Acer Aspire 5612WLMi review

Much as Dell has built an empire by churning out ever-cheaper desktop PCs, Acer has a knack of making laptops that cost less than you think they should.

The Aspire 5612WLMi is a good example of how to cram a lot of new technology into a portable without it costing the Earth.

The headline component is, without doubt, the Core Duo processor - its two processing cores speed through applications and make for a responsive PC. Intel has really pulled out the stops when designing this chip - it provides plenty of processing grunt without using too much battery power. This is immediately evident from the benchmark scores - the 5612WLMi is actually 13% faster than our benchmark system, which is a powerful Athlon 64 desktop PC. The laptop is helped along by an ample 1GB of DDR2 RAM. Getting this much memory and a dual-core processor at such a low price is an impressive feat. And all in a laptop that's relatively thin and weighs in at just 2.8kg, very good value indeed.

The 5612's battery lasted for 3 hours and 19 minutes in our standard battery benchmark - a good result. It didn't last quite as long in our DVD playback test, only 2 hours and 12 minutes, but that's enough to see you through most films and can be stretched further if you sacrifice a bit of screen brightness. Oooo, shiny

The Acer's wireless networking chip supports all three current Wi-Fi standards, so you can connect the 5612WLMi to any wireless network. The 80GB hard disk is spacious enough for all but the largest of music or photo libraries. Games aren't much of an issue, as the integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics won't run many modern 3D titles.

In most respects, the 15in 1280 x 800 screen is spot on. Colours are rich and vibrant, and our test photos and films looked great. The viewing angle is a touch narrow, but only when viewed from above rather than face on. We do, however, have one major reservation - the screen is highly reflective. When working we had to constantly readjust the tilt of the display to avoid glare from ambient lighting.

Under pressure

More worrying than the screen's reflectivity is the flexibility of the casing - it easily deforms and twists under pressure. Pressing the back of the lid pushes it into the back of the screen. Shoving this laptop into a full bag or resting anything on it when closed is a sure way to end up with a broken display.

The keyboard has some large keys for easy typing, although it does have a slight amount of flex under the finger. The large Enter key is a particular pleasure and the trackpad is responsive, with sturdy mouse buttons.

Some thought has clearly gone into the arrangement of ports and connectors. The right-hand side is dedicated to the DVD writer, so wires won't become tangled when ejecting or inserting a disc. To the left are two USB2 ports, the Ethernet port and a Type II PC Card slot toward the front. The power connector plugs into the rear, which also has ports for two more USB2 devices and a VGA output.

At £670, there's a lot about this laptop that impressed us. The core components are impressively cutting edge and powerful, the screen is good looking (even if the reflectivity is distracting). The weakness of the body and lid are areas of big concern, but as long as you're careful it should last. The one-year international warranty will come in handy, if not. But the thing that really impressed us was the price - a steal for a Core Duo laptop.