Acer Aspire 9800SPECS 2.16GHz Core Duo T2600; 2GB DDR2; two 120GB hard drives; double-layer HD
DVD±RW (HD read-only); 20.1- inch TFT; Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
WE’VE SEEN large laptops before, but nothing like the $2,799 Acer Aspire 9800. This 17.3-pound behemoth features an eye-popping 20.1-inch screen and includes a built-in HD DVD drive. Acer Aspire 9800’s monstrous girth, however, is its biggest drawback— most people will find it overkill. Acer Aspire notebook’s wide-screen LCD, with its 1,680x1,050 native resolution, can’t display every pixel of HD content in 1080p. Still, we tested its performance with a few clips from Apple’s Quick- Time HD Gallery and were impressed by the display’s rich colors and dark blacks.Elsewhere, you’ll find a full-size keyboard and amply sized mouse buttons. Because Acer Aspire 9800 is a MediaCenter PC, you also get various media controls, along with a 1.3-megapixel Webcam and a built-in TV tuner. Along its sides are numerous video and audio ports, an ExpressCard slot, and a multiformat media-card reader. You don’t get a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port, however. Integrated Bluetooth and 802.11a/b/g radios are also standard, as is a one-year warranty.Acer Aspire 9800 is available in one configuration, which includes a 2.16GHz Core Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics card.Two 120GB hard drives provide plenty of storage room.Performance-wise, Acer Aspire 9800 posted one of the highest BAPCo SYSmark scores we’ve seen, with an above-average 245. Its gaming scores, however, were more modest, clocking only 41.4 frames per second on Doom 3. Battery life was downright disappointing Acer Aspire 9800 was unable to complete our 90-minute battery-life benchmark tests.
Acer Aspire 9800