Acer Aspire 8920G

The Aspire 8920G is done up in Acer's Gemstone Blue design, featuring a sparkling dark blue metallic lid with a backlit Acer logo in the center. The shiny finish, which looks black until you get it under the lights, is highly susceptible to fingerprint smudges. Under the lid, you'll find the centerpiece, a beautiful 18.4 inch wide screen display featuring a high gloss coating and wide color technology that enables it to display 90 percent of the color gamut (standard screens typically display only 60-70 percent).

The result is an exceptional picture with deep, rich colors and excellent viewing angles. Even better, the display has a native resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:9, so you can view HD movies in their native format without having to deal with black bars or stretched images. Using the built in Blu-ray optical drive, we watched portions of the BBC production of Planet Earth and were blown away by the image quality, especially when it came to skin tone accuracy and color reproduction.

The screen's 8ms pixel response time also did a wonderful job of handling motion sequences with no noticeable blurring or artifacts. Complimenting the HD screen is Acer's CineSurround sound system featuring Dolby Home Theater audio output.

Five strategically placed speakers and a subwoofer provide true 5.1 channel sound that is among the best we've heard from a notebook system. The CineBass subwoofer, dubbed Tuba, is encased in a cylinder that is built into the hinge assembly.

We appreciated the added bass response, which is sorely lacking in most notebooks, but we expected a bit more bottom from this unique bass speaker. A Crystal Eye Webcam and dual microphone array embedded in the upper screen bezel provide decent low-res images for video chats using Acer's included Video Conference Manager software, but don't count on this camera for detailed still shots. Acer's PrimaLite sensor technology lets you use the camera in environments with dim lighting, a nice touch if you're working at night in a darkened room.

The spacious keyboard deck sports Acer's silvery NeoWeave palm rest, which contains a smallish touch pad with a biometric fingerprint reader sandwiched between the two mouse buttons. The full sized black keyboard, framed by glossy black trim, is responsive and comfortable, but the real eye catcher is the CineDash media player console situated on the left side of the deck.

The white backlit, touch sensitive console contains the usual DVD/CD player controls and features a spiral controller that raises and lowers the speaker volume by swiping the virtual dial with your fingertips. We found this part of the console difficult to master, as it took several attempts to get the volume to the exact level we wanted. After a while it just made sense to use the included full-function remote control to adjust the volume rather than try to pinpoint an exact level via the touch console.