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Acer Aspires To A Bigger Picture |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Friday, 14 March 2008 |
Now the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray battle is over, Acer has moved to announce
two high-end multimedia notebooks that deliver the sort of high-quality
HD experience that can take advantage of it. Accordingly, the US$64 billion PC maker has given the new Aspires a blue tinge to suit.
In developing the
new 8920 and 6920 series notebooks the company took the Gemstone
industrial design as a starting point and used the same textures and
materials. Apart from colouring the case blue, Acer also used blue
lighting on the touch sensitive panels.
Acer describes the casing materials as having a "multi-layered,
shimmering 3D finish, contrasting textures, a chic blue, black and
silver color scheme, and interior/exterior lighting effects". And of
course it has the now obligatory Apple-style LED lit logo on the lid.
But the striking look
of these new laptops isn't restricted to the colour, in the case of the
8920G, the first thing you will likely notice is the size of the
screen. The whopping 18.4-inch widescreen is the biggest on the market
in Full HD with CineCrystal
The Aspire 8920G is a pleasure for the eyes: Acer is first to market
with a 18.4-inch Full HD CineCrystal LCD panel. Blu-Ray movies will come to life on this 1920x1080 pixel
display. Response time is fairly low compared to desktop LCDs, but at 8ms shouldn't pose much of an issue with blurring.
The system is shipped with a choice of graphics engines and can be
equipped with either the NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GS or the NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS both with up
to 1280 MB of TurboCache (512 MB of dedicated GDDR3 VRAM, up to 768 MB
of shared system memory). Either will support NVIDIA PureVideo HD
technology, Shader Model 4.0 and Microsoft DirectX 10.
Connectivity boasts an HDMI
connector with HDCP support and Acer says the notebook is equipped with Wide Color Gamut Plus
that delivers 100% more colour range intensity than a typical
notebook panel.
Powering the 8920G is an Intel Centrino
Core 2 Duo
processor of unannounced spec and the mobile Intel PM965 Express
Chipset. Audio is another area this laptop is designed to excel in with
second generation Dolby Home Theater technology with powerful audio
technologies. The Aspire 8920G is the world's first notebook to feature
actual, built-in multi-speaker True5.1 surround sound through six
integrated speakers. The sub woofer is a tube-style speaker that Acer
says exceeds 10 W.
On the controls, Acer has introduced what it calls the CineDash
media console, a touch-sensitive interface that gives you direct and
easy access to the multimedia capabilities of this laptop. Also new on
the inside is a textured "NeoWeave" palm rest. The textured surface
also covers the touch pad adding a more integrated look.
Acer has gone all out with storage on the Aspire 8920G. Not one but two
320GB drives adds up to a whopping great 640GB of storage so, the
optical drive, a 6-in-1 card reader. The notebook also has a digital TV
tuner integrated for when you run out of stored media.
Not all models have the bundled with a VoIP Bluetooth
phone. This device can be used as a normal cell phone connected
to the notebook through Bluetooth connections, or can be placed on a desk and used as a speaker phone. It also works in
combination with the integrated camera for videoconferencing.
The
8920Gs smaller sibling has only a 16-inch screen and a single 320GB
hard drive, but it follows the same design principals as the
top-of-the-range device. Many of the other specs for the machine are
similar to the 9820G, some like the TV tuner are available only as
options. Even the display, which although it is smaller still features
the same resolution as an option over the standard 1366x768 pixel
resolution you will get with the base model.
The screen is managed by the latest NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS graphics
engine with up to 1280 MB of TurboCache, supporting NVIDIA PureVideo HD
technology, Shader Model 4.0 and Microsoft DirectX 10.
The Aspire 6920 also features an HDMI port with
HDCP support. The same audio technologies like CineSurround, Tuba
CineBass booster, and True5.1 output but
in the case of the 6920 there are only two speakers and the Acer Tuba
CineBass booster. To set-up a True 5.1 surround system you need to plug
in three pairs of PC speakers.
  
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