Notebook Review: Acer Aspire 7720-6155 (Updated Apr. 20, 2008 with important information!)

I bought this laptop at Staples in North Conway, NH at the end of October, 2007. The price was $849. I never had a laptop so I was looking forward to the experience. Since I travel between New Hampshire and Florida with the seasons, I was becoming tired of making sure that I was taking all of my new data and programs with me. I wanted to continue doing the same work or play at both places. A laptop was the answer.

I was familiar with the Acer brand name because I had a scanner many years ago. It didn't last as long as I thought it should. I went on-line to find if it could be fixed with an update or something else. This was in the early to mid 90's. I could not find Acer on the internet with several searches.

Acer must have had a revival because most major electronic stores carry the brand. There is plenty of information on the internet now. The range of products is quite broad.
The model that I bought was the Aspire 7720-6155. It has the following specifications:

Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5250 (1.5GHz. 667 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 cache)
Up to 358MB Mobile Intel GraphicsMedia Accelerator X3100
2GB DDR2
17" WXGA+ Acer CrystalBrite LCD
160GB HDD
DVD-Super Multi double layer
Webcam
802.11a/b/g WLAN
Dolby Digital Live Audio
Windows Vista

I have been working quite steadily on the notebook since I bought it. The only problem I had, and it wasn't because of the computer, was incompatibility of an older flash drive with Vista. However I went online and got a patch which solved the problem.

Vista took a little getting used to but it went more smoothly than I thought it would. The notebook itself has run without problems. The battery lasts from 2 to 3 hours. The notebook is a little heavier than I would like, 6-7 lbs, I think. This model has the extra number keyboard on the right side.

Overall, I am very pleased with the Acer notebook. The price seemed to be good when I compared the features I wanted from brand to brand. Acer was the one that had all my preferred features at the lowest price.

Addendum

After 3 months I was very happy with the laptop and even wrote a glowing review on it for Helium(see above). No sooner had I done that, the problems reared their ugly heads. First was being dropped from my wireless router repeatedly. I bought a new router but the problem did not stop. (Returned the router).

Then the system was no longer recognizing the DVD drive. It didn't exist anymore as far as the system was concerned. I contacted Acer and they said to uninstall the driver and reinstall by restarting. No luck. Acer then told me to send the laptop back to them since the drive needed to be repaired or replaced, but that I should backup everything. The computer was serviced and returned within 24 hrs of being received.

As luck would have it, the computer was shipped to my summer address in New Hampshire rather than my winter address where I was. Probably my fault. It sat in NH for more than a week before I could threaten FedEx enough to send it on to me in Florida. A total of 3 weeks had passed since it was sent to Acer.

When I got it back it worked fine but the only thing they did was to reinstall Vista. Two weeks later the wireless reception was still good but the DVD drive problem was back. By the time I finished the previous sentence I lost my wireless connection.

Now, do I avoid Acer and have a local, trusted repair person look at it or risk dealing with Acer again? :(

Learn more about this author, Robert Mclean.
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