Friday, April 26, 2013
Acer Aspire 5920 User Manual
Best Buy had the Acer 5920-6313 for $1,049 but I missed that deal so I had to find mine on ebay. I bought one from "HD Gamer store," one of the many aliases of a company called Dealtree which specialize in Best Buy returns. But instead of getting the advertised "Like new in its original box" I got a non-working, physically broken notebook with no box or accessories what so ever. This company wouldn't take responsibility and fix the problem so I had to send the notebook to an Acer certified lab, pay extra cash for the repair and wait for another five weeks. The tech determined the notebook screen to be faulty with no relation to the physical damage which wouldn't have happened anyway had the notebook been in its original box and not so poorly packed, but still Dealtree refused to acknowledge their fault and take full responsibility.
In short, this was the worst ebay experience to date but there is another reason why I'm telling you all this. While waiting for the notebook to come back from the lab I bought another 5920-6313 from a different seller. That allowed me to pit two 5920's in this review as well as comparing the original screen with the replacement screen on the repaired unit.
Build and Design
Acer marketing named their new Aspire line style "Gemstone" but we'll call it the pebble. A rounded, dark outer form combined with the yellowish gray stone-like inside reminds me of natural river pebbles. However, nature stops when it comes to the keyboard area. The somewhat eccentric keyboard has a high tech look combing lots of blue LEDs, grooved geometric lines and angles including a slanted space bar.
You can love it or hate it but you have to applaud Acer for the innovative style, especially in contrast with Dell's 1520/1720 styling statement which mainly consists of different colors for the lid. Another point for Acer.
Too bad the pebble doesn't come without design flaws. The glossy lid looks quite nice with the "floating" Acer logo but is a finger print magnet. The lid prevents any rippling to the screen and is opened with a car boot like handle, but it isn't as easy to use as the traditional slider. In addition, I don't feel comfortable applying more upward pressure to the handle when lifting the lid all the way up so I only use it to free the latch and then raise the lid by holding the non-moving screen bezel instead.
- 15.4-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) CCFL Crystalbrite (glossy) screen
- Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz , 667MHz FSB)
- 2GB DDR2-667 SDRAM
- 160GB 5400 RPM SATA HDD
- HD DVD / DVD-RW drive
- Nvidia Geforce 8600m GT 256MB DDR2
- 802.11a/b/g WLAN
- Two Speakers and a built-in subwoofer
- Windows Vista Home Premium
