(Source: NotebookReview.com)

As I wrote at the House of Dell on the 20″ Dell XPS M2010, huge notebooks aren’t cheap. In fact, they are expensive - even though Acer’s 20″ offering, the Acer Aspire 9800 isn’t anywhere as expensive as its Dell counterpart.

So, why is it that some consumers will still lap up the Aspire 9800 (and similiar laptops, no pun intended)? Well, according to USA Today, it’s precisely because of the “hugeness”, and thus, uniqueness of these niche notebooks.

Now, because of this uniqueness, not only does Acer get to place a premium on such niche notebooks, but it also gets to open new markets and build its reputation.

At least, that’s what USA Today says.

The third Europe-only notebook introduced by Acer this week is the Acer Aspire 3660. Specs-wise, it is highly similar to its TravelMate sibling, the TM2450, i.e. 1.46GHz Celeron M processor, 15″ or 15.4″ widescreen, and ATI Radeon Xpress 200M integrated graphics.

One of the only real distinctions between the two notebooks (which BTW were announced in the same press release) is that the Aspire 3660 is meant to be the less mobile, and more home entertainment-ish laptop (hence the Aspire, rather than TravelMate product line).

Of course, since more detailed attributes of the 3660 have yet to be revealed, we cannot be sure whether other factors like weight and dimensions have been adjusted in line with this distinction. We do know, however, that the Aspire 3660 will come equipped with the Acer OrbiCam and Acer Arcade software (while the TM2450 will not).

In any case, just like the TravelMate 2450, the Aspire 3660 seems like just another budget-class notebook churned out out from the Acer factory. Whether or not there will be a market for these two laptops will surely depend on their prices - which were not officially released by Acer.

(Source: TrustedReviews)

Here’s yet another Acer Aspire 9504WSMi review, but this time, it’s by PC World Canada.

The 9504WSMi’s strong points were its brilliant screen, wide variety of features, good battery life and excellent performance. But no review is ever complete without the product’s drawbacks, and this review of the 9504WSMi is no exception. The cramped keyboard (due to the addition of a dedicated numeric keypad) and sub-par speakers were identified as the notebook’s minus points.

So, with this review, we’ve probably seen everything we need to know about the Aspire 9504WSMi. From limited tech support hours and a relatively low screen resolution, to a cramped keyboard and sucky sound, all the drawbacks a prospective buyer needs to know should already be available. Of course, the same goes for the upsides of this machine.

(Source: TrustedReviews)

It’s a pity that such a solid Acer desktop replacement notebook got marked down because of its “awkward keyboard” and “mediocre speakers”, but when you have such capable opposition, that’s what usually happens.

What we’re talking about is the recent Top 5 notebooks list published in the August Issue of the PC World magazine - where the Acer Aspire 9504WSMi got only 5th place in the desktop replacement category, despite having the second highest WorldBench 5 score, third highest battery life and second lowest weight.

Admittedly, the results were very close, with only 1 point separating the 9504WSMi with the Toshiba Satellite P105 at 4th place, and 3 points with the HP Pavilion dv8000z at 1st place.

So, your mileage with the different notebooks may truly vary - especially if you happen to get some good retailer discounts for any one of them.

(Source: Acer)

Alas, while nVidia will power HD-DVD playback, graphics card-wise, on the recently announced HD-DVD-enabled Acer Aspire notebook series, CyberLink will continue to be the media software provider for those notebooks. Under the Acer Arcade brand most Acer users (and reviewers) should be accustomed to, CyberLink will provide the all-in-one software necessary to play HD-DVD media.

We might seem a bit prejudiced here, but let’s just say we’ve found Acer Arcade to be little more than an annoyance so far - with dedicated software for individual media playback serving our purposes far better, even those from CyberLink itself.

However, this shouldn’t matter too much for those who were going to pump their notebooks with their own media playback software. For those who aren’t willing to spend some dough on dedicated software though… Acer Arcade really isn’t that bad…

(Source: NotebookReview.com)

I’m not sure how possible it is that the Powers That Be read my post yesterday, but TrustedReviews has published a full review of the 20.1″ Acer Aspire 9800 - the very subject of yesterday’s rant post.

Of course, since the HD-DVD-equipped version of the 9800 will only be coming out later this month, the model reviewed did not have a HD-DVD drive. Nevertheless, there’s still quite a bit of stuff to munch on if you’re interested in knowing how the 7.8kg notebook will fare in actual use.

So, what’s the verdict? Well, it seems that, “There’s no doubt that Acer has created the ultimate desktop replacement notebook in the shape of the Aspire 9800. It’s powerful, feature rich, has a stunning screen and isn’t overly expensive for what you’re getting. It’s not really my cup of tea (if I drank tea that is), but if you need all of your IT and AV needs wrapped up into one, admittedly large box, the Aspire 9800 should suit your needs perfectly.”

Notebooks I can’t really lug around aren’t my cup of tea either, but the 8 out of 10 overall rating given by TrustedReviews says some really good things about the Acer Aspire 9800.

(Source: NotebookReview.com)

If you’ve been keeping up with the news (on notebooks at least), you would have seen a lot of hoo-hah on how the latest big notebooks could suck, or how they could be the next craze for gamers, or how desktops are slowly dying out due to the emergence of what some people are calling “true portable desktops”.

Yeah, I’m definitely exaggerating a little here, but all this does show that almost everyone (including me) is interested in knowing how an 8kg notebook like the Acer Aspire 9800 or the semi-mobile Dell XPS M2010 desktop will fare in today’s diverse, yet demanding market.

I’m interested as well of course. It’s just that there’s just too much news flooding my RSS reader on notebooks we’d need to get reviews on first!

(Source: NotebookReview.com)

Although a non-HD-DVD-equipped Aspire 9800 is already available in certain markets, a HD-DVD-equipped version is not (duh…).

So, High Definition enthusiasts will be glad to know of Acer’s announcement at Computex yesterday that the HD-DVD-equipped version of the 20.1″ entertainment monster notebook will be coming out later this month.

The (additional) HD-DVD optical drive is set to increase the price of the 9800 by around US$200 to US$300, from it’s current price of around US$2,700. But of course, a couple of hundred bucks is a small price to pay if you were looking for a high-end entertainment notebook anyway.

[News via Digital World Tokyo]