Acer Aspire 8920G Gemstone Blue Review

Windows Vista® Ultimate", Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz, 800MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache), 18.4"" WUXGA Acer CineBrite™ LCD TFT, 2*2GB RAM, 2*320GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive, 2X Blu-ray Disc™/DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive, Mobile Intel® PM965 Express Chipset with NVIDIA® GeForce™ 9650M GS 512MB VRAM, Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (dual-band quad-mode 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N), 8 cell Li-ion Battery, 6-in-1 card reader (SD™, MMC, MMCplus™, MS, MS PRO, xD), 0.3 MP Crystal Eye Webcam, Bluetooth 2.0, Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint solution, Dolby® Home Theatre Digital Surround Sound Technology, McAfee® Internet Security Suite 60 Day Trial"

The box contains the 8920, power supply, manual, guarantee & a Sony Blu-ray demo disk with various Blu-ray movie trailers on.



After 6 years using 15” screens, it looked huge, with a very attractive outer styling; only problem with the gloss finish is it shows every fingerprint.

Set up was painless, Vista took about 10 minutes to complete its install, creating a system restore & a driver restore disk, was about 45 minutes, reinstallation of drivers can be completed via the Acer Mobility Center, directly from your hard drive, as can a restore to factory defaults through the Acer eRecovery management.

It came with Vista Ultimate 32 bit SP1, there were a few windows updates to get, which downloaded & installed in about 10 minutes, there was also an updated version of Acer Arcade Deluxe which was updated from within the program.

Build quality is excellent, a different league from my old aspire 5110, it feels very solid, & with normal use, no noticeable give on the keyboard, which is positioned nearly central, with the numerical keypad on the right & CineDash Media console on the left. Touchpad is about central with the keyboard, positioned directly under & the same width as the space bar.

The screen is a beauty, my old aspire’s screen looks positively dull in comparison; it can be viewed from a wide angle both horizontally & vertically. The huge width takes a bit of getting used to but I find myself using Acer GridVista a lot more now as it is ideal for this screen size. The included Blu-ray demo, has a couple of comparison clips showing you the benefit of HD, watching normal definition content will never be the same again.
CineDash Media console is a bit of a gimmick, & takes a bit of getting used to but it does what it says & looks pretty cool.



The 5.1 sound works, but this is a notebook, I’d have to be 2” tall & stand on the keyboard to get the benefit, & then I’d have to have eyes at the back of my head, as the front & rear speakers seem to be swapped. The Tuba Cinebass, adds a little bit of bass, nothing out of the ordinary, but all in, not a bad sound for a notebook & probably the best I’ve heard.

Performance.
Windows experience index is 5.1, with memory operations per second being the bottleneck



Windows shows 4gb of Ram, but Everest shows only 3gb is available. I was running Vista 64 bit on my previous aspire & the WEI for memory was 5.9, so it presumably it would be the same on this machine.
It, would be nice if Acer supplied a 64 bit version, all the drivers available for download from support are 64 bit compatible except the Nvidia, which I’m not sure about.

Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GS
I ran the following tests
3DMark 05 – 8009
3DMark 06 – 4814
It should be able to handle all current games, though not on fullest effects on games like Crysis.

Battery life on the power saver plan is about 2 hours 30 minutes as per the specifications.

Very good hard disk performance from the 2 Western Digital Scorpio wd3200’s, considering they are 5400rpm disks, I had a Hitachi 200gb 7200 in my old aspire & it got the same score, 5.3

The 2 physical disks appear as 3 partitions, there are also 2 hidden partitions, presumably for acer system restore.

There is an Intel Robson & Matrix Storage manager driver included, but no onboard Robson (TurboMemory) & the current BIOS doesn’t allow RAID (to my knowledge anyway, I’ll be contacting Acer support regarding that) so seems redundant to me.

Improvements I’d like to see would be Vista 64 bit operating system, internal TV card (included in the next model down) RAID & TurboMemory.

In conclusion, I’m happy with my purchase & consider the price very reasonable considering the specification. Acer seems to have stepped up a notch in terms of quality & I think they will be onto a winner with this model. Now let’s see if they can do something about their technical support.

 

Very funny, I was just doing a search through the forum for "8920G", and I found this one, and only this one.

Very nice review, seems like it has been a good choice.

Where did you buy it and how much did it cost you?

 

Wow. Could You check what mxm type is GF 9650M GS?? Is it II or III MXM?? Is Your 9650M GS has ddr3 memory??

 

Purchased from Acer Direct for £1399.97 http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_8920_Gemstone_Blue_Laptops/prod.asp

MXM II

 

Congrats for you dude

Hmmm, 4.8K in 3DMark 06 is good but not enough for 9series

By the way this is the first ever review for the 8920G, I advise you to improve it with pics so that it would be more useful

Why dont you tell the admin to post it in review section??

 

MXM II so it will fit to acer 5920G. THX for info

 

Hi,
I have this notebook to(aspire8920g with the geforce9650m), is it possible to upgrade these videocard with 8800gts/gtx or later 9800x2 please?
Good and beautiful notebook, but the videocard is slow....
I send a email to mxm-upgrade but they can't give any good advice.
grts

 

damn i got Aspire 5920G from 2 monthes .. wish i could wait

 

If the laptop can accept MXM III or IV then you can upgrade

But check with acer + find some where they sell the 8800m

As you said the laptop is GREAT except the VGA (which i wish acer will upgrade in the near future)

 

Nice review, dude. I saw this at a local store with a 9500GS and T8300 (but everything else is the same) for about $2000 in local currency--wonder if there are different configs or it was just a typo on the info...?

 

nice review

thanks!!

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-6920G-Notebook.8783.0.html

check this review and compare the score of the Acer to the F8SN from ASUS, you know the answer , like the 5920G , Acer was too cheap to use the GDDR 3 version of the NV , and wasting all other good charactersitics of this new laptop.

amen.

PS, the aSUS is also the GDDR2 so can not beat a Dell or Lenovo(Ideapad Y510 in Asia come with the GDDR3 version of NV).

 

Well I know that but the review at notebookcheck is about Acer 6920G which doesn't have Gf 9650M GS onboard, but 9500M GS which is similar to 8600m GT from 5920g (ddr2).

I belive that GF 9650g gs from Acer 8920G has ddr3, however I am not sure is it MXM II type.

 

The 9650M GS has DDR3, the 9500M GS has DDR2.

 

Wow nice! Looks to be a good laptop (i'm using a 5920G), wish you had more pics tho!

 

When it is coming out to the US?
Its May already and still nowhere available.

*edit
Another mini review with video:
http://blog.laptopmag.com/mini-review-acer-aspire-8920g

 

I installed Vista Ultimate 64 bit, Acer do not have a 64 bit driver for the Geforce 9650M GS yet, after trying a few drivers that seemed OK until trying Blu-Ray, I managed to get a Nvidia 7.15.11.7563 driver that works fine including Blu-Ray playback through Acer Arcade, only thing I can't get is a driver for the Foxconn Modem yet, but I never use it anyway.

I ran 3DMark06 & got 5062, a nice improvement from the 4184 on 32 bit with the Acer driver.

 

Nice model except for the VGA factor. I guess 9500 GS or 9650 GS is almost equal to an overclocked 8600 GT.

If i'm not wrong....

 

Nop, Gf 9650m GS has DDR3 memory so it's faster then the 8600m GT ofered in Acer 5920G.

 

Assuming that you have a 8920G with Vista Ultimate 32bit pre-installed and you download a copy of the 64bit Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 to install by performing a clean install, will the current Windows serial number work?

 

Yes, since Vista Microsoft only supplies a key per version (Home Perium, Ultimate, etc). The key for Ultimate works on both 32bit systems and 64bit systems, this is done to support people who bought Vista 32bit and upgraded to 4GB of RAM without having to buy another copy of Vista.

By the way, I was planning on buying this notebook tomorrow (in a few hours actually) but since I just read about the videocard I'm starting to have doubts. This is mainly because I want to be able to play a few games from time to time. So what can we compare a 9650 with in terms of desktop videocards?

EDIT: After reading this interview I'm starting to have doubts about this notebook. It says the reflection of the screen is really bad due to the glossy effect and working outdoors with this machine is not recommended. I am buying this notebook to be able to sit outside in the summer while working but if it gets hard to read anything on this notebook I might be better of with another model. Could you please confirm that the screen reflects a lot and that it's hard to see the screen outside? also could you shed some light on the noiseproduction by this machine? In that same review it is said that the noise made by the fans is fairly irritating while working.

 

I saw it today , was nice and very well built , but it was a bit too big for my taste.

I actually wanted to see the 6920G but it was not out yet here so I played with the 8920G instead........... the one I played with for about a hour had T5750 (2ghz, 2mb L2C , 677mhz FSB), NV9500GS , was not that fast but acceptable and I wanted to install my 3D mark 06 and test it but a sells guy screamed at me something in Thai loud and I went back home without testing it.

Well, I guess it is a great laptop ,priced just right.

I will re-try testing it on Monday , but not sure if I can do it.

Hope Acer makes 14.1 inch version of this wonderful laptop series, with NV9500GS, I think Acer should try this since Acer is losing quite lot of sells to BenQ(S41 series,which has NV8600GS with 256mb GDDR3 in a small case) and ASUS(mainly to the F8SN) in 14.1 inch market in BKK.

 

Yes, that's exactly what I did.

 

The screen does reflect a lot, as do all "glossy" screens, but seems noticeably brighter & sharper than the "matt" screens I have seen. I used it outdoors on a sunny day, as long as you have the screen in the shade & on highest brightness it is usable.

The 9650M GS can be compared to slightly better than the 8700M GT, possibly around 10% better.

 

you can get a protective cover that goes over the glossy screen and makes it a matte finished one.

 

Hello,

I already ask in an oterh topic but asking here, is there any huge difference between 9500 and 9650 ? I am not a hardcore gammer, just time to time. For me I ll use for HD stuff, watching and encoding. Also will use HDMI out to watch movies on my HD TV. If not much differnce i ll buy the one with 9500 as it is 200€ cheaper. Also is this change the battery time ?

Thanks

 

OK good.
The reason I asked is because some Dell's need a specific Dell/Microsoft CD/DVD to accept the windows serial number printed on your desktop/laptop windows label and if you put an OEM Microsoft CD does not accept it.

Is there any way to download the Vista Ultimate SP1 x64 directly from Microsoft??

 

9500M GS is successor of 8600M GT.
9650M GS is successor of 8700M GT.

For HD video there's no difference as both have same PureVideo HD encoding.

 

Thanks and for battery time ? I heared 8700 was less heat consuming which mean more charge for battery no ?

Also both card do Hardware decoding of H264 ?

thanks

 

9500M GS = 8600M GT in new smaller size (uses less power, less heat, and up to 10% faster).
9650M GS = 8700M GT in new smaller size (uses less power, less heat, and up to 10% faster).

Hope it helped .

And yes, both hardware decode H264 (PureVideo HD) .

 

the battery time is about 2 hours 51 minute set on the blanced power setting and that is based on normal use web word processing ect if your going to play a high spec game on there or run a dvd it drops to about 1 hour 10 minutes which is normal for heavy use

 

The model start appearing to some US retailers including buy.com for pre-order.
The configuration model is the AS8920-6671 with price-tag of close to $2500!!!
What happened to $1700 price-tag that Acer was talking about???

 

ooops
error

 

doing a google search, I see jr.com sells the base configuration 18.4" ACER ASPIRE AS8920-6829 for $1299.99
Circuit City has the Acer Aspire AS6920-6621 16" on sale this week for $699.99.

In Canada, they have The Source By Circiut City, selling the ACER ASPIRE AS8920-6829 for an Intro Price of $1,199.99, after May 28, 2008 the price is $1,299.99.

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4232906&JRSource=nsa&nsa=1
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Acer...10331/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
http://www.thesource.ca/estore/product.aspx?product=2510305&language=en-CA

 

Well I got my 8920 notebook today and it is really a great notebook to work on. Speaker quality is nice, not what you are used to on a desktop PC, but still good enough. The only complaint I have right now is the keyboard which is somewhat non-responsive from time to time.

I'm writing this line as if I was on my desktoptyping quite fast and lookng for any erros, as you might see the space dint work a few times andsome keys didnt get registerd even tho I'm sure I hit tem.

*didn't
*registered

It might be becaue Im used to desktop keyboards and I just have to get used to a notebook keyboard, but it's quite annoying when typing large documents.

 

The Acer AS6920 looks like a good deal. However, is the new 9500M GS video card decent? I recently saw Dell's M1530 laptop at my local Bestbuy. After reading how good of a gaming lappy it is I was curious. But after playing with the display model I was turned off by it's looks and feel.

 

Wait a sec!

I noticed on Circuit City's site, for the AS69020-6621 they list under the specs that it uses the "Intel Media Graphics Accelerator X3100 with 358MB of shared graphics memory." This isn't the same as the 9500 GS card mentioned on Acer's spec sheet. So is Circuit City wrong or is this a different model? TIA

 

Hi.
Read my posts here :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3349207&postcount=28
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3349476&postcount=30

XPS M1530 has 8600M GT with GDDR3 and is faster because of it.

That is correct. There are models with integrated (X3100) and dedicated graphics (GeForce Go 9500M GS) .

 

I am hoping one of the new owners of 8920 can answer following before I buy one these little beauties,

Blu-Ray play, Does 8920 playback blu-ray films at 24hz on it's own screen and more importantly will in output 1080p at 24hz via HDMI to a large screen?

Audio output from the HDMI, will the 8920 output HD audio from the HDMI out?

Has anyone here purchased the version with the digital TV tuner?? is it any good and worth losing a hard drive to have it?

I have already written to ACER and telephoned their support and asked them about the Audio and 24hz, they replied to my email but didn't answer any questions and when I phoned the operator/support person he didn't have clue, this is one area that has turned me off buying an ACER, has anyone else here had similar experience with ACER when dealing with support.

Any help/comments etc will be much apprciated. Thanks

 

It can play both on the integrated screen or by HDMI connection. HDMI suppose to have sound to, so...

The tuner is only for DVB-T, so if you're situated in Mozambique... don't buy it.

These are some great product series, the only thing really bothering me is those dead pixels (that, I hope, are not present on every screen, because I hope I can replace mine soon). Maybe if i'll have some free time, i'll review the top configuration based on the 16" model.

 

CQSTELUSH are you from UK ? I live in france but as i want a sytem in english and keyboar in qwerty , i prefer to buy from UK my cousin live overtheir and he can send me

If anyone here from UK have bought this laptop can tell me from where they bought it please ? I saw it on comet : http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/444510/ACER-AS8920G-934G64B

It looks very cheap, isnt therie nay mistake in price ? they are VTA included ? Where do I see their stock status ?

Any other place to recommand with same range price with Top level version of this laptop (AS8920G-934G64B)

thanks alot

 

Hi All,

new owner for abt 3 weeks now.

can anyone confirm for me if the blue led lights on the hinges light up when not connected to the Wall.

ie running off battery.

 

no they do not. they only light up when on the AC adapter.

 

the cheapest place to buy the acer 8920-934g64bn is laskys.com they sell it for 1229.00 pounds.
here is a link to their website.
http://www.laskys.com/pcs_and_laptops/laptops_and_pdas/laptops/acer_aspire_8920g_934g64bn.html

 

Hello everyone,

My first post here

I have decided to buy 8920 - it will arrive in 3 weeks. The decision has been made already but I have a question regarding the built-in cam.
1) Why is Acer using a camera of 0,3 Mpix, according to the specs? There is better cameras used by Acer in other notebooks...
2) Is the camera sufficient for skype etc? I am asking, as now I am using the Logitech one with other specs, and have doubts if 0,3 Mpix is convenient for comfortable video chatting.

Thx for the replay,
Piotr

 

I got my 8920 yesterday, but we had a freeging rainstorm which caused power outage, so it was impossible to fully charge the battery and download the drivers and stuff. I should do that tonight and I'll post my own review this week-end with pictures and probably benchmarks and stuff.

Paid 1540$ Can for it btw. 320g HD, Blu-Ray player, 4G RAM, 2.1GHz processor. Gefore 9500

 

hello, i wanted to ask the people how bought the 8920g. does the laptop come with operating system reinstallation cd, and driver software cds.

 

Not for me, I had to choose UI and Windows Language the first time I booted the laptop, but no CDs. As for the drivers, most of them were up to date, but those that weren't were updated online. Also, most of Acer's proprietary softwares update themselves automatically on start up.

Really great laptop by the way, I absolutely love it. Great for watching movies in the bed room. Great for playing games (well, maybe not Crysis, but regular games are easily played on high settings), and works well in general. Some people seem to have issues with the sound but it is not the case for me, think that might be a problem with the quality assurance on the manufacturer's parts. Got mine for 1540$ CAN with taxes and shipping, could hardly find a better deal, no matter what the size, the purpose or the brand considering all that it offers.

 

I've got he same, but 16 inch and a bit lower specs, i am very happy with it)

 

thank you for the info whiskey jak