***Random Acer 1690 questions***

For those who have this laptop (or any in the 1690 series), I have some questions.

1. How much battery life do you get? I've heard 3-4 hrs.

2. How cool is the laptop? Can you use it comfortably on bare skin?

3. Is the laptop quiet? (Hard drive and fan). I've heard some say yes, and I've heard others talk about a buzzing sound.

4. How are the viewing angles on the screen? I've heard they're not too great however I thought the screen looked good, from what I saw of it. What position does the screen look best at? (More forward, back further, etc.)

5. Is the external speaker port on the front annoying? I thought it was an awkward place to put a speaker hook up.

6. Have you had any problems with it? Is it reliable?

That's all for now! Thanks a bunch!

 

I am considering about buying a 1692wlmi myself. In addition to everything mentioned in the above post, I'd also like to know answers to these questions:

How easy is it to replace the memory modules in this model and how is it done?
Are all 533mhz DDR2 so-dimm modules are compatible with this model, and if not, what kind of modules are?

Thank you.

 

I've only had my Aspire 1694WLMI (2Ghz P-M, DDR, X700 128MB) for a few days, but I can answer a few questions:

1. Setting it to 'Word Processing' mode with WiFi on, about 3.5 hours, maybe slightly less.. I'm sure I could get more out of it without WiFi and reducing the screen brightness.

2. When not running games, I find it fine and only warm - most of the heat however is channelled to a panel in the middle of the base of the laptop. With games, it gets too hot to comfortably use on your lap, and it vents a lot of hot air - cards other than the X700 might be cooler though.

3. I've not noticed any buzzing myself, and generally find it to be pretty quiet except when playing games (the fan's on maximum then).

4. My screen is a CrystalBrite, and it has pretty good horizontal angle visibility but not great vertical. Where it looks best tends to depend on lighting conditions (naturally the screen surface is rather reflective).

5. I've only used it with headphones so far, and I found it okay. Were I to have permanent speakers set up it would probably not be the best place. I have had some thoughts about getting a USB sound card (any recommendations on that note?).

6. I can't comment too much on reliability yet. I found the two FAT32 partitions to be strange and messed around trying to resize them, but ended up deleting the second (I'm going to re-create it, or eRecovery moans). My WiFi LED/button acts strangely occasionally, the LED turning off when WiFi is still on, but that might just be my machine.

7. I assume DDR2 SODIMMs are going to be similar to DDR1 ones in both method of replacement and location in the laptop. You have to undo two screws to remove the middle section (which includes the aforementioned heat spreader), and then the memory modules are visible.. I found it was five minutes' work to replace them with two 512MB ones. The bottom module is a little trickier to get at because the case is partially in the way, but it didn't take that long. I can't comment too much on DDR2 compatibility, but if the speed is the same as your the original RAM it should be compatible.

 

thanks for the reply!

 

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=10769

 

Thanks for the replies...Has anyone had these issues: 1. screen wobbles slightly when typing 2. When closed, top flexes when pushed 3. When latched, there's some movement...not completely secure.

Should I be concerned about this? Does it mean the build quality's not good?

 

***bump***