AS2012WLMi notebook

I'm doing some notebook researching and am planning to make my purchase in early July. I was initially impressed with the eMachines 6809 price and features until I saw a post about an Acer notebook. The Aspire 2012 is definitely a much sexier notebook with the right combination of power, weight, and battery life I'm looking for. I've checked similar Dell and Gateway notebooks and still like the Acer better. I want to see if anyone has any other suggestions of comparable or better notebooks in the same price range ($1600-1700) since I almost stopped looking too early.

 

how about considering AS2023 and AS2025? or perhaps AS2026 which will be running on Dothan centrinos?

 

Price too [ ][ ]high. It is +Canada$1000.00

 

im thinkin of getting the AS2012WLCi, is there an option sumwhere to enable games to run in the 4:3 aspect instead of 16:10? Wouldn't want the chars to look fat! Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

Yeah you set this in the ATI driver control panel - simply uncheck 'fit to screen.' This will give you 10*7 with black bars around the screen. Better than the squished look.

A lot of newer games support wide screen native resolutions - so you won't have to compromise.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by lewdvig

 

No, that's the AS2012WLCi version. The Mi version has the Radeon 9700, an extra 20 GB of HD, and the 4-in-1 card reader. You can compare on Acer's website

http://www.acer.com/APP/AKC/INTERNET/AACPubli.nsf/AllDocs/E13B300C3AD8134388256E7B005CAB45?OpenDocument

You have the Ci version, which means you basically have no 3D card, only integerated 2D graphics.

 

I guess the specs are different in my country. You can check it out here http://www.shopacer.com.my/store/prod_info.asp?id=15067.

Btw, thanks for the help lewdvig

Has anyone encountered any problems with the 2012?

 

[?]it is different in Malaysia, but in North America, the Ci's version of 2010 series has only cheap Intel Extreme 2, while the higher class Mi version have the ATI MR 9700.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by vai

 

thx for the info selbyn.

I've read your thread about the sound card anomaly. I don't think I'd be able to tell whether the sound card is working fine or not, unless its really a major problem. I guess I'd get myself the external sound card later on so that I can use my altec lansing 4.1 speakers on the lappy. [ ]

 

Dear Lewdvig,

Can you tell me please, what kind of material Acer used for the casing? Is it aluminum or plastic? Acer does not advertise aluminum casing for the 2010 series, only for 2000 and 2020 series.

How is the screen? Do you have problems with the viewing angles? Is the screen bright enough? Do you have the "ii" problem?

Thanks for any indication you may give me.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by vai

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by MD470

 

Dear Selbyn,

What kind of softwear did you use to test the sound ?
Can you give me detail ?
Since I would like to test my acer 2012 mi which I will got it today.

[8D][ ]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by vai

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by lopoz

Is it worth the wait? Here in Europe the new AS2025 (which also has the new dothan if i'm not mistaken) isn't available yet..

From what i read in reviews, the dothan is about 20% faster...

Does the dothan have other advantages? Like for example: less heat production and/or less power consumption?
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

Yes, Intel Dothan does have other advantages, for example, the less power consumption (original centrino 1.7 Ghz vs Dothan 1.7Ghz), and plus, it's build on a 90nm technology. This will allow a better flow of data through it's Strained Silicon Technology. Therefore, the Dothan is better than current Centrinos in speed, and performance. Keep in mind that the higher the Dothan clock speed is, the more power consumption.

I hope this help [], but some info might be wrong, but that's what I got off of Intel's site []. I'm ALSO planning on buying a AS2012, therefore I've been taking a look at it's processor and such.

 

I think I've read somewhere where they did a comparison between the PM-1.5 vs. PM-1.7 and it didn't consume any more power. I'll see if I can find this review and I'll post the link.

-Vb-

 

you are right venom...

the Dothan consumes more juice than Banias when in energy saving mode and less when in performance mode.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by xmancanada

What kind of softwear did you use to test the sound ?
Can you give me detail ?
Since I would like to test my acer 2012 mi which I will got it today.

[8D][]

<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

I use a professional software called SIA-SmaartLive, but that's because it's needed in my work. For the casual user, can do the following:

1. Download free real time analyser at http://www.jdbsound.com/art/gram50.zip

2. Get/Download a pink noise sample, e.g. http://www.media.uio.no/personer/arntm/Testlyder/FasePink.aiff

3. Extract the files in gram50.zip and run the executable. A window titled Spectrogram will appear.

4. From FILE menu, open Volume Control.

5. At the Volume Control window, go to Options menu and select Properties. Select "Recording" and click OK. In the Recording Volume Control window, select "Stereo Mix".

6. Go back to the Spectrogram File Menu and click "Scan Input". A window opens showing default parameters. Change only the following:
a) Sample Characteristics - "Sample Rate (Hz)" to 44k,
b) Sample Characteristics - "Type" to Stereo,
c) Display Characteristics - "Display Type" to Bar,
d) Frequency Analysis - "Frequency Scale" to Log.
e) Click OK.

7. Play the FasePink.aiff file in Winamp or Media Player and put it in a repeat loop.

8. The Spectrogram should now show the frequency spectrum of the pink noise generated through the sound chip.

9. If the audio generated by the notebook's sound chip is not modified (tonally shaped), the bar graph should show a trace sloping downwards almost linearly on average from low to high frequency (Hz).

10. Ensuring that no software EQ is in operation (in winamp, media player, sound manager, etc.), the bar graph will show a non-linear trace with dips at around 900 and 5000 Hz, as well as less low frequency content. (Well, with my 2012WLCi model anyway).

11. Plug in something to the headphones output (well, a pair of stereo headphones is ideal) and see whether the trace straigten's out to that described in step 9. If not, the hardware EQ bypass function is not activated.

12. Let me know if you need to update the alcxinit.dat file to fix this bug.

I've also discovered that the mic/line input may alter the sound of external audio equipment plugged into it (treble roll-off to different degrees). This is probably due to impedance mismatch since it doesn't make sense to share one input jack for both mic and line signals. I've emailed Acer and Realtek on this but no reply yet - maybe no solution.

Cheers.