Marketed as a (semi) desktop replacement notebook alongside the Travelmate 6492, this 15.4″ laptop isn’t the lightest on the block at an average weight of 2.9kg. But it does pack quite a punch with its 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X2300-HD (up to 896MB if supplemented by your system RAM) graphics card, 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and max. 4GB DDR2 RAM.

ZDNet UK takes a look at it and awards a 7/10 rating, plus the conclusion that: “This is an affordable notebook that should suit anyone looking for a capable, mostly desk-bound, system. Although it’s fairly basic, the webcam is a nice extra, while fingerprint recognition is fast becoming a ‘must have’ feature for business users.”

Well, that’s actually what the Acer GridVista tool helps you to accomplish. It provides you predetermined grid configurations (as shown below), dividing your screen into blocks to place your windows in. And it supports dual-monitor rigs as well, so that’s up to 8 windows displayed at once. One extra feature you may not see on competing software is the transparency option, which allows you to set certain windows as transparent - helping you organise a multi-window workspace.

Most Acer notebooks should already have it preinstalled, but if you happen not to have it, download the software from Acer’s support website. Just choose any new notebook model, e.g. the Aspire 9920, and pick up the GridVista tool for that notebook.

Oh yes, there are competing tools available. My personal favourite is running a combination of Ultramon for proper multi-monitor support and GridMove (freeware) for the multi-window grids. You can find more alternatives at Lifehacker’s post on GridMove.

Trolling through Acer’s recent laptop offerings, I was particularly fixated by those with massive storage space. In particular, the Acer Aspire 7720 and 9920 got my attention, each with two 160GB hard disk drives.

But with 320GB HDDs already set to ship in the 4th quarter of this year (Toshiba’s MK52GSX) or at latest Q1 2008 (Fujitsu’s MHZ2 BH), one wonders how far (or rather how big) we’re going to get in 6 months time. Is a 2x 320GB = 640GB configuration realistic heat-wise (since other technical issues seem entirely solvable)? Anyone with enough tech-smarts to give us any input on this?

Here’s another budget AMD Turion64-powered Acer notebook, this time a 1.7GHz model (compared to the 1.8GHz sported by the Aspire 7520 reviewed earlier). Everything else looks to be somewhat similar, i.e. 1GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB HDD (vs. 80GB on the 7520), except for the 5050’s smaller 14.1″ screen.

TigerDirect video reviews this laptop and well… waxes lyrical about it - even though the reviewer clearly knows nuts about giving useful comments. The entire review is pretty much a specs listing than anything else, but hey, it’s good enough for a laugh if you have nothing else to do I guess.

In any case, you’d be better served checking out the Aspire 7520 review, which conclusions should pretty much hold for the 5050-5430. What I can say is that the 5050 is a budget notebook good for everyday use, but it’s certainly not something for design or speed-lovers.

This 1.8GHz AMD Turion64-powered notebook certainly isn’t big on specs, but hey, for those in the UK, you’ll find it cheap at Tesco (sub-400 pounds). With a 17″ LCD screen, 1GB of DDR2 RAM and an 80GB hard drive, it’ll cover everyday use, but don’t expect too much.

At least, that’s Computeract!ve’s conclusion on this Gemstone: “While it’s certainly cheap and it will do the job reasonably well if you’re only interested in word processing, email and a little light web browsing, there are better deals available. Then again, if you factor in an extra £50 or so for a memory upgrade, the Acer Aspire 7520 starts to look like a much better deal. It is on sale now, in Tesco stores and online at tesco.com. ”

Some people equate size with power. If you’re one of them, then the 17″ Acer Aspie 9300 is certainly your thing. The 1440 x 900 resolution screen coupled with a numeric keypad are certainly luxuries of size.

The Centrino-powered mammoth notebook comes with all the standard stuff you’d expect from smaller laptops too: 120GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, swiveling 1.3MP webcam, 4 USB ports and a 5-in-1 media card reader. Pity it lacks dedicated media controls and Firewire ports - which is pretty weird considering its “ginormous-ness”.

Wired Blogs looks at this whole package and churns out its positives: “Seventeen-inch, 1440 x 900 resolution screen is a joy to watch. 120GB hard drive. Touchpad has horizontal and vertical scrolling zones. 1.3-megapixel webcam actually makes you look good in video conference calls. Four USB ports and 5-in-1 media reader make nice with almost all accessories. Ludicrously low price. ” and of course, its negatives too: “Big mofo won�t fit in most carry-on bags. Ginormous keyboard still feels cramped. Designed as a media desktop but conspicuously lacking any dedicated media controls. No Firewire port.”

As the smaller 14.1″ brother of the 15.4″ Aspire 5102WLMi, the Acer Aspire 5050 certainly does what it is supposed to to well. The 1.6GHz AMD Turion64 x2 (or TL-50)-powered notebook is value for money, and like many other Acer notebooks, it fits the role of a student workhorse - at least, according to a review at NotebookReview.com.

The reviewer positively concludes that, “In the end the Aspire 5050 gets the job done for my purposes without draining my wallet. I did choose a few specific upgrades which increased the price, but I fully intend on having this unit for more than 3 years (remember my ancient desktop?). It is smaller and lighter than the conventional 15.4” budget model and I can carry it and a few accessories around in a slim bag or while on the couch. Once it completely boots up, it is responsive and has more than enough processing power to perform the tasks I normally execute. It has video outputs and doubles as my TV’s DVD player. Purchase timing was also a bonus as I now have a choice between XP or Vista. I am generally satisfied with the results of my purchase.”

Normally, news like this wouldn’t merit a post here, even if Acer PCs were being bundled with these Windows Vista “Express Upgrades” late last year. But being in the UK, and seeing the problem first-hand (ok, second-hand given that some of my friends were the victims) made ModusLink’s (and by extension, Microsoft’s) farce unforgivable.

Considering that Vista was released at the end of January, how “Express” is it if some UK customers (who made their orders in November last year) are only getting their Vista upgrades now (in April!)?

Read more about this at Channel Register.

Quite a bit dated specs-wise, but price-wise, there’s really not much to complain about. Nevertheless, Digit-Life.com takes a look, and reviews whether the 1.7GHz Intel® Pentium® M-powered notebook is actually good enough for “comfortable operation”.

Not surprisingly, the 14.1″ Acer (with 60GB HDD and 256MB RAM) managed to scrape good feedback (hey, we are talking about Acer and a low price point, right?). They conclude that: “The notebook pleased me. It is no genius, but it has a good keyboard layout, a convenient wide panel, and most importantly it’s indecently cheap. It’s a very good solution for the money in abstract terms. But for the situation with technical support. It turns a purchase of this notebook into a big lottery. But the money…”

The slim and sleek body of the Aspire L310 looks amazing, but be prepared to sacrifice (hardware) upgrade potential if you opt for one of these compact babies. Well, that’s obvious enough. So, what else did CNET say in their review of one of Acer’s latest desktops:

The Aspire L310 works as a trim, affordable computer that will also serve light home-theater-PC duties. It doesn’t offer as much room for improvement as its competition, but as long as you don’t have plans for upgrading or running Windows Vista full bore, this system will serve you well.

Around US$850 for a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB DDRII RAM (max. 2GB), and a 250GB hard disk seems pretty good (among the big names at least), but note that it doesn’t come with a DVD writer or a dedicated graphics card of any sort. Of course, it is a small-form-factor PC, so I guess we weren’t supposed to expect too much, right?

P.S.: There doesn’t seem to be much stock of it online yet, at least, compared to the HP Pavilion Slimlines.