(Source: NotebookReview.com)

In contrast to TrustedReviews’ assessment of the Acer Aspire 9800, CNET only awards the 17.3-pound notebook an overall rating of 6.8 out of 10 (TR awarded 8 out of 10) in their recent review of it.

Based on their conclusion, it seems that this relatively weak rating reflected the Aspire 9800’s sheer lack of portability and lousy ergonomics - despite its strong feature set. While I realised its lack of portability would be a heavy drawback (no pun intended), ergonomics was something I believe most of us had forgotten.

But if you’re looking for a HD-DVD-enabled notebook with all the multimedia features to make HD video playback a dream, then the 9800 is probably still one of your best bets. 20.1″ of screen real estate, a 2.16GHz Core Duo processor and a 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7600 will still blow your mind out, even if your muscles won’t appreciate the 17.3-pound monster.

(Source: bit-tech.net)

A few months back, bit-tech.net rolled in a review of the AL2032WA while reviewing five of the best 20″ LCD screens at that time. So if you’ve read that, you’re probably not a stranger to one of Acer’s stronger, though not strongest, offerings.

If you haven’t though, here’s one by PC Plus - who surprisingly awards the Acer AL2032WA a very high 4 out of 5 overall rating despite its relative age in the market (it’s been out for months, with new competitive offerings from other manufacturers already introduced).

Nevertheless, there is really no reason to complain due to its solid design, strong connectivity (analogue and digital, S-Video, and A/V Composite), and 8ms response time (not the best even by Acer’s standards today but good nevertheless).

(Source: TrustedReviews)

This is exactly what I need. Imagine wireless connectivity outside of hotspots… (drool…). Yes, I’m talking about the HSDPA-enabled Acer Aspire 5650 notebook we talked about in January - which TrustedReviews managed to get for a full review.

Besides HSDPA-support, this 15.4″ laptop comes with all the basics: Core Duo T2300 (1.66 GHz) processor, up to 2GB RAM, a 100GB hard drive, DVD dual-format writer, and a 128MB GeForce 7600 Go. Of course, you’ll have to fork out around £999 (US$1,856) for it - though you can certainly expect lower prices state-side.

Overall, the 5650 managed to push the right buttons, with TR awarding it a strong overall rating of 8 out of 10, and a solid conclusion: “Thanks to an embedded HSDPA SIM the Acer is the best notebook we’ve tested for mobile connectivity. The spec of the rest of the notebook is good but on the downside its fairly large and heavy, sports a disappointing screen resolution and graphics performance is under par.”

(Source: BIOS Magazine)

PC Advisor comes in with the second review of the 17″ Acer Aspire 9410, but unlike BIOS Magazine’s review, it’s not in-depth enough and it numerically rates the 9410 a little to high for my taste.

With a feature rating of 8 out of 10, and a value for money rating of 10 out of 10, it seems a bit weird that they concluded so lukewarm-ly: “It’s big, but not so big as to be cumbersome. Well-designed and easy to use, the Acer has great features and a good screen. It’s just a pity about the graphics.”

IMHO, the lack of a more powerful graphics card and robust multimedia features should have impacted its “value for money” rating just a bit, don’t you think so?

(Source: TrustedReviews)

The Acer Idea 500 media center PC released not too long back finally gets the review treatment, and from CNET UK too. Not surprisingly, Acer’s latest attempt at digital convergence gets a thumbs up, with an overall rating of 9.1 out of 10.

A lot of nice stuff was said about the Idea 500, including but not exclusive to its simple, yet well thought out styling, wide variety of connectors and quiet operation. That’s not to say it was seen as the perfect media center PC. Relatively poor 3D graphics performance and its lack of upgradability on the hardware front did pull it down a little.

Overall, CNET deemed that, “The Acer Aspire iDea 500 is the best Media Center PC we’ve seen. Aesthetically it’s inspired by traditional AV equipment, so it’ll sit alongside or replace your existing DVD player without looking out of place. It’s not very upgradeable, but it’s packed with just the right multimedia components to make the most of the Intel Viiv platform.”

FYI, the price range quoted for the Idea 500 was £840 - £898, not too far off from the initial estimate of £899 provided by one of our readers earlier.

(Source: Laptops Direct)

During the most recent Acer UK product briefing, the Acer Aspire 3100 was brought up as a potential new notebook offering. For now, it looks like a lower-end clone of the recently unveiled Aspire 5100 (which BTW seems like a lower-end clone of the Ferrari 5000).

Instead of a high-end AMD Turion 64 X2 processor, the 3100 will come with a (relatively) budget-class Sempron 3200. It’s other specs are commendable though, with 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 100GB hard disk drive and a DVD dual layer drive.

The price of this 15.4″ wasn’t revealed at the briefing, but some online retailers seem to have stock of the notebook already - with Laptop Direct placing a £479.95 price tag (inclusive of VAT) on it. This translates to about US$890, which doesn’t look to shabby considering that this figure will probably be smaller state-side.

[News via TrustedReviews]

Read more news and reviews on the Acer Aspire 3100 notebook.

(Source: Hardware Upgrade Italia)

The stylish 12.1 ultraportable Acer debuted at Computex 2006 has finally been reviewed, but its by a Russian site though. So, I can only hope my understanding of Babelfish’s translation is accurate.

From what I understand, they found the Acer Ferrari 1000 stylish or as Babelfish goes, “cannot be dull and uninteresting”. However, their had one key concern with the F1000: The need for frequent care of the housing of the notebook, i.e. smudge marks sticking to the finish. They also found it difficult to judge the Ferrari 1000’s AMD Turion 64 X2 processor with respect to Intel’s Core Duo due to the relative “newness” of AMD’s processor offering.

All in all, ZOOM.CNews.ru awards Acer’s latest ultraportable offering a strong, but restrained overall rating of 7.9 out of 10. But they did note that theirs was an engineering model, and thus, not necessarily as polished as the one that we will bring home.

(Source: Acer)

Remember the 22″ Acer AL2216W LCD monitor announced last month? Well, no surprise if you don’t because barely any information had surfaced then, but no excuses now because it has officially been launched in the US - at a recommended price of US$399.

A few things have been clarified since the earlier announcement. One: The AL2216W does come with DVI-input (some had been speculating that it would not). Two: It’s priced right at US$399. MobileWhack quoted a whopping 70,000 yen (~US$600) a few weeks back, and some thought that its Japanese price would reflect its price stateside.

But there is one thing that will definitely nag potential buyers. Last month when the AL2216W was first announced, Acer stated clearly that it would be replaced a few months down the road with a HDCP-enabled version. The recent press release said nothing about this, so I would expect that Acer’s previous announcement still holds - especially since it didn’t quote the AL2216W having HDCP-support.

Wait? Yeah, I’d think so.

[News via Acer]