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Acer Aspire 5000One of the first Turion 64 systems impresses with its speed and overall value. Price: $1,099
Acer’s Aspire 5000 is one of the first notebooks to feature AMD’s new Turion 64 mobile processor. The Turion 64 is designed to expertly blend performance with portability, and Acer extends that theme well into this affordable widescreen notebook. It lacks a FireWire port and skimps in the graphics department, but this 6.2-pound system has the performance and features to capably serve as a desktop replacement, yet it’s light enough to free you from your desk.
The Aspire 5000 sports a beautiful 15.4-inch widescreen display. At its native WXGA resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, the screen is very comfortable to view for hours at a time. Not only is it great for watching DVD movies, but it’s excellent for viewing two applications, like Word and Firefox, side by side. When watching DVDs, we were disappointed with the tin can sound similar to what other laptops generate. Running at 1.6 GHz and coupled with 512MB of DDR memory, the CPU recorded a terrific MobileMark score of 199. In our real-world testing, we found the system easily deserved that high mark. We ripped CD audio tracks into MP3s and rotated a five-megapixel digital image at the same time. The Aspire 5000 didn’t bog down at all, but its 4,200-rpm 80GB hard drive was a little slow to load applications and data. This Turion 64 laptop won’t last more than three hours on a charge, but its runtime is comparable to the Gateway M360X we review in this issue, which has a 1.6-GHz Intel Pentium M under the hood. The embedded graphics adapter could best be described as lame. Even at the lowest detail setting, Quake III Arena was basically unplayable. 3DMark2001 backed up our assessment with a very low score of 1,601. The optical drive installed on this notebook is surprisingly versatile given the price of this system. It writes to DVD+Rs and DVD-Rs at a speedy 8X, and writes to double layer DVD+R DLs at 2.4X. Unfortunately, Acer failed to include a FireWire port, which means you’ll need to buy a FireWire PC Card adapter to import video from your digital camcorder. The Aspire 5000 is skimpy on ports in general. There’s no flash media card slot, IR transceiver, or S-Video. On the upside, there are three USB 2.0 ports along with a line-in jack and the standard headphone and mic jacks. Since the Aspire 5000 sprawls out over 14.3 x 11 x 1.5 inches, it has plenty of room to accommodate a spacious and comfortable keyboard. We were pleased that the system is one of the few widescreen laptops that features a touchpad whose length and width match the 16:10 aspect ratio of the display. This attention to detail makes cursor navigation a lot more convenient. The Aspire 5000 include a handy utility called Acer Arcade, but it’s not for games. Instead, it adds a Windows Media Center feel to the way you watch DVDs, edit home movies, or view your digital photos. Acer bundles its eManager software, which gives you custom control over power management options. Priced at $1,099 and backed by a one-year warranty with 24/7 toll-free tech support, the Acer Aspire 5000 is a remarkable bargain for those that value productivity performance over graphics prowess. This system proves that the Turion 64 processor has more than enough muscle for mobile users on a budget. Compare Prices | Acer Aspire 5000 Specifications
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