Acer Aspire 6920G-6021 (Gemstone)

I will update this frequently because right now I'm dead tired.

Overview: The laptop I'm going to review is The Acer Aspire 6920-6021, Gemstone series. It's a cross between a mainstream 15.4" and a 17" desktop replacement, giving you the 16" 16:9 widescreen laptop. Key specs:

- Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 x64, upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 x86
- Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T5750 2 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 cache
- 3 GB DDR2 Samsung RAM
- 320 GB Western Digital hard drive
- nVidia GeForce 9500M GS (512 MB dedicated, 1,791 MB shared)
- 16" 16:9 Samsung widescreen LCD (1366x768, 8 ms response)
- CD-RW, DVD+/-RW, Blu-Ray ROM
- 802.11 ABGN
- HDMI out, 5.1 surround out
- Dolby Home Theater virtual surround sound speakers with Tuba CineBass booster

Why buy: I bought this laptop for mechatronics engineering university work with a fair gaming capability. I was going to go for The HP DV6975CA with The GeForce 8400M GS, however after seeing the graphics capability in this one, I was sold. The other features are quite standard for a medium-high end laptop: T5750 processor, 3 GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive, Blu-Ray, HDMI, etc.

Where bought: I bought this on Sunday July 20, 2008 at Audiotronic for $1,099 CAD + 13% tax. I think it was an excellent deal considering the graphics and power of this laptop.

Build: The 6920G has a shiny exterior finish with an LED Acer logo on the cover, 2 lights on either end of the hinge, a ring of light around the power button, and a backlit touch-sensitive media controller to the left of the keyboard. The entire top row of the lower half of the laptop is dedicated to The Dolby Home Theater speakers, which, although aren't surround, sound better than most other laptop speakers. The entire bottom section is silver and has grooves which promote grip, along with a touchpad that blends in nicely. A fingerprint reader is embedded between the 2 mouse buttons.
The entire laptop case is made of very strong plastic, as pressing the back of the lid didn't affect The LCD. The lid doesn't wobble a lot, a sign of a strong hinge.

Screen: The screen is an Acer CineCrystal 16:9 16" 1366x768 widescreen LCD display. No dead pixels are present.

Speakers: The speakers take up the entire top row of the bottom half of the laptop. Made by Dolby, the speakers are labelled as Virtual Surround Sound however it's stereo. Although better than most laptop speakers, they're not the best out there.

Processor: The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 clocked at 2 GHz. Bootup for Windows (clean install) is under a minute. The hard drive is a 5400 RPM Western Digital with 320 GB of storage, 298 GB after formatting. The laptop came with 3 GB of DDR2 RAM, rated at 4.5 by WEI. The laptop ocassionally hangs when playing a game or running a demanding program, but otherwise is very responsive and smooth. I play Call Of Duty 4, Crysis, Halo 2, Counter Strike: Source, etc. on this laptop. It runs COD4 and Crysis on medium settings at 1024x768 and Halo 2, CS:S, GRAW2, and NFS maxed out.

Benchmarks:
- 1 million values of Pi: 29 seconds

Heat/noise: Operating in room temperature (22 C) the laptop's fan rarely runs. The wrist rest is quite cool. The fan turns on normally when 1) room temperature is 24 C or higher or 2) I'm playing a game. Optical drive is silent even if a disc is inserted.

Keyboard/mouse: The keyboard has a slant on the right of the spacebar. Enter key takes 2 rows, allowing the \ key to be on the 4th row. Left Shift is smaller than ususal due to a second \ key. The keyboard has French characters labelled in red.
Touchpad blends in nicely with the surroundings and supports Synaptics' drivers for virtual tapping, scrolling, and tap zones. A fingerprint reader resides between the mouse buttons.
The CineDash media controls reside to the left of the keyboard, containing a mute, volume, scroll, Enter, seek, and Hold buttons. These buttons are backlit and touch-sensitive.
To the right of the keyboard resides 4 shortcut keys: Wireless, Internet, Email, and Bluetooth. No Bluetooth hardware was installed in my laptop even though the drivers and the button exist (weird).

I/O ports: Ports include:
- Ethernet
- Phone line
- VGA
- HDMI
- Line-in, mic, headphones (combines to form 5.1 out)
- 4 USB ports (1 on the left, 3 on the right)
- 5-in-1 card reader (front left)
- Expresscard

Wireless: The 6920G has built-in wireless N. No Bluetooth nor infra-red.

Battery: 8-cell. Battery lasts 3-3.5 hours when surfing The Net or doing Word, 1-1.5 hours when playing Halo 2 maxed out.

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 x64 comes preloaded with it. No recovery discs are present, however 2 recovery partitions are present. Lots of Acer software and trials are preloaded, which is why I did a fresh install of Vista Ultimate SP1 x86. You can order recovery discs.

CS: Customer support is average. Wait time was 17 minutes, but the rep was professional and knowledgeable. Doesn't seem outsourced as no accent was detected. They offer email and phone support. Comes with 1 year manufacturer's warranty, with the option to extend for another 2 years for only $99 CAD. I might get the extended warranty after a year.

Conclusion: I would definitely recommend this laptop to another user. In my opinion, this laptop is geared towards a student/home/office user who is also a medium gamer and enjoys watching movies (HD or SD). The 16" form factor falls just short of the 17", and is a much better choice over The 8920G (18.4") in my opinion since many of the specs are the same. Very reasonably priced, very pretty, and very powerful.

PROS
- GeForce 9500M GS: 1st of its kind
- Powerful mainstream processor (T5750), 3 GB RAM, lots of HDD
- Gorgeous finish, very sturdy
- Blu-Ray, 5.1, and HDMI

CONS
- Fan is directed at The LCD (I've been assured by Acer support that this will cause no negative side-effects)
- Wish it were 15.4" so it fits in my backpack and not a 17" bag

Undervolting: I've successfully undervolted this CPU from 1.25 V to 1 V with no loss in performance. At 0.96 V I got a BSOD.

Accessories I have:
- Logitech MX Revolution
- Dynex 7-port USB hub
- Kingston 8 GB USB drive
- SanDisk Cruzer 2 GB USB drive
- Kingston 4 GB SD card
- Altec Lansing V4121 2.1 speakers
- SimpleTech 250 GB external HD