Acer Aspire 8920G

Acer's 8920G impressed in last month's preview and now we've laid our hands on a retail unit. Memory has increased from 3GB to 4GB, but as a gigabyte is lost to 32-bit memory addressing, performance is very similar: 1.25 versus the pre-production model's 1.26. Battery life is unremarkable - the Asus idled for more than three hours and managed 1hr 37mins under heavy usage - but it's not bad for such a huge laptop. Gaming performance is similarly modest; the Nvidia GeForce 9500M GS averaged 12fps in Crysis at 1,280 x 1,024 and Medium settings. Cutting edge gaming at the 18.4in display's native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 is out of the question, but if it's a Blu-ray equipped desktop replacement you're after, the 8920G is a fine choice.

Author: Sasha Muller