Acer Aspire 2920 budget laptop

The choice of Windows Vista Home Premium is right for the majority of laptop users, especially if you plug in a TV tuner, and the specification will cater for the needs of anyone who doesn’t play games on their laptop.

The processor is a Core 2 Duo T7300 that runs at 2GHz, and it's backed up with 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 memory in two modules. The Intel GM965 chipset's integrated graphics power the 1280 x 800 screen. Wireless connectivity consists of Intel 4965AGN 802.11a/b/g/n wireless and Bluetooth, although cheaper Aspire 2920 models lose the 802.11n feature. Our review sample had stacks of storage in the 250GB hard drive and LG DVD-RAM drive, but other models are less luxurious, although the reduced features are balanced by prices as low as £449.

3DMark06 Results

Longer bars are better

The only obvious weak point is the Intel GMA X3100 graphics. However, they're perfectly adequate for day-to-day use. The screen is bright and clear with colours that are enhanced by the usual glossy coating so you’ll want to avoid any strong light sources nearby that might cause reflections.

We had some concerns with the Aspire 2920 as we were unable to connect to Windows Update without suffering an error message. This led us to investigate the software that had been installed, just in case there was some sort of conflict. We didn’t find the root of the problem, but we did take a good hard look at the software package and were staggered by the level of bloat. It starts with a 90-day trial of Norton Internet Security, there’s a Yahoo! toolbar on Internet Explorer, Big Kahuna Reef 2, Mystery Case Files Prime Suspects and Ravenhearst, and a stack of games from Oberon Media, including such gems as Treasures of the Deep, Jewel Quest Solitaire and Luxor 2. Then we have Orion from Convesoft - some sort of messenger - Microsoft Works and a trial version of Microsoft Office and no less than 15 pieces of Acer software.

No wonder Acer supplies such a large hard drive and so much memory.

PCMark05 Results

Longer bars are better