Acer Aspire 2020 - Centrino desktop replacement

Final Words

The Acer Aspire 2020 makes a decent impression on us based on two things: a multimedia desktop replacement and a thin and light desktop replacement. The Aspire Arcade that accompanies the Aspire 2020 is a nice addition, but it needs more UI and feature development if they are attempting to create a multimedia base. Basically, it falls short of SageTV 2.0 and MCE. Since Acer doesn't mind porting source code from a third party, in this case CyberLink's Power Cinema, they could have made a better selection, whether it is Frey's or some other company like Meedio. It is clear that this notebook was designed for multimedia on a hardware level, and the same forethought should be given to the software.

Additionally, the system-off to Aspire Arcade boot isn't really a great feature to have if you can load to Windows and then to Aspire Arcade within the OS in a shorter time period. The main benefit of a system-off feature is supposed to be one or more of three things: load faster, load less software, or use less hardware. Considering that this system uses a Dothan processor, in all likelihood, you will not bog down the system using Aspire Arcade unless you are doing some sort of CPU intensive operations at the same time, i.e. video editing. This means that a natural expectation is that load times and interaction time with the UI should be faster, which it is not in this case. Plus the fact that it doesn't bypass the CPU or anything makes the feature kind of moot. If you could use some sort of processing chip, it could, in theory, make things cooler by bypassing the CPU, and this would be a nice feature, even if it took a bit longer to load.

The other multimedia point that we should make on the Acer Aspire 2020 is that the buttons aren't exactly placed in the best spot for multimedia use. We found that when we typed in or used the touchpad, sometimes we were inadvertently pressing the multimedia buttons, which meant that the system would load Aspire Arcade (Arcade button) or Windows Media Player (play/pause button). Ideally, the multimedia buttons and the small LCD window should be placed above the keyboard. And as we mentioned, the touchpad buttons aren't exactly the easiest to use - quite the opposite, when it comes to tactile pressure. Acer explained that they used hinge type buttons for a better look, but they could have made the whole thing with the ability to press the buttons, since there is nothing saying you can't design a notebook that looks good and works well in the field.

Despite all the shortfalls of this notebook, it is a good solid Centrino desktop replacement system. Eight minutes shy of 6 hours is pretty impressive, particularly if you consider that it doesn't use an extended battery bay to accomplish this. And if you ignore the multimedia benefits of this notebook entirely, it works well as a notebook somewhere between the lightweight and high CPU power extremes. With one of the brightest displays, a good GPU and CPU backing the system up, and priced around $2299 MSRP (we have seen it run about $135 less including shipping costs), it would be a decent notebook system to game on. However, you should keep in mind that you are limited to the 1280 x 800 resolution on the LCD display, which means that you probably will be playing at 1024 x 768. And for those just looking for a lightweight desktop replacement notebook, this may be the notebook for you. At about six and a half pounds, it is similar to some of the heavier 15.0" notebooks. On the other hand, if you are looking for that one notebook for its multimedia benefits, this likely won't fit your bill.