The Acer Aspire 8920G was recently introduced at a local discount store. A salesman at the store knows what a fanatic I am for innovation. We are on a first name basis and when it came in, he called me. It literally was in the receiving area of the store. I got down there in about 20-minutes flat. After some finagling with the assistant manager, fumbling for my Visa, remembering I had more room on my MasterCard, a signature--Aspire 8920G was mine.

I invited Guy, the salesman over to my condo that evening and we put the Acer Aspire 8920G through its paces. We played some games, watched a Blu-Ray movie, some HD TV programming, and listened to some high def DVD/CD original sound tracks by Twisted Sister, Guns N' Roses and Kiss. A real blast of the past for both of us. Not only is the Gemstone Blue 18.4-inch display a knock out, the sound , the Acer music with eAudio and Acer Arcade technology creates a Dolby Digital Sound like you have never heard from a notebook.

The Brass Tacks of Acer Aspire 8920G:

First off it is a little heavier than some notebooks. It weighs 9.04-pounds including the 8-cell battery. The dimensions of the notebook is approximately 17.64-inches wide x 11.8-inches high with a depth of 1.7-inches. It comes with 3GB RAM with the ability to expand to 4 GB. There are two hard drives with a capacity of 320 GB on each drive. I received the 320 GB hard drive. The 18.4-inch Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution has a high-brightness of 300-cd/m2 and utilizes an Acer proprietary CineCrystal TFT LCD with two lamps technology. The depth of HD colors and stark black is almost indescribable.

We watched a range of Blu-ray movies from I Am Legend, Planet Earth and Underworld using the Aspire Blu-Ray disc drive developed by Acer. It utilizes every pixel in a way that no other mobile laptop or notebook in the commercial arena can do. The 8920G has a 6-in-1 card reader, and supports various SD and multi-media cards on the market. Sure, if you want to lay down 5- thousand or more you can get a really nice professional notebook. The Aspire 8920G has what the pros take for granted, but at a cost of less than $1300.

The graphics are supplied by NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GS with up to 1280 MB of TurboCache. Of the 1280 MB TurboCache 512 MB is dedicated and the remainder is shared. The graphics technology from Microsoft DirectX, Shader Model 4.0 and other HD improvements round out the reasons why the Aspire 8920G stand alone in this notebook space.

Acer innovation is over the top with the introduction of the CineDash touchpad and empowering E key. These features with the added blue light backlighting make the Aspire 8920G stand apart from the rest. The CineDash console is located on the upper left-hand side of the keyboard. Along with Acer Arcade software and built-in technology, game playing is taken to a new level. The soft blue-light on/off power button and the access E-key creates a new millennium appearance and functionality. Seeing and trying the 8920G is a glimpse of what the next generation of computing will bring to users.

As for connectivity, the Aspire 8920G has WLAN Intel Wireless Link dual-band quad-band compatibility with 802.11a/b/g and draft-n network connections. It has Bluetooth 2.0 and Acer Signal Up wireless technology. It also includes Gigabyte Ethernet. There are four USB ports, HDMI with HDCP support, consumer infrared port, an external VGA display port, and headphones, microphone in and out jacks.


As for security there are more than enough security features. There is Acer Bio-Protection with a finger print access point and other security features. In addition the Aspire 8920G comes with a trial version of Norton Anti-Virus and Windows security features. The Aspire 8920G comes loaded with Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows Vista Home Edition and trial software from Microsoft. In addition, there are numerous software programs from Acer which enable the multi-media function. A remote control is also included.

I could write a short novel on my overall opinion of the Acer Aspire 8920G. Suffice to say, my new friend Guy and I are having a ball.