Up Close With the Aspire Gemstone Blue (Acer Aspire 8920 Series)
March 12th, 2008 by Joanna Stern
We just got some quick hands-on time with the Acer Aspire 8920 and wanted to share our first impressions. This system has a brilliant glossy display and the viewing angles on this 18.4-inch LCD are great.
The CineDash media console is the star of the show, though. It looks like LED crop circles at first but it worked pretty well in our tests. You can use it not only to play and pause media playback but also to launch the Acer Arcade Deluxe menu, which resembles Media Center.
You can use the circular control around the Enter button to scroll through the options, and we liked that this circle’s ridges were slightly raised for good tactile feedback.
A big wide 5.1 sound speaker bar is above the keyboard, and we dig the glowing blue power button. We also like that the area beneath the keyboard, including the touchpad, is textured. There are no ports in the back, which we prefer, and the Blu-ray drive is on the right along with 2 USB ports. The HDMI port is on the left, and there’s a fingerprint reader between the mouse buttons.
Last but not least are the circular, polished metallic hinges. The left one houses the power jack. Just check out these photos and a short video of our hands on time. Excuse our choppy video there was lots of pushing and shoving to see the hot new machine.
March 29th, 2008 at 7:00 am
PLS>advise where to but acer aspire gem stone blue compuer in houston texas -HAVE been lookingfor for 2 weeks—-?????——–not at best buy-circut city-
March 31st, 2008 at 7:14 am
I want to purchase one but can’t find it anywhere.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:16 am
can’t find one anywhere,want one
April 1st, 2008 at 9:59 am
From what I have gathered it will not be ou till april or early may. I am intrested my self would like to have a little hands on
April 5th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Acer Aspire 5050 5430 Laptop Computer
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:57 am
where do i buy one in ontario?
April 28th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I have the Acer 9810 20.1 inch multi-media machine and love it. I wish it was Blu-ray instead of HD-DVD like the 8920.
May 4th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
they should be ava in usa around May 20, 2008 we hope
May 5th, 2008 at 1:15 am
I bought the ASPIRE 7720 a month ago and bought the 8920 last week. I am using them as Java developer machines. For some reason 8920 is 3 times slower than 7720. I am compiling several java projects while developing and the compilation time is 3 times higher on 8920. I am still puzzled about this. But I am suspecting that ACER used slower disks on 8920.
The resolution is perfect but I still miss MacBook Pros backlit keyboard, also the time on battery is practically nothing.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
We bought ours this weekend, on the shopping channel of all places…we are a little nervous to buy without seeing but so far everything we’ve read is positive…i guess we’ll find out in 3-4 weeks
May 8th, 2008 at 6:27 am
They were offering some of the 6920’s on shopnbc.com, but i guess they sold out
May 11th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Shop NBC has the 6920 which is the 16 inch screen version las weekend for 1399. No longer available. Price has gone up to 1699. Circuit City has the 16 inch screen versions sans bluray drive on sale for 699, regular price is $849.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:52 am
i will be receiving my 8920gb tommorow from acer direct (first in the state for my area) with the t9300 + 4gb ram version should be all good hopefully lives up to the expectation
May 13th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I dont have too much knowledge of laptop and computer but I seen TV program as on shop NBC. ACER ASPIRE 8920 It is real latest and new great tecnology. I ordered last week and may be I getting on MAY-19-08. I used Dell and I used Toshiba but I hope it is new idia to use the computer.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:40 am
okay i recieved my 8920gb yesterday and it does look nice and sounds nice but dont get to worked up with it found many bugs with my version with the annoying run32.dll error which crashes everytime u try to do something along with the operating system being 32bit when the description says a 64bit and also a little error which i have notified the project manager for australia (henry) about the program updates which does display correctly this is just the start!
May 18th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I understood it was a 64 bit. Is it not?
May 27th, 2008 at 9:30 am
rule of thumb:
3 GB of RAM = 32 bit
Greater than 3GB of RAM = 64 bit
64 bit can have issues…nature of the beast as the industry shifts to 64 bit from 32…it’s a good thing but 32 and 64 could have possible issues. Be sure external hardware eg printers / screens have 64 bit drivers available. 32 bit applications will run on 64 bit but low level drivers might have issues.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:38 am
…should read 3 GB of RAM or less = 32 bit
in general this is what you see for laptops. 32 bit has a limitation of how much RAM it can see. 64 bit expands the limitation.
I would love to know if Acer would let you choose 32 or 64 bit, even if the 32 bit could not see the full 4GB of RAM.
One more point: for Vista, no matter what edition (home premium/ultimate/etc) there will be a 32 bit AND 64 bit version of each. Note that the 32 and 64 each require a separate license. Therefore if you decide to change later you will need to purchase a different license.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
FALSE ADVERTISING!!!! I bought this unit based on the Acer website’s technical specifications about this unit (paid $1,500). When received it, I discovered the built-in Bluetooth their website claimed it had WASN’T THERE. Even though there’s a button on the keyboard to toggle it off and on and software reminders to activate it. I called Acer and they said the computer does NOT come with Bluetooth. I told them their own website said that it did. Eventually I got a letter (through the BBB) saying that they were “sorry for my inconvenience but were not responsible for the information on their website” ???!!!!???
If we can’t trust Acer’s own website to give us information about their own product, who can we trust? I’m still trying to return the unit. Guys, based on their reasoning, you could buy an 18″ notebook, receive a 14″ one and they’d just say sorry and that it’s not their problem. This is not just one person at Acer who has this attitude, I went up the entire corporate ladder. At this writing the website STILL indicates Bluetooth (http://us.acer.com/public/page4.do?link=oln56.redirect&dau22.oid=36229&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=25&CountryISOCtxParam=US&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&ctx3=-1&ctx4=United+States&crc=2934857869#inu57_51496, under “Configurations: AS8920-6048″). I suggest to any potential buyers to avoid Acer and find a company that actually takes its customer responsibilities seriously.