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Acer Aspire 6930G review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £610
inc VAT

if you want to play games the Aspire is the best here, though the Asus X71SL offers better value

The Aspire 6930G has an unusual 16in screen that uses a non-standard resolution of 1,366×768 that’s more often found on LCD TVs.

Acer has taken advantage of the width of the display to include a full-sized keyboard and a numeric keypad. While the keys are large, there’s a slightly uneven distribution of travel that might annoy touch-typists. The left Shift key is half-width, but otherwise it’s a standard layout. The touch pad is smooth and responsive, with a small raised bar separating the main pad from the scroll section.

Although the Aspire’s design isn’t new, it’s still attractive. The blue painted lid changes colour subtly towards the edges, and there’s a fat, tubular hinge that reduces flex in the screen. Above the keyboard, along the full width of the case, is a speaker grille with a sticker for Dolby Home Theater. However, we noticed that the speakers are close to each other in the centre of this strip, which results in a distinct lack of stereo separation.

The screen is bright and colours are accurate, but contrast isn’t as good as that of the Toshiba A300D’s screen. The 16:9 aspect ratio is ideal for watching HD content downloaded from the internet, but you’ll get a letterbox effect with Hollywood movies that are shot at a wider aspect ratio.

With a 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 3GB of RAM, the 6930G managed an average score in our PCMark benchmark, but the GeForce 9500M GS graphics meant it was above average for games. It managed 15.9fps in Call of Duty 4, but dropping the resolution to 1,024×768 and turning off anti-aliasing resulted in a playable 30fps.

Compared with the efforts made by other manufacturers here to include good speakers, we were disappointed by the sound from the 6930G’s Dolby-branded system. However, the screen is gorgeous, and if you want to play games the Aspire is the best here, though the Asus X71SL offers better value.

Basic Specifications

Rating****
ProcessorIntel Core 2 Duo P7350
Processor clock speed2GHz
Memory3.00GB
Memory slots2
Memory slots free0
Maximum memory4GB
Size44x385x275mm
Weight3.2kg
SoundRealtek High Definition Audio
Pointing devicetouchpad
Power consumption standby1W
Power consumption idle31W
Power consumption active54W

Display

Viewable size16 in
Native resolution1,366×768
Graphics ProcessorNvidia GeForce 9500M GS
Graphics/video portsVGA, HDMI
Graphics Memory512MB

Storage

Total storage capacity250GB
Optical drive modelOptiarc AD-7560S
Optical drive typeDVD+/-RW +/-DL

Ports and Expansion

USB ports4
Bluetoothyes
Wired network ports1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support802.11a/n
PC Card slots1x ExpressCard/54
ModemYes
Supported memory cardsSD, MMC, Memory Stick Pro, xD
Other portseSATA (shared with USB socket), minijack S/PDIF output, minijack audio output, minijack microphone input

Miscellaneous

Carrying caseNo
Operating systemWindows Vista Home Premium
Operating system restore optionrestore partition
Software includedMicrosoft Works 8.5

Buying Information

Warrantyone year collect and return
Price£610
Detailswww.acer.co.uk
Supplierhttp://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk

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