel. This means that 640*480 is the maximum resolution. While it is unlikely that most people will use this as a dedicated camera, Acer should at least use a 1.3 megapixel camera like its competitors. Aside from the disappointing resolution, the quality of the camera excels. Both the lighting and color appear true. Lastly, the built-in software lacks many advance functions. You can only take pictures and not video.
Two microphones are positioned on the right and left side of the webcam. The quality of the microphone is astounding. When I talked over Skype using just the built-in microphone, the other party reports crystal clear sound. There were also NO ECHOES on the other end, even though I didn’t use headphones.
Acer Aspire 5920G Speakers
Acer made the speakers one of the key selling points of the Aspire. The built-in Acer eAudio software allows users to change to different modes such as music, gaming, video etc. and toggle surround effect. There is also a handy volume scroll wheel on the front of the laptop. Together, the two speakers above the keyboard and one subwoofer at the bottom create exceptional sound and are almost as good as external speakers. For this laptop, external speakers or headphones aren’t a necessity.
Acer Aspire 5920G Processor and Performance:
Acer Aspire 5920G model in this review comes with the Intel T7300 processor (2 GHz) and 160GB 5400rpm hard drive. It does not have Intel Turbo Memory, which yields questionable performance gain anyway. When I first turned on the laptop, it took a while to boot into Windows. When I do, the system automatically starts installing Acer utilities, which I will talk about later in the review. With the default factory settings, the laptop proves to be very snappy and responsive. I did not experience any delays as some other Vista users mentioned. Almost all programs such as Firefox open instantaneously. Of course, Acer Aspire 5920G runs much faster than my previous Inspiron 6000 with Pentium M 1.73 GHz and Windows XP. After removing some unneeded software from startup, it takes approximately 45-seconds for the laptop to boot completely.
For games, I’ve tried Cube, TrackMania Nations, Silkroad, and America’s Army so far, and they ran really well even when the GPU is underclocked in “balanced” power mode. I did experience a slight performance increase after installing the NVIDIA 168.18 driver from LaptopVideoToGo.
Acer Aspire 5920G Heat and Noise:
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 Acer Aspire 5920G running at its highest speed produces roughly the same amount of noise as my old Inspiron 6000 under lightest load.
Acer Aspire 5920G Optical Drive
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.
Acer Aspire 5920G Keyboard and Touchpad:
Typing on the Acer Aspire 5920G 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.
Acer Aspire 5920G 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 Acer Aspire 5920G’s touchpad are extremely loud and stiff. The annoying clicking sound is easily heard several feet away.
The buttons on the two sides of the keyboard can be used to launch applications and to control wireless activities and media playback. It is a relief that they are nowhere as loud as the touchpad buttons. The Bluetooth and Wi-Fi buttons on the left side will light up and flicker in accordance to the wireless status. On the right side, there are five touch-sensitive buttons. The four blue buttons that light up controls media playback. When you brush those buttons, they brighten briefly then dim. The fifth touch sensitive button opens up the Acer CD/DVD making software. Lastly, a shiny blue “e” button on the upper-right of the keyboard launches Acer Empowering utility. The media buttons are certainly useful, but it is easy to brush the touch sensitive buttons accidentally and trigger unwanted actions. But again, Acer provided software to let you adjust the sensitivity.
Acer Aspire 5920G Input and Output Ports:
The only thing I would like to mention is that the USB port on the right side is located about one millimeter from the optical drive. That makes it impossible to use a USB stick and the optical drive at the same time. Personally, I do not think it is a problem. Since the port is on the right side, it will most likely be used for something like a mouse. Unless you use up all three ports on the left, it is unlikely that you’ll ever REALLY need that one USB port.
Here is the list of input/output ports:
Left
· VGA port
· Ethernet port
· Modem Port
· 3 USB 2.0 ports
· HDMI (Yes, HDMI)
· S video
· IEEE 1394
· ExpressCard/54 slot
Right
· One USB port
· Kensington lock slot
Front
· 5 in 1 card reader
· Line-in jack, microphone in jack, and headphones/speaker/line-out jack.
Acer Aspire 5920G Wireless:
The Intel 4965AGN card in 5920G works very well. The range is noticeably better than the Intel Pro 2200 (b/g) card in my previous notebook. I only have a G-router so that the speed is approximately the same. My Acer Aspire 5920G also has built-in Bluetooth, but it is not present on all models. I can transfer files and sync wirelessly with my Dell Axim x51v PDA without any problem. Lastly, the infrared port comes standard in the front of the notebook. The positioning is perfect for controlling the laptop with a remote. I happened to have a Media Center remote, and it can control the laptop perfectly up to 9 feet away.
Acer Aspire 5920G Battery:
Every Acer Aspire 5920G comes with an eight-cell 4800mAh battery. In “balanced” power mode, Acer Aspire 5920G lasts about 3:40 minutes while browsing and typing documents. For such a powerful laptop, the battery life is simply amazing. It is safe to say that this laptop can last up to four, even five hours with minimum brightness and lowest processor and GPU speed.
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