review of Acer extensa 4630z

Luke.13

Baseband Member
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I decided i needed a cheap laptop to bring with me to school, and i didnt want to spend much more then $500.. so i found a laptop that seemed to fit my budget, adn was half decent, the Acer Extensa 4630z.. some people i know said i should have bought a used laptop that was better then this, but everytime i buy a used computer it turns out to be a lemon ( a certain old Sony Vaio comes to mind)..

lets get this out of the way right now, its a utility laptop, its not for gaming, just for web surfing, homework, listening to music and watching the odd movie

price $499 CDN @ futureshop or bestbuy(not on bestbuy website but i got it there) and its like $150 CDN for a 2 year warranty


specs:
screen: 14.1" LCD
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core Mobile T3200 @ 2.0 GHz
RAM: 2GB DDR2
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M
HDD: 120GB 5400RPM
drive: 8X Super Multi Double Layer DVD drive

PROS:

in my opinion the 14 inch screen is easy to read.. everything was clear.. when i watched a dvd on it it seemed to run very smooth..other then that i do not much more to say about the screen

im not sure how it compares to some laptops out there but the battery on this seemed to be fairly good.. IT has 3 settings power-saver, balanced and performance... on the performance setting the battery lasted almost 2 and half hours, while i had a dvd running and i was using the internet..

this was my first time using vista, and i cant find anything wrong with it... maybe it was all the hype, but i was expecting to open up the gates of hell when i turned it on..

has a memory card reader that supports SD, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD.. this makes me happy cause i finally dont have to drag any card readers anymore, cause the ones i need are built in

CONS:

the mousepad isn't really good... it seems to lose track frequently and sometimes seems to freeze.. its usable but not really preferred... this didnt really effect me though because im usually at a desk and i just pop out a usb mouse for more ease..

my major issue with the laptop was that there are only 2 USB drives! i find this to be a incredibly huge design flaw.. once i connect a USB mouse and a USB memory stick, all the slots are used up! now i can charge my ipod or do anything else

one little irk i had with this laptop was the keyboard.. it felt great to use, very ergonomic in my opinion.. but what made me a little pissed was that there were too many extra characters on the keyboard.. some keys are responsible for 4 characters, it appears they are jsut trying to use the same keyboard for both the french and englisg... so at first i found it a confusing to figure out the right combos to push to get certain charcters, but after a while it becomes a breeze


well, for the price point, i believe this laptop to be fairly good, not spectacular by any means, but its great for school, internet surfing and has basic multimedia capabilities
 
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