SMB IT | Curtis Franklin » Review: Acer Aspire 9500

May 19, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Review: Acer Aspire 9500

TAGS: SMB Hardware

Acer sent me an Aspire 9500 about three months ago. I've been putting off reviewing it because as soon as this goes up, I pretty much have to send it back. Acer's billed it as an all-in-one business and multimedia machine. But I guess we're not on the same page as to what a business notebook should be.

To me, a biz notebook is purchased because the employee using it needs to move. Mobility should be job one. In that the Aspire 9500 really isn't much of a winner at 8.5 pounds with a 17-inch footprint. But as several readers and clients have informed me: not everyone thinks as I do. Plenty of executives like the sleek look of a multimedia notebook. Plenty of power and very little need to move it in real life. Just sleek looks, as much power as a you can stuff into a notebook chassis and loads of bells, whistles and doodads. And for that, this thing ROCKS!

I was a little skeptical about the 9500 because I'd reviewed another Acer just prior to receiving the 9500. The TravelMate 4062WLCi was a real nice value-oriented SMB laptop that worked fine, but its wireless adapter cut out very quickly and then it suffered a hard disk failure a few weeks after the review came out. Acer responded that it was an engineering sample, not really a full production unit so reliabiity wouldn't be quite the same. Nevertheless, I wanted to beat on the 9500 a little bit to be sure that hardware reliability on the previous model was really a fluke.

And it was. I took my 9500 all over the place--even though it barely fits into my notebook backpack. It's a little heavy, but far less than other 17-inch footprint laptops. I had a VoodooPC Envy last year, for example, also a 17-inch footprint and that thing weighed slightly over 10 pounds. Now that can give you shoulder strain.

But the Acer 9500 still isn't a lightweight--about 8.5 pounds. Still too heavy for lots of traveling--but I've already been over that. For a mostly desktop-bound notebook, the 9500 is great, and it packs an amazing hardware spec sheet: 2.0GHz Pentium M CPU, 2GB of RAM (as-tested), an ATI Mobility X700 graphics system and a really sweet 17-inch screen that's made all the more glossy by Acer's CrystalBrite screen technology.

But there are more hardware gooides: 5-in-1 memory card reader, DVI as well as S-Video ports, a slot-loading DVD drive, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth, and some nice attention paid to case design. For one thing, the case is designed to get you quick access to specific Windows XP Media Center features (which is what this puppy runs), I/O functions are located in easily accessible places, separate hardware buttons allow you to turn WiFi or Bluetooth on or off to save battery life.

On the basis of travel reliability, I was pleasantly surprised. I always have a gut instinct that these super-duper decked out multimedia notebooks don't stand up well to the stresses of real-life travel. But the 9500 has yet to let me down. My screen's stayed bright, no hard disk or power adapter issues and the WiFi adapter has connected to every public hot spot and private WiFi access point I've come across. No complaints other than my wireless range could have been better. This one likes to be close to whatever wireless AP it's talking to.

Performance is--obviously--stellar. I dragged everything onto this thing just to see what would happen. Multi-part network diagrams in Visio, large workbooks of business Excel spreadsheets, several Web site design projects in FrontPage 2003. Everything ran with the same performance I'd expect of my desktop box. Even had a J2EE application installed for demo purposes along with Apache and Tomcat and that ran without a hiccup as well. Then I got mean and added games.

Doom 3 ran like a charm. Once I finished that, I dropped Call of Duty 2 onto the 9500 and even that came through without a hitch. Just ran. Wound up playing that most of the plane ride when I was in first class. Made my neighbor with the ultralight Toshiba a little jealous. HA! Another nice thing for travelers is that the Aspire 9500 runs on Windows XP Media Center Edition. (Even has a TV remote.) So downloading video content for a long trip was simply a matter of hooking it up my office television and scheduling a six or seven hours of shows I was going to miss anyway. Just remember that playing them back requires a first or business class airplane seat.

Last thing I'll gush over: The price. Let's just say that the Voodoo I had ran similarly in the performance department and cost well over $4000 as a base. The Aspire 9500, on the other hand, starts at about $1600 for our tested configuration. That just blew me away. If you're into a big multimedia notebook with PVR capabilities, this is one that'll definitely fit into your budget.

Aspire 9500
Acer America
Price: $1650 (as tested)
Verdict: It's lighter than most 17-inch footprint multimedia behemoths, but this jobbie still isn't really meant to be a traveler. But for as an excellently priced all-in-one multimedia, work and gaming notebook, the Acer Aspire 9500 is right at the top of my list.

Posted by Oliver Rist on May 19, 2006 02:14 PM

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