Acer Aspire 8935G-904G1TBwn: A Strange Mix of Old and New Technology

Acer’s latest multimedia laptop is a puzzling mix of technology. The Aspire 8935G-904G1TBwn boasts a massive eighteen-inch screen and a full-scale desktop keyboard, yet lags behind its rivals with a slightly outdated CPU and minimal gaming hardware. But beneath its behemoth enclosure and unimpressive spec sheet is a worthwhile laptop, especially for all-purpose users.

Measuring over nineteen inches from corner to corner and weighing in at almost five kilograms, the Aspire certainly hasn’t been designed for optimum portability. Carrying the laptop for more than ten minutes is a painful exercise, while fitting it inside a backpack is an impossibility. Acer have further cemented the Aspire’s anti-travel reputation by fitting a battery which is unlikely to last through a television show, let alone a feature film.

But despite its limited portability and weak battery, the Aspire is quite a worthwhile laptop. Its case is reasonably rugged and business-friendly, while its large keyboard makes inputting data simple. A business machine at its heart, the Aspire seems as if it could replace entire desktop workstations; it certainly has enough features and screen real estate for the job.

An Intel Core 2 Quad processor provides adequate power, although it’s significantly slower than the most recent releases from Intel. Managing multiple applications is simple and results in almost no slowdown, though there is some noticeable system lag when switching from one resource-heavy program to another.

Despite its gamer-friendly screen and large keyboard, the Aspire isn’t a brilliant gaming notebook. A dedicated GPU is included as standard, although like the processor it fails to provide ultra-modern performance. The large screen is certainly a bonus for light gamers, and most titles encounter little slowdown when geared to medium-level graphics settings.

A 1TB hard drive is included, along with an integrated TV tuner and extendable aerial. The Aspire could be the ultimate inexpensive media centre, as a built-in Blu-ray drive complements its massive storage capacity and potential for directly recording television footage. The Acer’s large screen is capable of full 1080p high-definition playback, and is ideal for watching movies or online video.

While we’re appreciative of the Aspire’s multimedia chops, we’re baffled by Acer’s decision to pair the laptop with Windows Vista. Microsoft’s not-so-recent operating system was subject to plenty of criticism upon release, and although slightly more optimized and user-friendly today, we’re clueless as to why it’s been included when a more modern version of Windows is available.

Priced at just £799 and boasting a series of features otherwise unseen on laptops at its price, we’re certain that the Aspire 8935G-904G1TBwn is one of this year’s bargain releases. A Blu-ray drive and truly giant display round out its otherwise lacklustre feature set, giving non-gamers a fantastic home multimedia rig.

Despite its highly limited portability and outdated processor, we’re big fans of the Aspire 8935G-904G1TBwn. With desktop PCs slowly declining in popularity and netbooks offering portability without the need for a laptop, the Aspire 8935G-904G1TBwn could soon become the ideal home computer.