One heck of a notebook
If you can accept its size, weight and power consumption, the Aspire 5940G is worth taking a serious look
- Published: 3/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Database
My interest in personal computers started almost 30 years ago, during the period of Apple II computer. If you are a creature of that era, you'd know that it's hard to forget Osborne 1, the first portable computer ever introduced by the industry. This marketing and technological marvel, featuring a mere 5-inch display, two floppy-disk drives, a 4 MHz Z80 microprocessor, and 64k of RAM, running on CP/M (a very popular operating system of the time), is a monster compared to today's notebooks. And I mention it because somehow Acer Aspire 5940G, the notebook reviewed today, reminds me of this luggable legend.
Acer Aspire 5940G—a force to be reckoned with.
It goes without saying that the Aspire 5940G is huge and heavy. This notebook features a 15.6-inch display screen and, at 15 x 10.8 square inches, claims a footprint 170 percent larger than that of A4 paper. Essentially, this is the largest notebook I've tested to date. To put things in perspective, the unit is too big to be put into my normal-sized backpack. It doesn't fit the bag that my wife uses daily for carrying her notebook computer either. So I end up carrying it in a large eco-friendly cotton bag. Not that I carry it around much, because its weight (3 kilos) thwarts my desire to do so.
But if you need to play games or perform serious number crunching on the go, Acer Aspire 5940G may be the right machine for you. Equipped with 1.6 GHz Core i7 Intel Processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (512MB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM, and up to 1792MB of shared system memory), this is one heck of a notebook.
Let's take a close examination of the unit's exterior. Simply put, the Aspire 5940G looks extremely basic. The machine's clamshell design, with polished Midnight Sapphire cover, makes its appearance similar to most Acer notebook series - only bulkier proportionally. It also attracts both dust and fingerprints like other Acer Aspire models. Unlike other Ferrari-looking machines, this notebook hides its Herculean power in plain sight.
On the port side, there is a Kensington lock slot, power port, LAN port, HDMI port, eSATA port, two USB ports, and three audio ports (line-in jack, microphone, and headphone). An ExpressCard is located above these audio ports. On the starboard side, there is another USB port, Blu-ray drive, mini FireWire port and multi-in-1 card reader. Practically, you have the whole kitchen sink for connection and I/O here.
Opening the lid, the first thing you would notice is that the hinges do not allow the screen to go as far as you might like. This would definitely affect the viewing angle when you place the notebook on your lap.
The Aspire 5940G's large and glossy screen is surrounded by black glossy frame. The keyboard is chicklet type (ie flat-top style). The keys' spacing is a little bit too tight to my liking and expectation. This after all is a 15.6 incher. I definitely wish more real estate were given to the keyboard, what with the size of the entire panel.
Unfortunately, my wish can never be granted because the normal keyboard is flanked by additional array of buttons - Backup, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi buttons on the port side and Media Control buttons on the starboard side. This arrangement is convenient if you use these special buttons a lot. I kind of like the Media Control's "Rotating Volume Wheel" myself. But the setup, especially the media control, encroaches a great deal of space, rendering the unit's keyboard (29.8 x 11 square cm) smaller than that of my 14" Lenovo (28.4 x 12 square cm).
Worse still, an additional column of buttons, namely Del, Home, Pg Up, Pg Dn, and End is located on the right side of the "Back Space/ Enter/ Right Shift" column which is supposed to be the rightmost column. I have a problem getting Home key instead of Back Space all the time.
Above the keyboard lie Dolby home theatre speakers with virtual surround-sound capability. Acer Power Smart button is also located above the keyboard - very handy for a situation when you want to conserve energy. The multi-gesture touch pad, with finger scanner at the bottom, is generous in size. If somehow it gets in your way of typing, you can turn it off using the button located nearby. Let's see how this beast performs.
Turning on the notebook, the first thing you will notice is the bright and vibrant display you get from the unit's wide 16:9 screen. I can read the screen's content fine while working under a bright background. Another thing that stands out is the keyboard's backlit feature. The backlit is very bright. I like it a lot. This is one notebook you would have no problems typing in dark or dim environment. Period.
For speed test, I ran two synthetic benchmarkers. The results obtained are outstanding (20,037 3DMark 03 scores, and 7,535 3DMark 06 scores respectively), thanks to a high-powered CPU, dedicated GPU, and large amount of fast RAM. Besides synthetic tests, the Aspire 5940G is also a speed demon in real life. Windows 7 runs blazingly fast. HD video playback from YouTube is never stuttering. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare (the first installment, not the second one) plays very smoothly at 1388 x 768 resolution and 4x anti-aliasing setting.
In addition to playing games, I tested the unit's multimedia capability by watching Van Helsing the movie. I think it's safe to say that the Aspire 5940G features one of the best sound systems in a notebook. Unlike sound quality you'd heard from most notebooks, this machine plays back crisp, clean and loud sounds. Playing Dire Strait's Money for Nothing reconfirms my assessment on audio quality. Note, however, that the CineBass Booster feature doesn't do much good on enhancing the bass range, especially if you're familiar with a PC with sub-woofer.
Battery test was run by playing a long MP3 file non-stop. With Wi-Fi on and keyboard light on, the machine lasts 2 hours and 21 minutes before it hibernated. When tested with Van Helsing, the machine stayed on for a little over 2 hours - barely enough to watch the movie till the end. I truly wish its battery lasted longer.
In the end, Acer Aspire 5940G features large screen and great audio system for your multimedia and gaming enjoyment. Its power under the hood is abundant. If you can accept its size, weight, and power consumption rate, this is one machine worth taking a serious look.
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About the author
- Writer: Pee Kay
- Position: Writer
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