Bigger, better: Acer Aspire 9800 - Review

Penny Pinching

Though the general specifications of the Acer 9802AWKM are satisfactory, we were slightly disappointed that Acer opted to implement the cheaper version of the Intel Core Duo Processor. The T2250 runs at 1,73 GHz with a front side bus of 533 MHz, 133 MHz less than the standard Core Duo. Acer have splurged on some of the other system components, for example the system has a nVidia GeForce Go 7600 Graphics processor with 256MB of memory, a 120 GB hard drive and 2 GB of memory as standard. A decent combination of system components that offer good performance.

Acer have also included a TV-Tuner that is suitable for both DVB-T (uncoded only) and analogue television, a 1,3 megapixel webcam is also present. Though the Acer's speakers provide high quality sound at a respectable volume a separate quality speaker set will always come out on top. Due to the dimensions of the notebook, Acer has had plenty of room for fitting a multitude of connection possibilities. The 9802AWKM has a serial and parallel port something we hardly come across anymore on modern notebooks, for attaching a second monitor the Acer has a DVI-D connector with HDCP support. Acer have also successfully fitted both a PC Card and its successor an ExpressCard allowing for both future and backwards compatibility. A card reader has also been included though we would have liked to have seen a CompactFlash slot included as well. Like any high quality notebook Wireless LAN, Bluetooth 2.0 and Gigabit LAN are all present.

All in all the somewhat hefty Acer doesn't have to be ashamed of its specifications though we do feel slightly cheated by the somewhat lacklustre processor that Acer have used.