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It's not uncommon for low cost laptops to cut corners, but the 2920 has maintained its low weight of 2kg while still having a built-in DVD writer. Many ultra-portables only have two USB ports, but the 2920 has three. There's no FireWire port though.

Despite its low cost, the 2920 is built for use on the go. While we weren't fond of its retro appearance, the black and white chassis does feel sturdy and well made. You won't have to constantly look out for a wall socket to recharge the battery as

Ultra-portable laptops can suffer from cramped keyboards making them uncomfortable to use. Although most of the 2920's keys are reasonably large, the keyboard does not make the most of the available space, so some keys, such as the @ key, are too narrow for comfortable use. The keys don't feel as responsive as other keyboards we've used since they don't give quite enough feedback when pressed. The touch pad is large, although it didn't feel very accurate until we fiddled with the touch pad driver settings. The large buttons below feel just right though.

The Acer Aspire 2920 is a promising ultra-portable notebook thanks to its long battery life, but we have reservations about the quality of the input devices. Look out for our full review in Shopper issue 241.