Which Acer for me?

I was thinking either this:

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Acer_As..._inch_HD_TFT_Display_LX.APQ0X.351/version.asp

or this:

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Acer_Aspire_5920H_Gemstone_Laptop_LX.AN60X.001/version.asp#top

I'm mainly looking for light gaming and good sound quality. The Gemstone Blue has an inbuilt Subwoofer which is VERY impressive, but I could always buy separate speakers. It's also quite heavy, and the cheaper one is lighter, though it's GPU isn't that great.

Any other suggestions available in Ireland are great. My budget doesn't go any higher than the price of the Gemstone Blue though(which is fantastic value IMO, but again it might be a bit heavy).

I also need more battery life than my Znote which is quite poor. I'd like it to be near 3 hours(for typing and web browsing, not gaming!), my Znote started at 2 hours and now after a little more than a year is at a paltry hour and a half :|

I need something that's better than my current slightly messed up Znote 6615WD(1 Gig Ram, Core2Duo 1.83ghz Geforce Go7600) that'll be able to play this year's games.

 

I'd go withe the cheaper, but maybe it's just me. For light gaming is good enough I think. And yeah, you can always buy new speakers, and better for sure than the in-build ones.
Check the forum for more opinions and benchmarks. Here are some reviews.Unfortunately there is no review for 6920 there.


In fact when I saw this laptop I hated my self coz I spend 500 euros for my Aspire 5715, and not added 200 euros and by this 5920.

Edit: About battery life, the 5920 have a 8 cell battery which provide more battery life than the 6 cell one that 6920 have. But either way I don't think that you can reach 3 hours battery life..Dedicated GPU drain a lot of power. Still, I can be wrong.

 

neither,dont buy ACER!!!get Dell from outlet but not ACER

 

I'm not sure but dell with this specs will cost more. 'Europe' is synonym of 'expensive' for me But you should check dell anyway, maybe you'll find something better.

 

Have checked Dell, we have poor choice over here, no Vostros.

 

What's the battery like on the Gemstone Blue?

 

What do you mean? Its a 6-cell Lithium Ion, I'd say about 2 hours battery life or less. If you undervolt, decrease LCD brightness and stuff, this will increase battery life.

 

Well, presumably it has power saving features built in, so how long will it last on those on? My Zepto only lasted 2 hours at first and now an hour and a half. Dread to think how short it'd be without them.

 

Hi! I have acer 5920g. mine take about 2 1/2 hours of battery life on balanced mode. this is a great laptop i don't have any problem. the only difference is mine has 8600GT video card.

 

Hmm I guess it may be worth investing in a bigger battery at some stage.

 

Maybe 5920 is offered with different batteries. The offer you showed us is with 8 cell battery..Acar claims that it has 3.5 hours battery life. Which easily may not be true though.

@e30sep11 What battery you have?

 

The Gemstone Blue only has about...

I'm wondering about battery just for typing, web browsing, and battery for watching video(not Blu-ray or anything, just normal videos I've saved on my computer).

If it's a little bit more than my Znote that'd be great. If not that'd kind of suck.

 

The thing is, GPU drains a lot power even when not performing heavy graphic tasks. Anyway I think a 8-cell battery and 8600 GS will give you 2,5h for sure.. maybe 3h. Personal opinion though.

 

Surely the GPU has power saving modes though to drop to the performance of a crappier GPU?

 

Yeah I heard that actually they have this option, but I've never owned laptop with GPU so I can't confirm.. sorry

 

:s :s :s :s :s :s :s :s

 

I have got the aspire gemstone blue 16" - this one is just great, I love it)) Spit in face to those, who say "Dont get an acer"

 

How heavy is it? Do you have trouble carting it around?

 

Around 2,5-3kg..6lbs ?

 

I can't tell anything about how much it weights, Ican surely say, that it is NOT heavy, its just perfect =) I do not have any problems with carrying it around, recommend you to get a case. The sound is the best i've ever heard on laptops, the logotype Acer, shines like the apples one, looks very nice)

 

Folker, I'm wondering about the sound. It's hard to think that laptop speakers can be any good, but it has a subwoofer. I'm interested as to what that sounds like.

Could you take a recording of a fairly bassy piece of music or something playing? If I listen with my Portapros I should be able to get a good idea of the frequency spectrum.

 

Also, what's the battery life like? I'm talking on full power saving. My Znote started out at a teensy bit over 2 hours and is now an hour and a half. It'd really need 2 and a half hours.

 

This forum is kind of slow :|

 

sounds like you may wanna invest in 2 batteries... just to be safe

 

The sound is VERY good, I can't record it now, because i do not have proper equipment... I will tell you my battery life later, because i haven't checked that yet

 

Did you get around to it? Also, what's the build quality like? My current laptop (Znote) feels a bit shaky.

 

Did you get around to it? - sorry, I do not understand (my english is not so cool, I'm from Ukraine The build quality is good, better then other aspire models, and definetely better then the travelmate ones.

 

Just wondering if you had a chance to test the Battery life.

 

Hey Kittie Rose, I bought a 6920 16" screen a while back. I love it.

It's been years since I had a laptop and this one is great. It may be a bit on the heavy side but I have no trouble carrying it around.

So far the build quality has impressed me, but I am no laptop officianado.

The battery seems ok, I have it set to the high performance power plan as I rarely use the battery. Last night I watched a movie and the battery dropped 20% by the end of it I seem to recall. I normally use it for games, movies etc. Damn thing runs Medieval 2, ROME TW, Assassins Creed, Grid, Medal of Honour in tip top fashion. Can not complain about that. I will see about a battery test later today, will aim for just browsing and a movie.

I doubt you will be sorry you bought a Gemstone Blue.

 

Kittie Rose if i am not mistaken both the 6920g and 5920g have 2+1 speakers and according to some reviews the sound the reproduce may very well be one of the best in laptops and easily replace cheap external speakers. Also the battery life on the 5920g according to reviews should be above 2h at max brightness and full load to 3h+ and min brightness, no wlan and idle. In terms of weight and portability 6920 is slightly larger and 0.5kg heavier than the 5920g, 3.5 and 3kg respectively.

If the design is important to you, get the 6920g, but if like me you are interested in pure performance then we have the same problem. I am also thinking between these 2 models. From what i have available here I have the following choices:

Acer 5920g

T7700 2.4 GHz, 2GB DDR2 (2x1024), VGA GeForce 8600M GT 512MB DDR2, DVDRW HD DVD, Li-Ion 8-cell - 805e or 1240$

T8100 2.1 GHz, 3GB DDR2 (1x2048+1x1024), VGA GF 8600GS 256MB DDR2, DVDRW DL, Li-Ion 6-cell - 760e or 1170$

T8300 2.4 GHz, 4GB DDR2 (2x2048), VGA GeForce 8600M GS 256MB DDR2, DVDRW DL, Li-Ion 6-cell - 845e or 1300$

T9300 2.5 GHz, 4GB DDR2 (2x2048), VGA GeForce 9500M GS 512MB DDR2? (not sure), DVDRW HD DVD, Li-Ion 6-cell 935e or 1450$

Acer 6920g

T5750 2.0 GHz, 4GB DDR2 (2x2048), VGA GF 9500M GS 512MB DDR2, DVDRW DL, Li-Ion 6-cell 925e or 1435$

other componets are: 250GB HDD 5400rpm, 15.4"/16" WXGA screen, 2+1 speakers, LAN, WLAN, 0.3Mpx cam etc.

Now since my budget is 800e, 900e if i stretch it, would be wise do give extra 120e for T9300 over T7700 and 9500GS over 8600GT but 6cell instead of 8cell. And what about the Acer 6920g how is the T5750 compared to T7700?

Sorry to hijack the thread, but since we both have the same problem it think it would not be wise to open another thread for the same problem:wink:

 

A day in the life of a battery.

The battery is fully charged at 100%. I unplugged the power at 17:24.

Somewhat optimistically the battery initially reports that I have 13 hours left, the power plan automatically changed form ‘high performance’ to ‘balanced’.

I opened Word to keep a log. With Microsoft Word open it says 4 hrs 30 minutes left.

It’s time for a movie, Charlie Wilson’s War if you are interested. It’s still Charlie Wilson’s War if you are not interested. I shall be watching using VLC player.

Movie starts and the battery reports 3 hours and 32 minutes left.

One and a half hours later the movie is over and I have 1 hour 45 minutes of battery life. Feeling a bit lazy, so on comes another movie. In Bruges. Media player has me covered this time. Will the battery last?

No. I received the 10% warning at 20:19 and plugged in the power.

 

This is the Acer Gemstone Blue 6920G with the 6 Cell battery? So about 3 and a half hours for watching movies?

 

Well according to the times its a little less than 3 hours watching movies till the 10% warning comes up, i doubt that those last 10% will last 30mins and even tough discharging the battery completely is not recommended. But i guess if that was used on full brightness then with minimum brightness the battery could last for another 30mins. Nevertheless i think 3h is good for 6cell battery

 

Yes it's pretty good, it'll last my train journey(which is 2 hours 50 minutes).

 

3 hours with a 6-cell battery..? Watching movies? Very doubtful..

@darkfng You sure your battery is 6-cell..?

 

so 6-cells,3hrs.worrying
Does your Battery have this sign on it?

 

that is one of the more funny posts i've ever seen out side of OT

good one hoggie

 

Well, maybe you're presuming it's off a DVD and it is in fact on a file that is encoded with a not very CPU intensive CODEC?

Also, BIG O! BIG O, BIG O, BIG O!

 

Look out BigO,
i think you may have a stalker

just a thought
all the best,
Phil



BIG O, BIG O

 

The movies were both files, not DVDs. I am using the Acer Gemstone Blue 6920G. Now about this battery, I took it out hoping to see a simple answer to a simple question. Alas, I don't know how many cells it has. It is the one that came from the shop.

Li-ion 14.8v 4800mAh AS07B52

I have no idea what that means, but maybe you do. If there is another way to find out how many cells it has let me know.

BTW these speakers are just rude. Not the kind of bass you need for pumping techno but Oasis, U2 and Mozart sound great.

 

the 6 cell i think is
48.8 Wh Lithium-Ion, 4400 mAh, 11.1V

 

It is 8 cell battery 71W. This is almost the same as a review of the 5920G with T7300 and a 8cell battery.

Battery runtime
Idle, min. brightness, no WLAN: 257 minutes
Full-load, max brightness, WLAN: 160 minutes
DVD, max brightness, no WLAN: 180 minutes

 

So for watching video(not DVDs) on maximum power saving, how long should I get?

 

Maybe he built it in a cave, from scraps?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdA6iRk94Hc

CAST IN THE NAME OF GOD, YE NOT GUILTY.

 

When I am feeling especially lazy I will sit down, watch some movies (not dvds) on maximum power saving and let you know.

 

Good one

@darkfng Do you have your CPU undervolted? I managed to low down my CPU's max multiplier with 0.300V, and, in battery mode, I don't let the CPU to go over 600Mhz, I'm just using SFLT(and 6x eventually). This increased battery life with almost 1/2h.

 

Okay Be sure to.

 

Actually has anyone tried Undervolting the Gemstone Blue? The basic 2ghz model. What kind of results did you get?