- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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2.5 stars
"Hot, bulky, constant faults. Though some good features."
Pros: Well most of all the price, i managed to haggle down the price from $1000 to $840 and on top of that it had a $150 cashback, so $690 for a feature packed computer (i'm sure that my comp is a more recent version of this model). See below for the cons.
Cons: The heat is a massive issue, sometimes to hot to touch, simply from it sitting on my couch, this may have contributed to the few times it has switched off. Too much too list with 250 words, so see below..
Summary: [CONS]
I now know that this computer needs to be completely flat and on a hard surface, as it is prone to heating up fast and becoming extremely hot. It can become quite noisy also, that goes for the disc drive also, which has been replaced once and i am guessing will be again when serviced next(still under warranty for another couple of months thankfully). I have had it switch off on me and not turn back on for days a couple of times now (since being serviced) and also once before the service, which i think was related to the battery adaptor because the power light was not on the computer nor the adaptor.. next day it worked, i called acer after this and after 14 days without a computer and since then even after they had installed a new hard drive and optical drive, i have had more trouble.. Oh and webcam has started to freeze up constantly.. and my sound has had a couple of issues of freezing up and static like noise recently) and the volume control sometimes fails to work.
The screen is fine when directly in front of it, otherwise everything is unclear (but not to the point of it being a good security measure in a public place).. On that, it is quite a bulky, heavy machine, so that combined with the need for it to be flat it is really just a compact pc.. that should be left on the desk...
It really is a shame because besides the bulkiness this really is not a bad machine for the price..
[THINGS THAT MAY NOT BE DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE COMPUTER]
If you put your comp into hibernate, there is no guarantee you will be able to reconnect back to a wireless network as often when i do this, no networks can be found and the only way to solve it is to reboot the computer, which sucks bigtime when you have a downloaded movie or a dozen web pages open needed for an assignment.. Oh and also unsure if this is entirely related to Windows Messenger but after a google search i realise i am not the only one with the issue but when using msn the synaptics touchpad enhancements stop working till next time you restart your computer (this is the issue that brought me to this site :P) Not sure if it is my computer, my cable connection or IE, but i would not recommend using IE as your browser, it is excruciatingly slow... I have been using Google Chrome since it was released and find it is at least twice the speed and far more functional i will also add.
[PROS]
The web cam is pretty good when it does not freeze up, for 1.3mp it is pretty clear, with no blurring, the keyboard is a nice size, 4 usb ports, card slot, express card slot (though i am not sure what i use that for hehe), fairly fast for opening programs, though over the past 10 months there has been a significant decrease in performance speed, though that is likely user related i am guessing, maybe i need to do something to speed that back up. Lots of quick keys, for email, bluetooth, web, wireless and media keys. That graphics are good, the sound is great (most of the time, occasional static lately). You get a ton of trial games with the comp and some are pretty awesome lol, but that is no reason to buy an acer... My opinion is to save a little more and buy a whole different brand... I would not be buying with acer again... Not to mention that when you call for servicing, you get every excuse for what the problem is, the response is to back up your system and reset it back to the original settings, see if that will work... And make sure you call from a landline, last week i called i was caller 32 and waited for at least 30 minutes..
