 I got a new laptop for Christmas. I picked it out and picked it up, but my mom actually bought it for me. It's one of the best gifts I've ever received. The Acer Extensa 4620Z is a budget laptop to be sure. Let me preface this quick review by saying that I know there's much better to be had, and that it is definitely not a gaming machine. Having said that, I do think it is one of the better values on the market. I initially saw the ad for Extensa 4620Z in a pre-Christmas Best Buy circular ad in the newspaper. Here's a quick drilldown: - $549 at BestBuy, with NO rebates. (I wonder how many rebates I have failed to fill out and send in over the years?)
- 2 Gigs of RAM
- 160 GB HDD
- Intel Dual Core Processor
- Built in wi-fi, DVD burner, webcam, and memory card reader.
Every other laptop I have seen at this price point has has a major flaw in one specification or another. Sometimes the cheapies are celerons or old junky AMD chips. Some of them have 60GB or less HDD's, or 512MB of RAM. This laptop met or exceeded all of my expectations as far as the hardware goes. I've had the laptop about a month now, and I am extremely happy with it. Pros: - The laptop feels sturdy and looks very sharp.
- I had read some complaints about the keyboard,but I like it. The keys provide an adequate amount of tactile feedback, and a nice audible click when depressed. Some may not like this. I do, because I know I hit the key. Silent keyboards keep me looking to see if I really pressed the key or not.
- Speakers are more than adequate. If you want real sound, headphones are a must of course.
- The laptop's performance is very good, even with Vista Home Premium installed. I don't like how Vista hogs resources, but I must admit it is very pretty. This laptop runs Vista and my apps without a hitch, and I do a pretty good bit of multi-tasking. I typically have around 6 or more windows open at a time.
Cons - The 14" screen looks very nice when you have the angle just right. More expensive laptops have much better viewing angles. This one is just ok, and downright bad from the side, or too far up or down. I spend a few seconds every time I open it up getting the best angle on my display.
- Battery life is pretty bad I think. This laptop is brand new and is only giving me around 2 hours of moderate computing life. I don't need long battery life for my application, but others might. If you do a lot of flying or waiting around in airports, coffee shops, etc., you may want to find a laptop with a longer battery life.
This laptop is fantastic so far, and would be a good value for even a few hundred more dollar than I got it for. -Note: Do not update the Intel graphics drivers using Windows Update. I ran the updates as soon as I got the computer home and the graphics driver was listed as an optional update. I chose to do it. When the computer restarted, I got the blue screen of death upon bootup. It did the blue screen upon loading that driver every time after that. I eventually had to boot in safe mode and roll the driver back. Links Acer Extensa 4620z - XP drivers How to make your Acer Extensa 4620z wireless card work in Ubuntu Linux Extensa 4620 at Engadget
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