Type: General Purpose, Media, Value
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo T5550
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Weight: 7.4 lb
Screen Size: 16 inches
Screen Size Type: widesreen
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 9500M GS
Storage Capacity: 320 GB
Networking Options: 802.11n
Primary Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW DL with Blu-Ray
Calling it a smaller version of the Acer Aspire 8920G does not give the complete picture. There's nothing small about the Aspire 6920G, yet at 7.4 pounds, it's significantly lighter than the 8.2-pound HP Pavilion dv9500t and 8.8-pound Dell Inspiron 1720. Still, Acer could have shed more weight. After all, its 16-inch widescreen is an inch smaller than the competitions'. The 7.5-pound Toshiba Satellite P305-S8825 with a 17-inch screen is only a tenth of a pound heavier, while the Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch (Core 2 Duo T7700) is the lightest at 6.7 pounds. Maybe it's because I'd never seen one on a laptop, but there's something seductive about a 16-inch widescreen—the way movies, especially high-definition ones, look when stretched out in the same fashion as in a movie theater.
The Acer Aspire 6920G-6071 ($980 street) sits between a conventional 15.4-inch and a 17-inch media center laptop. In many ways, it's the perfect media center for a cramped dorm room or a studio apartment, because shedding weight doesn't mean you have to sacrifice screen real estate. Though it's not as cutting-edge as its bigger sibling, the Aspire 8920G, bundling a Blu-ray drive for under $1,000 is guaranteed to trigger your spending reflex. It's a rock-solid investment, and it easily earns an Editors' Choice in the desktop replacement category.
To play back your high-def movies, Acer incorporates CyberLink's PowerDVD for Blu-ray into its Arcade Deluxe software suite. It does a wonderful job with disc functions, such as pausing, rewinding, and skipping chapters, which were free of any lag or stuttering. Though not as impressive as the 8920G's five-speaker system, the 6920G's two virtual surround-sound speakers are quite capable of delivering a movie-theater experience.
