Laptops Arena

We know that most of you have confronted themselves at least once with the situation where you wanted a really expensive thing for half the price if it were possible. Whether it was a new dress or a new car, we have all wanted something that we couldn't buy because it was too expensive. With laptops it's pretty much the same situation. There are lots of people that want a certain kind of laptop but don't have the money to pay for it. Well, there is an alternative. We know most of you will reject the idea from the beginning but... how about buying a cheap used laptop?
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You have to keep something really important in mind. Just because someone sells a second-hand laptop does not necessarily mean it's broken or there's something wrong with it. And the fact that you don't get a warranty for this product is actually a good thing because the lack of warranty lowers the price. Since there is no warranty for the system, you can always remove the chassis and do some tech work yourself, maybe upgrade some components. Before you buy a cheap used laptop, you have to keep in mind what you are going to sue it for. If you are a heavy gamer or someone who work in the design business and needs some graphic applications then you will have to focus on a good laptop with powerful components. If all you usually do with a laptop is browse around the internet, read and write e-mail and so office work like edit documents or spreadsheets, you don't need anything too fancy. The storage capacity should not be that big either. My guess is about 40 GB of disk space will do.

Just to make sure you don't buy any piece of junk, there are some tricks that help you figure out if there has ever been something wrong with that computer. By carefully looking at the chassis you should see if there are signs of impact. This will suggest if the laptop has ever been dropped (look at the corners as well). If it has that does not mean the laptop is not going to function any more but probably some parts inside it may have "moved around" and this will cause future problems. Also pay big attention to the screen. Ask the person who is selling it to turn it on. Now you must check if there are any dead pixels. This is not that big of a problem, I have seen laptops that work just fine even if there is a black dot on the display. You should be careful though with flickering displays as this probably means there is loose connection somewhere. Remember to check the hinges as they are the keys elements that keep the display firmly in place. The screen must not be loose so do some opening and closing exercises before purchasing the unit.



Another thing you should test is the battery. Ask the seller to perform a quick test. Keep the laptop plugged in until it's fully charge and the remove the power jack and the laptop will tell you how much battery life you have left. Be careful though, these things are tricky and the battery may die on you sooner than mentioned. Also make sure there are no problems with the power jack and that the laptop actually charges with no interruptions when you plug it in to a power outlet.  You can also do a quick check-up of the cooling system. See if the fan makes any excessive noise or heat when you plug it in. Most laptops heat up a lot when connected to a power outlet because the battery charges and produces high temperatures as well. If the bottom of the laptop gets too hot within a matter of minutes, we suggest you don't buy it. Overheating is a problem that can shorten the life of the components inside the laptop.



You can also try to type a few words in a Word document, just to make sure there are no problems with the keys. Some of my friends have had some trouble with loose keys even after 4 months of purchasing a brand new laptop. One of the keys simply popped out when typing and now it's loose and won't stay in place. Also test the other features like the optical drive or the wireless feature. It's important to get a good signal on the wireless connection even if you are a couple of feet away. If the unit you are looking at does not have an optical drive, this is not a reason to walk away from it. External optical drives are not that expensive and you can but a new one for a good price. Just attach it to one of the USB ports and there you go. You see, it's not that hard to figure out what cheap used laptop is good for purchase. Even if laptops are definitely something you had no clue about, just follow the steps we mentioned above and you should end up with a pretty good computer.



This whole used laptop deal has some nice benefits if you think about the fact that you can buy a laptop that was sold for $3000 on the market two years ago and now you are buying it for $1000. Remember that just because the price difference is so big it does not mean that computer is trash. Because technology has evolved so fast, better and better laptops are coming out on the market every day. Think of these used laptops like dresses from a collection from three years ago. If we still have not convinced you of the benefits of buying such a laptop, try looking into some refurbished laptops. There are plenty of stored that allow you to make online purchases. Refurbished laptops are laptops that users have returned to the manufacturer and after they have been checked for error and every problem was solved, they are resold on the market for a lower price. And yes, they have warranties.

If you are a person that cares a lot about the weight of a laptop, in this article you are going to read a couple of reviews for laptops under 4 lbs. We know that one of the most important things when you are looking to buy a laptop is the portability factor. Unless you are looking for a desktop replacement which is regularly huge and heavy, laptops and notebooks should be light and easy to carry around.
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For instance, for less than $1000, you can buy the Asus UL30A-A1 which is a 13 inch laptop, both thin and light and with very good specs. The combination of black and silver make this laptop look very elegant and it will offer you a business-look. The processor is a 1.3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 which is very good news considering the fact that laptops under $1000 usually have Intel Atom processors which are weak and slow (these processor are often found in netbooks).  4 GB of RAM means you will need to use either Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating systems to get the best out of your laptop. The graphics card is somewhat disappointing because the Mobile Intel GM45 Express is not exactly top of the line material but we kind of saw it coming. Better video cards are found on powerful gaming laptops which are also twice as expensive. There is not much to complain about the design as this laptop does not look like cheap and the chassis is very solid. However, the keyboard tends to have a rather discomforting flex which is a common problem with these thin and light laptops. The battery is located behind the keyboard, between the two hinges that hold the screen in place.

Above the keyboard you will find the power button and another button that launches an Express Gate quick start environment which contains a web browser, a music player, a program for viewing photos and an online gaming portal. This application will open faster than it takes for Vista to launch.  The touchpad seems to respond well to multitouch commands. The page scroll works just fine and will be very useful for reading long documents and web pages, especially since the screen is not that big. On the bottom of the laptop, in the front area, there are 2 speakers located which produce decent sound even if we are against speakers places on the bottom of the laptop which normally sound horrible (by horrible we mean that they are not loud at all). You have 3 USB ports, one SD card reader, the HDMI and VGA out, the regular Ethernet port plus the stereo speakers and headphone plus microphone jacks. The unpleasant surprise was that there is no optical drive built-into this laptop. This is one of the things that makes this laptop lighter and you can always attach and external DVD burner to your USB ports. Another thing you might miss in ExpressCard slot but other than this, there are no major flaws with this laptop. One thing that will surely amaze you just like it amazed us is the battery life. Using video playback to drain the battery, the laptop worked for an astonishing period of 6 hours and 40 minutes. This is awesome considering that video playback is some that really wears out the battery. If you use this laptop for regular web surfing and reading or editing documents, you should get a couple of more hours of life out of the 8-cell battery.



We believe that the champion of laptops under 4 lbs. is by far the one and only Apple MacBook Air. It looks amazing, feels amazing, works amazing and it will make you look good whenever you take it out of your bag at the coffee shop. It weighs around 3 lbs. and it is the thinnest laptop alive. It operated with an Intel Core 2 Duo P7500 1.6GHz processor and 2 GB of RAM. You have 80 GB of available disk space and an Intel GMA X3100 graphics card. This specs are those of the unit reviewed, there are different models which are available even with nVidia GeForce video cards. Even if it looks so slim and fragile, the Apple MacBook Air is not exactly very "breakable". The 13.3 inch display offers good viewing angles. The keyboard dreamy and when you type on it there is a danger of falling in love and never wanting to replace this keyboard ever again. At first it may seem difficult to get used to the layout and to the spacing between the keys but in time you will find typing a real pleasure. The keyboard illuminates in the dark so you can type without problems and without having to turn on the light. The touchpad is a lot larger than what you would expect to find on a 13.1 inch laptop. The multitouch functions work just fine. You shall have no complaints about the speed of this laptop as it operates faster than you could have imagined when you first took a look at the specs.



If you use the wireless function to surf the internet and keep the display brightness at a low level, you should get about 4 hours and 20 minutes of battery life which is quite ok considering that some similar laptops offer a maximum of 3 hours. Unfortunately, the integrated battery means that you cannot have a spare battery that you can change if the original one dies on you when you are travelling. This is a huge problem for people who care a lot about portability and we hope Apple will find a way to fix this problem. The good thing is that this laptop works ok under Windows Vista which is a nice aspect if you are used to Windows operating system platforms. It's amazing how this laptop can be very solid even if it is so thin and light. One nasty thins is the fact that this laptop has overheating problems and if may even get a bit too hot to hold in your lap. The number and ports and connections is not sufficient for a 13 inch laptop and another thing we have to add is that the battery charges kind of slow so if you have to get out of the house with your laptop, we recommend you leave it plugged in for the night.

Finding a cheap laptop in our days is not that difficult, but it still a challenge. When you pay hundreds of dollars for a machine you expect it to last and not to make any problems in the first few months of usage. Laptops which are available on the market right now for less than $500 may not please you because they have weak components. You will get slow processors and graphic cards that won't allow you play any good games, but if you want more power and better quality, you have to pay the price. However, you can buy refurbished laptops for under $500. The advantage with these kind of laptops is that they come from good manufacturers and they are hundreds of dollars cheaper. Why is that? Because these laptops have been sold before and people have returned them due to some minor flaws or even insignificant motives like "the keyboard is too small and I can't get used to it". The laptops are then checked for any technical problems or errors and they are resold at a lower price.
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An example of a refurbished laptop under $500 is the Gateway MX3701. This laptop meets all the necessary requirements for a good laptop than help you get around with your usual computing needs. As you can imagine, the laptop is not very powerful so you won't be able to play any top of the line games with it. The processor is an Intel Core Duo T2050 which is quite ok for what you would expect to find on a laptop cheaper that 500 dollars. You have 1 GB of RAM which will allow you to run either Windows XP or Windows Vista operating system. Personally I prefer XP because it runs faster and I find it easier to use. Plus, Windows Vista works better on systems that have at least 2 GB of RAM. 80 GB of space may not be enough if this is your main computer and if you want to store a huge amount of pictures, movies, music and applications but since you have a dual-layer DVD burner, you can store your files on DVD's and then free some disk space. The graphics card is an ATI Radeon Xpress 200M which is not the best but not the worst choice either. Other features are the 4-in-1 media card reader, 3 USB ports, 1 LAN port, 1 modem port, one headphone and one microphone jack plus a VGA port. This 14.1 inch laptop may come in handy if all you need a computer for is to surf around the internet and work with some documents and presentations. You can also watch movies and listen to music but be careful with running multiple applications or you will really slow down the laptop and may even cause it to freeze.

For $395 you can choose a laptop made by one of the great expert in this field. The Dell Latitude D520 may be another good choice for a cheap refurbished laptop especially if you aren't very picky about your computer and you use it for the usual networking tasks. With a 14 inch display, this laptop has an Intel Dual Core T2300E processor which operates at a speed of 1.66 GHz. It has 1 GB of RAM and it will probably come with Windows XP Professional preinstalled. The video card is an Intel GMA 950, not a very good one but it will still be ok if you plan on watching a movie or some YouTube videos. If the 80 GB of available disk space is not enough, you can always use the CD-RW to make some back up of your files. Be aware that this system has a DVD drive but it cannot be used for burning DVD's, only CD's. You have 4 USB ports, a FireWire port, headphones and microphone jack, the regular Ethernet port, S-Video and VGA out. You only have 6 months of warranty because all refurbished laptops have a shorter warranty period (usually half) then the brand new laptop model.



Since all powerful laptop brands and manufacturers are selling out these refurbished laptops, HP could not have denied itself the pleasure of making some extra money out of the refurbished laptop business. For $380 you can buy the refurbished HP NC8430 which is actually one of the most powerful laptops we have seen for such a small price.  The processor is an Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo T7200 which operated at the speed of 2.0 GHz. The Core 2 Duo processors are some of the fastest ones around so HP really hit the bulls' eye with this one. Unfortunately, you only have 768 MB of RAM but you have the possibility to upgrade as this laptop can hold up to 2 GB of RAM. The 15.4 inch display tells us this is a good desktop replacement, with its 1280 x 800 native resolution.



Just like the two models before, this laptop also has 80 GB of free disk space which you can always clean up thanks to the DVD burner that allows you to copy your files on DVDs. The ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card has 256 MB of discrete video memory that supports Microsoft DirectX 9 which is a big deal for a cheap laptop. You have two integrated speakers which are about as good as any speakers on a $400 laptop. A really nice feature we didn't expect to find was the integrated Bluetooth which can now help you transfer your files quickly from your cell phone to your laptop or even between two laptops (moth of them must have the Bluetooth feature). You have 3 USB ports, one Smart Card reader, one FireWire port, S-Video and VGA out plus the headphone/speaker and microphone jacks.



You will find lots of refurbished laptops under $500 from manufacturers like Acer or IBM. Cheap does not necessary mean inferior quality. It only means that the specs are not that amazing like the ones on a $1500 laptop but if you don't need any fancy gaming machine or you don't want a laptop that can run 3D applications, then we recommend you look into other refurbished laptops to help you save some money.

Choosing a laptop today may be somewhat of a difficult choice since the market is bursting with so many models from a whole lot of manufacturers. As each brand struggles to produce top of the line material, the question still stand:  Who makes the best laptop?
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There are certain aspect that makes a laptop „the best". You have to think about the design, it has to be unique but also keep the laptop protected. And what about performance? It has to be speedy and have good memory and a good graphics card. The truth is that the question "who makes the best laptop" has subjective answers. Some of you may think the Alienware M15x is the best because you are into playing games all the time and this laptop's specs are perfect for you. Some other person may be in love with the Sony VAIO Z Series as they are elegant (have you even seen how that carbon fiber case loosk like?), unique and pricy (and we all know that laptops today are becoming fashion accessories), not to mention that they are quite powerful for laptops that were designed for multimedia purposes. Since most of us believe that the most expensive objects are also the best, let's find out if we can answer that question above by looking into some of the most expensive laptops available on the market.

Yes, Alienware makes some of the most expensive stuff you could find. The Alienware Area 51 laptop makes no exception. For about 5000 dollars you get the Dual Core processor from Intel, the nVidia GeForce 9800M GT graphic card and 1TB of available disk storage for keeping your pictures, music, movies, Jericho, F.E.A.R., Crisis and Call of Duty. All these specs some in a black case but don't worry, thanks to that blue ALIENWARE logo you surely can't miss it in the dark.

If you are willing to give up some thousands of dollars (about 6000 to be exact) you can buy the Voodoo Envy H:171. You get the best processor around (Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800) and a graphics card to die for (nVidia GeForce Go 7950), a 17 inch display with is enough to get a good look at those monster you're shooting and some 600GB to store your favorite things on this laptop. And if you always wanted to get a tattoo but couldn't, the Voodoo Envy H:171 has got one instead and all this was combined with a fierce and devilish red.

So far, we have shown you some very expensive (and powerful) laptops... But what if you can get almost the same satisfaction and only pay 1500 dollars for it? As promised, Toshiba has come up with something impressive and useful. The Toshiba Qosmio X500 is more than a laptop. With its 18.4 inch display, this is more of a desktop replacement as it's pretty huge to keep carrying around. The Toshiba brand promise was "leading innovation" and yes, they are the leaders of innovation. With an Intel Core i7 processor and the nVidia GeForce 250M graphic card we are definitely talking about some performance here. You'll be able to enjoy some great 3D games at good speed and high resolution. As you've probably figured out already, this is another gaming laptop. You gaming experience has never been this close to reality.

Why have we only presented gaming laptops so far? Well, to play these new games that keep popping up on the market, you will need very good laptop components (especially top of the line processors and graphic cards). In short, if a laptop is good at playing games, than you can do just about anything with it.

One year ago, Lenovo introduced us with the Lenovo ThinkPad W700DS, the laptop that gathers a 2.53-GHz Core 2 Quad Core Extreme processor, an nVidia Quadro FX 3700M graphics card, 4 GB of random access memory and another 320 GB of disk storage. What makes this laptop any better that the others we talked about? Well, apart from the 17 inch display you also get... Another display! That's right, this little screen (which is 10.6 inches long) pops out from inside the big one and it really comes in handy. Just imagine, all you Photoshop users, you can get some extra space by putting all those annoying toolboxes on the small screen. It's also useful for keeping chat windows open all the time, maybe your Skype webcam or you can use that small and sweet little display as a mini-TV. The small display will not be as strong as the big one but that is something we can manage to live with. This screen can be parallel to the main one or you can adjust it at a 45 degree angle. Since the others were expensive, the Lenovo ThinkPad W700DS makes no exception. To benefit from this powerful laptop (and that nice secondary screen) you will have to pay a price between 4000 and 5000 dollars. One thing you will not be very happy with is the battery life. We don't know if the small screen is to blame for this but the battery will only last about 1 hour and 50 minutes, which is not that great compared to other desktop replacements. But why carry it around when you can just sit at the desk (or in bed), enjoy a nice cup of coffee while chatting with your friends and you can keep your Lenovo ThinkPad W700DS plugged in this entire time.

Have we answered your question? Do you know who makes the best laptop in the world? This is not something we can answer for sure as it depends what you are looking for in a laptop. We prefer Lenovo because it's original and you can use it to play games, it has that small screen we love and you get all those great hardware components. It's a bit pricy though. It's nothing a true laptop lover can't handle. Try considering the Dell XPS, Apple Mac Book Air and HP Pavilion models on your quest to find out "who makes the best laptop".

Although everyone wants to buy the newest possible gadgets on the market, the reality is certainly different. Within these uncertain times, it is best to do an extensive search over a few similar devices before deciding what you want to buy. The latest perspective in the market is the wise customer perspective. The time when someone was buying a certain product just because it included a certain logo or just because they liked the advertising campaign is over.
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Nowadays, in order to keep your finances safe and in check you must search the market for different yet similar products for an extensive overview before summarizing your purchase list. Laptop manufacturers are by far the most uninventive manufacturers in the device universe. It is probably hard to say you own a laptop which is unique in its line by its looks or specs. This is not because of the economic crisis. However, within two years we might see a full rebranding of some manufacturer's portfolio in order to attract more potential customers (such as Dell).

The most important laptop line in every manufacturer portfolio is the everyday multimedia laptop. However, this line implies for certain manufacturers sub lines (Acer). However, this is not the case of Toshiba, but it is the case of Acer. Therefore, if you are curious about Acer's everyday laptop line you should know that overall it features 34 different laptop lines (each of them with different available configurations). As you can imagine these 34 laptops are divided into several sub lines of the everyday multimedia line Aspire. Some are portable for home and work; some are indoors use only, others are only for extreme multimedia features, while others just try to merge every possible features from different categories, multimedia, business, portability and other.


The Aspire family is advertised with "create, explore, relax" slogan, which delivers the merging message to all of potential customers that know a thing or two about laptops. The "amateurs" probably don't explore Acer website for laptop information or even read reviews, but then again not everyone is lives in the "laptop universe". In a past particle I have presented you both Toshiba Satellite A500 and Toshiba Satellite L500. This two laptops included a few (or a lot) configurations for each laptop. These two laptops, A500 and L500, both boasted a large screen with excellent resolution, great design with a flawless build quality, portability (for the configurations that included the 9000 mAh within 12 cell Lithium Ion battery), and the latest available specs for great performances.


The Satellite A500 delivered an overall better package, while the L500 is considered to be the cheaper version of the A500 ("L" lower in cost, while "A" stands for absolute). However, Acer brings a full sub line of laptops to attract as many potential customers from the Toshiba world. The top of the Aspire line, the best from the best, the exclusive power machine, and a true desktop replacement, the Acer Aspire 8930 packs so many features plus an excellent design that it might be overwhelming for laptop fans.


Some of the key features offered by the Aspire 8930 are the full video High Definition experience, completed by the excellent sound surround, and the impressive 18.4 LCD display with a monster resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. However, the portability is somewhat affected since the 8930 sports a not so light weighted design. Also, depending on the configuration you might not get all the possible features available for this sub line. Regarding the design, I must specify that this laptop sports an exquisite design, with a glossy black LCD cover (including a silver Acer logo that improves the overall look) that is covered with a special Gemstone Blue paint, which provides an excellent visual impression under direct sunlight. Also, the Acer logo sports a white backlight, very Apple-ish visual effect from Acer.


As you can imagine, this design implies disadvantages like fingerprint magnet and minor scratches. Even so you get no flex of the lid, and the build quality is impeccable even if the rest of the case is made only out of a matte black plastic (however this plastic has a good quality). Even more in the inside the 8930 sports a patterned plastic that surrounds the black, yet glossy keyboard. Unfortunately, the semi glossy keyboard isn't that attractive with all the fingerprints on it, and it doesn't offer the best grip when you press in a hurry the keys.

With a varying height from front to rear 1.6 inches (or 40.2 mm) to 1.7 inches (or 44.2 mm), wide of 17.4 inches (or 441.4 mm), deep of 11.8 inches (or 300 mm), the Aspire 8930 weights, depending on the configuration chosen, about 9 lbs (or 4.1 Kg). Overall, the design of the Aspire 8930 is not as flawless like the Satellite A500, but you still get an excellent designed product, with portability issues.

On the front side of the Aspire 8930, Acer didn't include any ports or slots, just like the rear side, while the left side sports (depending on the configuration chosen) the microphone in jack, headphone out jack, Line in, one eSATA / USB combo port with sleep and charge function, one USB 2.0, the HDMI port with HDCP support, the VGA monitor output port, the cooling vent, the RJ 11 modem port, and the RJ 45 LAN port.

The right side of the 8930 sports another two 2.0 USB ports, the Express Card slot with 54 mm, and the 6 in 1 card reader (compatible with Memory Stick memory card, Memory Stick Pro memory card, Multi Media Card, MMC memory card, xD Picture Card, and Secure Digital card), and the Super Multi DVD drive, which may differ depending on the chosen configuration.

Therefore, you can either get the integrated variable speed Super Multi drive (compatible with DVD - RAM, DVD - RW, DVD + RW, DVD - R, DVD + R, CD - R, CD - RW, DVD -R dual layer, DVD + R double layer), or the integrated variable speed Blu-ray Disc drive / Super Multi drive combo (compatible with the above formats and BD - ROM, BD - RE, BD - ROM double layer, BD - R double layer, BD - R, and BD - RE double layer).


When you open the Aspire 8930 you can easily see the full 105 keyboard, with excellent sized keys, that offer average feedback, plus the interactive Acer CineDash media console that deviates the keyboard from the center, including functions like volume up and down, menu navigation, media controls, such as play, pause, stop, fast forward and fast rewind, mute key and hold key. Also, you can find easy launch buttons such as web browser, WLAN settings, email, and Bluetooth settings.

Below the keyboard you get the touch pad. This touch pad is excellent in any terms of construction and feedback, mostly because of the pattern surface (which makes it easy to use), and because of the touch features embedded. You can't really expect integrated touch features like MacBook, but with the new Windows 7 you will get some pretty nice functions like zoom in and out, or scroll function. The feedback is excellent much better than the semi glossy keyboard. Depending on the configuration chosen you either get an Acer CineCrystal full HD of 18.4 inches with an WUXGA resolution (also known as 1920 x 1080 pixels) TFT LCD, or the Acer CineCrystal HD+ with 18.4 inches diagonal widescreen EXGA+ resolution (also known as 1680 x 945 pixels) TFT LCD.


Both displays offer excellent quality videos and pictures, vibrant colors, average brightness even under direct sunlight, and good viewing angles for a better user experience. The connectivity is ensured by the Bluetooth 2.0 with the enhanced data rate, the Gigabit 10 / 100 / 1000 Ethernet, the 56 Kb per second modem, Intel Wi-Fi network with 802.11 a/b/g/n profile, Express Card 54 mm slot, VGA monitor output port, HDMI port, three 2.0 USB, and one eSATA / USB combo port with sleep and charge functions.


The Aspire 8930 is offered in nine different configurations. Some of these configurations share some common features, while others completely differ in what they have to offer. The first available model, Aspire 8930 6247 sports an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P7350 with 2.0 GHz, 3 MB L2 cache, 10066 MHz FSB, with 4 GB DDR3 1066 SDRAM (mount in the 2 x 2048 MB configuration), one 320 GB hard drive, 6 in 1 card reader, the 18.4 inches 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution LCD TFT, Wi-Fi with 802.11 a/b/g/n, Ethernet, fingerprint reader, integrated Blu-ray Disc, and Bluetooth.


The Aspire 8930 6247 is shipped with Windows Vista Home Premium, the 64 bit version. The next version offered, Aspire 8930 6951 comes with Windows Vista Ultimate. It also includes the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400 with the 2.26 GHz frequency 3 MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz, the same 320 GB hard drive, the same SDRAM configuration 4 GB DDR3 with 1066 MHz, the 18.4 inches WUXGA resolution TFT LCD, and the graphic chipset, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT, and Blu-ray disc. Also available are the common features such as 6 in 1 card reader, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, fingerprint reader. Next on the portfolio entries you can find the Aspire 8930 6306 including the Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor, the 320 GB hard drive, Super Multi DVD drive, 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM with 1066 MHz, NVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT graphic chipset, and the 18.4 inches 1680 x 945 pixels resolution LCD TFT.


The common connectivity elements are also found in the AS 8930 6309. For this configuration Acer chose Windows Vista Home Premium (the 64 bit version). The AS 8930 6243 packs a slightly smaller processor, Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 with 2.0 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache 800 MHz FSB, with the same hard drive, the same SDRAM configuration, the Blu-ray disc drive, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphic chipset, and the 18.4 inches WXGA+ resolution LCD display. The Vista Home Premium 64 bit version is also included in the AS 8930 6243, and in the AS 8930 6520.

This configuration sports the exact same features like the AS 8930 6243, with the only difference that it packs the Super Multi DVD drive, replacing the Blu-ray drive. The AS 8930 6442 packs a better processor, Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 with 2.0 GHz, 2 MB cache, at 800 MHz FSB, the same SDRAM memory, a 500 GB hard drive, the WXGA+ 18.4 inches TFT LCD, the same graphic chipset, and the Super Multi DVD drive. The offered operating system for this configuration is Windows Vista Home Premium.


The Aspire 8930 6386 includes the Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9400 with a great 6 MB cache, 2.53 GHz at a frequency of 1066 MHz FSB, with the 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 320 GB hard drive, the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphic chipset, Super Multi DVD drive, 18.4 inches WXGA+ 18.4 inches TFT LCD, and the embedded Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit version. The eighth configuration available, packs the same processor, the same SDRAM memory, the same hard drive, and the


Super Multi DVD drive, like the AS 8930 6386, but also brings the 18.4 inches display with the 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, and the NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT graphic chipset. The available operating system for this configuration is Windows Vista Ultimate. The last but not least 8930 configuration, AS 8930 7665 ships with the Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q900 2.0 GHz, 6 MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz FSB, 4 GB DDR3 1066 MHz SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT graphic chipset, Blu-ray drive, 18.4 inches WUXGA resolution TFT LCD, and the 500 GB hard drive. For this configuration Acer installed the Windows Vista Home Premium (the 64 bit version).

However, for all the above configurations, keep in mind that Acer is providing the necessary software drives, for an upgrade to the Windows 7, which is highly recommended since Vista will only diminish your laptop's performances. Overall, the Aspire 8930 is truly a powerful machine. It packs good features for in any of the configurations available. This model is highly recommended for anyone who wants an enormous display and high definition performances. However, the Aspire 8930 is not well positioned.

The Aspire 8930 lack a certain something not just in the design department, but also in the tech department. Therefore, it can't be the most powerful laptop offered in the Aspire family. Toshiba sports better models in the Satellite family. Even so, in 2010 Acer is probably going to release an upgrade to 8930, while at the end of 2010, beginning of 2011 Acer will introduce the Aspire 9xxx sub line laptop models.