Laptop Thoughts: Acer 8943G Aspires To Greatness

"If you're in the market for a notebook that does double duty as a full-fledged entertainment center, then take a good look at Acer's new Aspire 8943G, but don't buy it just yet."

In the entertainment center class of laptops, the Acer 8943G is rated as a bargain at $1,599, but Laptop warns about serious wifi connectivity problems (Acer says that a fix is forthcoming). With an 1.6-GHz Intel Core i7-720QM, an 18.4-inch screen, weighing-in at 8.4-pounds, Dolby sound, and 8GB of RAM standard, this is a well-equipped laptop. Stylish but with a few quirks, this systems rates a bit above average in performance, a bit below average in file transfer speed, below average in boot time, above average in graphics performance. While this is not a gaming laptop, it did score above average on Far Cry 2 and World of Warcraft. Battery life is slightly under 3 hours, but this isn't a machine that's meant to run off the battery. Aside from the wireless issue, this is a decent performing laptop that compares well to the less-attractive Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q890 ($1899).