Laptop manufacturers are always trying to entice customers by developing and manufacturing the best laptop. With the entry of netbooks, laptop makers not only have to contend with other companies but other products as well. Netbooks, aside from having the basics of being a computing tool, is all more portable, practical and not to mention, fashionable. Laptop companies thus have to make not only laptops but those that include multimedia and entertainment.
Not to be left behind, Acer has come up with a new offering through its Acer AS8940G-6865. The AS8940G-6865 is part of the Aspire series of Acer and it comes as no surprise that it has a rather high price at $1,350.
The AS8940G-6865 wouldn’t be what it is if not for its awesome processor. The Core i7 is the latest processor to come out from Intel that allows you to handle multitasking easily and run computing applications faster. This processor also allows very seamless multimedia functions like listening to music , playing computer games and watching movies. With this inside, the Acer AS8940G-6865 now becomes the best when it comes to multimedia, entertainment and even gaming.
The question that remains is just how powerful the Acer AS8940G-6865 is.
The Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Processor inside the Acer AS8940G-6865 has a 6 MB cache and 1.60GHz speed. The laptop also uses Windows 7 Home Premium as its operating system. If you know computers, then you should be aware that this operating system is much better than Windows Vista. Like with most Acer laptops, it also includes software unique only to Acer. These include Launch Manager, PowerSmart Manager, GridVista, Crystal Eye, InstantOn Arcade, eRecovery Management, and Backup Manager, among others.
One of the problems of using a multimedia laptop is the possibility of lags. To avoid this, the Acer AS8940G-6865 has a 4 GB of RAM which can be upgraded to 8 GB RAM. Now you know why we said earlier that the multimedia functions were seamless. Aside from the very generous RAM, the AS8940G-6865 has a 500GB SATA HDD. A rather impressive storage capacity, don’t you think?
The laptop also includes a 5-in-1 card reader and an optical drive that can read various media formats from compact disks to Blu-ray discs. It even has a USB for a 1.44MB disk drive if ever you still use one.
For users who prefer games, then the Acer AS8940G-6865 can be a smart choice especially with its NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250M graphics card. This is not only good for computer games but also for other applications like editing videos.
Now that we have seen what is on the inside, let’s go to its appearance. The laptop measures
17.3″ x 11.6″ x 1.2″ – 1.7”. Rather large but also somewhat heavy at 4.6kg.
The Acer AS8940G-6865’s TFT LCD screen stands at 18.4” with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a 1920×1080 resolution. To give you the best multimedia experience, it can be connected to external devices like DisplayPort, VGA, and HDMI with HDCP support ports. You can connect to the internet through its Intel® Wireless WiFi Link network connection. You can also connect through the AS8940G-6865’s 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N wireless LAN.
Finally, there is its sound capability. While not as impressive as those found in home entertainment systems, the AS8940G-6865 has a Dolby-optimized Acer CineSurround sound system. It does this by having 5 integrated speakers and a Tuba CineBass booster.
| SPECS | AVAILABLE OPTIONS |
| CPU | Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Processor |
| RAM | 4GB (2GB installed in each of two memory slots) DDR3 1066 SDRAM |
| Screen Size | Acer® CineCrystal full HD 18.4″ (1920 x 1080) high-brightness (220-nit) TFT LCD |
| Operating System | Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium |
| Battery | Eight-cell lithium ion battery: up to 3.0 hours life depending on |
| configuration and usage; 2.0 hours recharge time with power off, 3.0 hours | |
| with power on, 80% charge in 1.0 hour | |
| Graphics | Discrete NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250M graphics (1024 MB of dedicated |
| DDR3 VRAM, up to 1791 MB of shared system memory) |
PROS
The 18.4” HD screen, the Dolby sound system are just two of the many reasons why the Acer AS8940G-6865 is truly a multimedia laptop. The experience is made more enjoyable with the 500GB space for storing those multimedia files and the Intel Core i7 processor. As they say, what more could you want in a multimedia laptop?
CONS
The main problem of the Acer AS8940G-6865 is that it has a short battery life. It runs for about 3 hours. Strong supporters of Acer claim that you can enjoy watching a movie in this span of time. The thing is, what will you do after it? You won’t even get to watch a trilogy with this battery life.
The 18.4” HD screen, while ideal for multimedia, has problems with reflections. The screen has a tendency to have reflections. A tiny nuisance but when watching a movie that has a lot of dark or night scenes, this nuisance becomes very bothersome.
CONCLUSION
The Acer AS8940G-6865 is what a laptop is when you have the best specifications. Much of the credit goes to its use of Intel’s Core i7 processor. Despite the small problems and the price, the Acer AS8940G-6865 remains a very good buy.
Related posts:
- Acer Aspire AS5940G – Laptop Review
- Acer Travelmate 6593 – Laptop Review
- Acer Aspire 8930G-7665 – Laptop Review
Tags: Acer AS8940G-6865, Laptop Review
Acer Travelmate 6593 - Laptop Review
Acer Travelmate 6493 - Laptop Review
Acer Travelmate 6293 - Laptop Review
Acer Aspire 8930G-7665 - Laptop Review
