Acer 5942G Thoughts.

Vince · 24 Mar 2010 at 15:37

Hey,

My current laptop, my trusty GX620: ( core 2 centrino 2 P9600, 4gb, NV 9600gt ddr3, 1680x1050wxga ) Is up for being replaced as I keep dropping it and am now fed up of buying replacement chassis parts (the latest problem is a broken hinge), so taking its place tomorrow is the Acer 5942G.

Spec as follows:

Intel Core I5 520M 2.4GHz
4GB RAM
640GB HDD
Blu-Ray / DVD±RW Combo
Fingerprint Reader + Bluetooth
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
1366x768
Windows 7 Home Premium

I will put them head to head in a few benchies tomorrow and put up a mini review and pics etc when it arrives, my only concern with the new machine was losing precious pixel real estate but I think I will upgrade the screen anyway.

watch this space...

BoozerDawg · 24 Mar 2010 at 16:40

Looking forward to it

Vince · 25 Mar 2010 at 13:53

Ok so its arrived, it looks fairly well built and feels pretty sturdy. I will take some pictures this evening and share some comparisons with the GX620.

In the mean time I am looking for the set of benchmarks to use. so far i'm thinking:

ugine heaven 2.0 dx 9/11
Dirt 2 dx 9/11
3d mark 06 and pc mark.
crysis

any other ideas?

tbh · 6 Apr 2010 at 20:43

Hi Vince, can you give us your thoughts on this laptop now that you have had some time to get acquainted with it? I'm giving very serious thought to buy either this laptop or the i3 version for £100 less, although I can seem to find anywhere in the UK that has them in stock currently.

Thanks.

lawz · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:19

Theres plenty of places got them in stock, including the well known generic pc place.

Very interested in this laptop as well. Was originally looking at the acer 5740g, similar specs but delayed till the end of April apparantly (that version anyway) and I have a feeling the price currently listed is going to increase when places get them in stock and put it closer to that of the 5942G.

Still have to justify the price to myself though when I already have a Q6600 desktop. Thats not exactly portable though

tbh · 8 Apr 2010 at 02:58

lawz said:
Was originally looking at the acer 5740g, similar specs but delayed till the end of April apparantly

Ah it was the 5740g I was looking at, that would explain why I can't find it in stock.

Coincidentally I also own a Q6600 desktop (as does the OP); I've got the itch to buy some new hardware but I can't justify to myself spending money on a new desktop when my Q6600 still does everything I ask it to with ease, I would benefit from having something to use on the go however which is why I'm interested in this laptop.

Vince · 8 Apr 2010 at 15:21

Hey all,

Sorry for the late thread update, I actually forgot that I even posted this... Probably because the HDD in the MSI died two days after the new machine arrived. Anyway so far the machine has been great, it has a good keyboard and trackpad without the issues the MSI machine had with half size keys etc.

As for performance, I did actually start benchmarking the thing but due to the HDD crash in the MSI I never got around to posting some results back, for this reason I will update the OP with a half finished spreadsheet with a few benchmarks (I will update the benchmarks that are missing over the next few days, both msi and acer... promise).

To use the machine is fine the keys are perfectly spaced and more importantly the right size, the volume control does occasionally get in the way when typing and can be slightly annoying but the more I use it the less that seems to be happening. Finally the backlit keyboard is a god send, time and time again I work in low light conditions and never really even thought about the backlight until now.

As for games, so far I have played a few games on it (It would be rude not to really), I have played defence grid, CSS, Dirt 2, Titan Quest - all of which played at medium/high settings with no real sign of struggling. Being a heavy user and being constantly on the move for work I have also already given it a hard time and although the lid scratches pretty easily (unlike the 5720/30 which have a much more rugged finish to them) the machine can take a knock without falling to peices.

So lets talk battery, this was a major problem for the MSI which even from new couldn't manage more than 2 hours. So for a bit of a test I set up a few machines in the office and tested their batterys, each machine was being used for standard office type work, spreadsheets, browsing, word etc the machines tested were:

Acer travelmate 5720 : 3 hours 45 mins
Acer travelmate 5730 : 3 hours 55 mins
Acer Aspire 5942g : 3 hours dead.
MSI GX620 : 1 hour 22 mins
Asus F3ke : < 1 hour

So although not as good battery wise as the 5720 or 5730 the trade off is clear, a dedicate video card instead of around 30-40 mins more battery.

Overall I would say I am subitably impressed, is it noticably quicker than the GX620 in day to day use? well not really... dont get me wrong there is no doubt that the cpu is a bit quicker and the gfx card is a little quicker but the screen resolution means that you cant really take full advantage of that anyway.

Either way I will make good my promise and update the op now and continue to update it as I benchmark the thing more.

Hope this is of some use.

EDIT : Some other things - The sound is fantastic for a laptop, probably the best audio I have head from laptop speakers to date and I have had a lot of machines.