You'd be hard-pressed to find a better-looking desktop replacement notebook--or one with better multimedia features--than Acer's lightning-fast, long-lasting, black-and-silver Aspire 2000. The Aspire 2000 offers a 15.4-inch wide-screen display, superior sound, and unique Arcade software that lets you play DVD movies and audio CDs without the need to boot Windows. Alas, Acer's designers may have concentrated just a bit too much on fun: the keyboard is placed so far toward the screen that it is difficult to type unless the notebook sits in your lap; the nonstandard editing-key layout may peeve touch typists; and the touchpad buttons are overly stiff and hard to reach. If those relatively minor ergonomic flaws don't bother you, then this is one heck of a machine.
The Aspire 2000 is one of a new breed of thin-and-wide multimedia notebooks born to accommodate wider screens--in this case, a 15.4-inch, 1,280x800-pixel display. Perhaps it comes from years of toting briefcases, but to us, this new form factor feels both easier to balance when carried under your arm and more natural in appearance. Yet despite measuring 13.1 by 10.9 by 1.3 inches, the Aspire 2000 weighs only 7.9 pounds--including AC adapter.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Alas, the Aspire 2000's ergonomics distract from its otherwise satisfying design. The pair of mouse buttons below the touchpad are too stiff and too far away from the keyboard. The keyboard has a nice feel, but it's placed so far up on the main deck that it's difficult to type on when it's on any surface higher than a lap. But perhaps worst of all is the keyboard layout: Even with such an enormous main-deck area to play with, Acer chose to omit dedicated Home and End navigation keys. You must use the Fn key to modify the Page Up and Page Down keys to perform these functions.
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| The keyboard resides so far up on the main deck that it is difficult to type on in some situations. |
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| The mouse buttons are stiff and far from the keyboard. |
On the plus side, the Aspire 2000 runs exceptionally cool and plays much better sound than the average notebook, thanks to a bottom-mounted subwoofer. Though it's no boombox, the Aspire 2000 sounds light-years more sophisticated than the usual tinny notebook audio.
The Aspire 2000 offers the usual external controls and connectors and then some. On the front lip live the aforementioned Arcade control buttons, the Arcade launch button, and the power button; on the front proper are Bluetooth and wireless On/Off buttons, the audio in/out/headphone jacks, and a four-in-one flash-memory card reader. On the right, there are infrared, AC, and Kensington lock ports, while the left side offers up a single PC Card slot and an optical drive. The back has the S-Video, VGA, gigabit Ethernet, V.92 modem, USB, parallel, and mini-FireWire ports.
There are currently only two base models in the Aspire 2000 series: the high-end, $1,999 Aspire 2003LMi and the $1,649 Aspire 2000LCi. Having only two base models in the series is not a complaint; you don't need a lot of choices with basic options such as Pentium M processors in 1.5GHz and 1.6GHz flavors, 333MHz DDR memory from 256MB to 2GB, 4,200rpm hard drives from 30GB to 80GB, the aforementioned 15.4-inch display, and a highly capable ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 with 64MB of dedicated graphics memory.
The Aspire 2000's wireless options are limited to Intel's Pro/Wireless 2100 for 802.11b or its 802.11a/b 2100a variant. You can opt for a slot-loading CD-RW/DVD combo drive or a DVD-RW drive to fill the drive bay on the left side of the unit.
The Aspire Arcade software is this notebook's most notable feature. This software creates a nice rendering of the 10-foot (that is, visible from remote-control distance) interface à la Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004. Arcade runs outside of Windows (or inside, if you so desire); boots in less than 10 seconds; and lets you play DVDs, VCDs, SVCDs, CD audio, MP3 CDs, and other media from your hard drive. It also does photo slide shows, burns discs, and backs up your system--it's slick and then some. Though in most cases you won't be far enough away from the notebook to need a remote control, it would've been nice of Acer to include one, in case you wanted to lie in bed and employ a larger external display, which is the reasoning behind a 10-foot interface.
The Aspire 2000 runs Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Home and includes CyberLink PowerDVD XP 4.0 for DVD-movie playback and NTI's CD-Maker for disc-mastering chores. Acer provides three restore discs as well as the full Windows XP distribution CD.
The Acer Aspire 2000 was the clear winner in mobile performance in this small test group. The system finished 14 points ahead of its nearest competitor, the IBM ThinkPad T41 and 23 points ahead of the HP Compaq nc8000. We attribute most of this performance difference to the degree in which each system's processor speed is throttled down to save battery life. Clearly, Acer didn't feel the need to throttle its system's CPU speed too low, as it scored 23 points above the average score given to Pentium M 1.6GHz-based systems. When it comes to running office and content-creation apps in a mobile state, it doesn't get much better than this.
Mobile application performance (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Find out more about how we test notebooks.
Performance analysis written by CNET Labs assistant lab manager Eric Franklin.
System configurations:Acer Aspire 2000
Windows XP Pro; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 64MB; IBM Travelstar 60GN 60GB 4,200rpm
HP Compaq nc8000
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 64MB; Toshiba MK4019GAX 40GB 5,400rpm
IBM ThinkPad T41
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 40GN 40GB 5,400rpm
The Acer Aspire 2000 pays for its great mobile performance by finishing second in battery life. As mentioned in the performance section, the system does not throttle its CPU speed as low as its peers do and as a result, this system had the best performance. In battery life, however, the system with the lowest mobile performance came out on top. The HP Compaq nc8000, with its 14.4V, 4,400mAh (63WHr) battery, lasted more than five hours, while the Acer Aspire 2000, with its similar 14.8V, 4,300mAh (64WHr) battery lasted four hours, 43 minutes. Although the Acer sacrificed battery life for performance, that run time is still impressive.
Battery life (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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To measure mobile application performance and battery life, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's MobileMark 2002. MobileMark measures both application performance and battery life concurrently using a number of popular applications (Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator 6.0, WinZip Computing WinZip 8.0, McAfee VirusScan 5.13, Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, and Macromedia Flash 5.0).
Performance analysis written by CNET Labs assistant lab manager Eric Franklin.
System configurations:Acer Aspire 2000
Windows XP Pro; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 64MB; IBM Travelstar 60GN 60GB 4,200rpm
HP Compaq nc8000
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 64MB; Toshiba MK4019GAX 40GB 5,400rpm
IBM ThinkPad T41
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 40GN 40GB 5,400rpm
The Aspire 2000 carries a standard one-year warranty with 24/7 toll-free support provided for the length of the warranty. Two extra years of coverage are available for a reasonable $99 per year, and a number of options--from next-business-day onsite service to three years of screen warranty--may be purchased, as well. The Aspire 2000's user guide is well written if a bit lacking in technical depth and is duplicated as a PDF file on your system. Acer's Web site offers a wealth of support and technical information on the Aspire 2000, including manual and driver downloads, extended warranty information, technical articles, and the ability to e-mail technical-support personnel for assistance.
To find out more about how this product's warranty really stacks up and what you should look for in terms of service and support, take a look at CNET's hardware warranty explainer.