Acer makes affordable desktop and notebook PCs. Their desktops are primarily aimed at the business owner and their notebooks are geared more toward the consumer market. However, the desktops can work for home use and the notebooks are also a good choice for the business environment. I plan to look at two distinctly different products: the Acer Power FH, a budget desktop PC aimed at the business community and the Acer Aspire 5920 notebook aimed at he consumer.
The Acer Power FH
The Acer Power FH series of desktop computers are designed specifically for business users and typically contain the following features:
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The Acer Power PC provides good performance for a very good price. Its $500 to $700 price tag provide a decided advantage compared to other budget desktops and make it an excellent choice for small and medium sized businesses as well as a money saving option for larger companies planning to replace a large number of machines. With the ability to install up to 4 GB of memory and its dual core processor, the Power FH can handle everything a business user would need from working on high resolution graphics to very large spreadsheets. The built in gigabit Ethernet capability has become standard on any desktop aimed at businesses.
Acer has obviously been paying attention to many businesses’ security concerns by allowing the buyer to decide what copying capabilities their employees have by providing a choice of DVD/CD-RW combo, DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive and by omitting firewire and digital card readers. Also omitting a modem shows that Acer realizes that hardly anyone uses dial up connections anymore, especially businesses.
The tool-less access is a welcome addition for technical support personnel and only adds to the machine’s value. Over all, the Acer Power FH is an excellent choice for a business desktop.
Acer Aspire Notebook
Acer has made it obvious that they want to dominate the notebook market. The Aspire series of notebooks is clearly making that goal more reachable. It provides great features at a reasonable price when compared to similarly equipped notebooks from other manufacturers. A typical Acer Aspire notebook has the following features:
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The Aspire is a desktop replacement notebook with gaming capabilities. It has an innovative keyboard design. However the smooth outer glossy surface shows fingerprint smudges. The machine has a glossy screen which I personally don’t like. I feel the matte black screens have better contrast and provide better graphics especially in lighted areas. To be fair most of the new notebooks have glossy screens and apparently many users like them.
The sound system provides good performance for a laptop and comes complete with a volume control dial. The Aspire has a touchpad with the ability to turn it off when using a USB mouse which I personally prefer when using the machine for long periods of time. The right side USB mouse port in convenient.
Acer also provides several nice utilities designed to help beginners configure their laptop such as:
- eNet – managenetworking
- ePower – battery optimization
- ePresentation – external display
- eAudio – Dolby home theater sound effects
- eDataSecurity – data with password and encryption protection
- eLock – limits access to external storage
- eRecovery – data back up and recovery
- eSettings – system settings
- Arcade deluxe – media control center
Despite features that are less than optimal such as the smooth outer surface and the glossy display screen, the Acer Aspire series of notebook is one of the best buys on the market at its $1700 to $2200 price tag.
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