Acer Aspire 3002NLC Review


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Acer Aspire 3002NLC Review

* Pardon me if there are any mistakes this is my first post here :p

The laptop comes preloaded with Linpus Linux and boasts the following specs:

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Notebook Specifications:

Processor: Mobile AMD Sempron™ processor 2800+(1.6 GHz)

Chipset : SiSM760GX

Main Memory: 256 Mb DDR-RAM @333Mhz(Max 2GB)

Display: 15 XGA TFT LCD(1024x768 pixels 16.7 million colors @ 120 Hz)

Video Graphics & Memory:

- Integrated 3D AGP graphics with up to 128 MB of shared memory (512 MB or above of system memory)

- Integrated 3D AGP graphics with up to 64 MB of shared memory (256 MB of system memory)

-Dual independent display support

-External resolution/refresh rate:

* 2048 x 1536: 60/75 Hz

* 1600 x 1200: 60/75/85/100/120 Hz

* 1400 x 1050: 60 Hz

* 1280 x 1024: 60/75/85/100/120/160 Hz

* 1024 x 768: 60/75/85/100/120/160/200 Hz

* 800 x 600: 60/75/85/100/120/160/200 Hz

Audio:

Audio system with two built-in stereo speakers

Built-in microphone

MS-Sound compatible

Hard Drive:

40GB HDD ATA-100

Optical Drive: DVD/CD-RW Combo drive

o Read: 24X CD-ROM, 24X CD-R, 24X CD-RW, 8X DVD-ROM, 8X DVD-R, 4X DVD-RW, 8X DVD+R, 4X DVD+RW,

o Write: 24X CD-R, 24X CD-RW

Other details:

56K Fax/Modem,

10/100Mbps LAN

Battery Life: 1.5-hour battery life, 2.5-hour quick-charge, 3.5-hour charge-in-use

Dimensions: 364 (W) x 279 (D) x 33.9/38.9 (H) mm

Weight: 2.8kg.

OS: Linpus Linux BE

Warranty & e-support: 1 year warranty (International) I/O ports

I/O Ports:

Three USB 2.0 ports

External display (VGA) port

Type II PC Card slot

Ethernet (RJ-45) port

Modem (RJ-11) port

External display (VGA) port

Microphone/line-in jack

Headphones/speaker/line-out port

Type II PC Card slot

DC-in jack for AC adaptor

Layout And Design: The laptop comes with a Silver –Black layout and with its sleek design, it does appeal to most. The front panel boundaring the 15” TFT Screen, the Keypad & TouchPad comes in a unicolour black look which makes a perfect visual duo with the Silver Body of the laptop. The Touchpad with 4-way integrated scroll button is a nice addition. Four easy-launch buttons along with the Power button are placed above the keyboard layout on the right hand side and can be configured by the user to launch different Programs. The Headphones/speaker/line-out port are inconveniently placed on the front panel of the laptop, if they had been on one of the two sides it would really had been icing on the cake. The Power adapter is a 65 W AC adaptor and comes in a sporty black colour.

Performance: From the specs, it is clear that the laptop comes with a descent config and can handle Regular browsing, office works, viewing movies on DVD and some occasional gaming. The 15.0" XGA color TFT LCD, 1024 x 768 pixel resolution takes a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz and is quite a treat to watch and have no dead pixels as supposed to be rumors with the Acer Entry level laptops. The hard-disk may be a downer for a few since it comes with a 40 Gb variant. The speakers are placed at the front panel, and give acceptable sound quality which is surprisingly better than in most other laptops, to say the least.

Gaming: I was infact surprised to see that even with the onboard meagre Sis760Gx Video Adapter having 64 Mb of shared memory from the system memory, Games like NFS Underground 2, Fifa2005 played almost fine even at a resolution of 1024x768 with low settings. When tried to work on these games with high settings on the same resolution, the game ran fine but there were some unusual jerks. So 800x600 resolution with high settings seems to be correct choice for playing these games. Even after more than two and a half hours of continuous gaming, the heat generated by the laptops were within acceptable limits.

On the Move: The Aspire 3002NLC fails miserably to be used on its batteries. The battery can barely manage to keep the notebook running for a little over an hour while watching movie DVD’s.

Final Thoughts: The Drivers bundled with the CD are fully working and have no issues with Windows XP Pro SP2 . All in all, this is a no-non sense laptop at a price tag of 33770/- Rs- {I'm from India}. An extra 256 Mb RAM Module would be an icing on the cake. The price tag is inclusive of a Acer Laptop Carry Case. If you ever dreamt of a laptop and planned to do all the things you did with your desktop PC at an affordable price, then the Acer Aspire 3002 is for you.

Pros:

(+) Kick A$$ Config to suffice most users

(+) Combo Drive in a Entry Level Notebook

(+) Killer Price Tag makes it a more viable option

Cons:

(-)Low battery Life

(-)So-so graphics adapter with shared system memory.

(-)Inconveniently placed Sound ports at the front panel

Other Pics

Sisoft System Summary Full

Edited by Sourabh
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  • 2 weeks later...

We have that exact laptop (only the 3002LC, comes with XP Home)

Dont know about the battery life yet, been running it on the power adapter only, but i do have to agree with the bad placement of the sound connecters, would be much better if they were on the right hand side.

Edit: just booted it up, windows is reporting 97% bettery left, 1 hour remaining.

Acer might like to improve the battery life, cause it sucks from the looks of it.

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They sure need to do something about this. I know for sure that all the batteries used in the aspire series of their laptops are not up to the mark as a result they sell these product at cheaper prices. Also the Sis chipset used is in no way comparable to the Intel counterparts

But this was an economy laptop to fulfill the dire needs in desparate times. The aspire 5002 series seems quite a eye catcher giving a AMD 64 Turion Processor, Sis 760Gx chipset same as the 3002 laptop which is reviewed here,15.4" Widescreen , DL DVD RW, Bluetooth, Wifi, and the same laptop body at 50k INR.

A better battery and an extra 512 megs of memory is in my upgrade list in the next couple of months.

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lol that sounds really good.. but darn, I have this custom laptop with Pentium 4 2.4GHz Northwood core, 256MB PC2100 memory, 40GB hard drive, 15" LCD with an Aopen motherboard with SiS chipset and graphics that can address up to 64MB of system memory.

Similar configs? I think so. But my laptop can run NFSU (Not even NFSU2) at 12fps at 640x480 all on low :no: And so is CS:S :no: It jerks a bit even in CS 1.6 @ 800x600 :no: Nice to hear that a laptop with that config can actually run games at 1024x768! When I read the review I thought it would do about the same as mine... (Damn Intel) but... nice looking laptop anyway.

I have 4 hours battery life tho :p

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Well mind you this laptop runs NFS UG2 @ 1024x768 with some jerks so for really playing it i have to do set it at 800x600. Only games i play on these now are Fifa2005, NFS UG2, Cricket 2005, NBA 2003, and some more.

I have already started to use my laptop very rashly. Also keeping it on for almost 36 hrs non stop for downloading stuff .Intel proccys dun drain the CPU much and their chipsets have no comparison to Sis

I can play these games just because the on-board graphics is 760GX. Had it been some other , i would have already lost interest in the laptop.

Hopefully getting the additional 512 megs memory soon

Edited by Sourabh
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yeah im looking for a decent laptop in the Rs.30000-40000 (from Acer , BenQ , HP , Compaq , IBM , Dell etc. ) any suggestions you got for me Sourabh ?

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.Intel proccys dun drain the CPU much and their chipsets have no comparison to Sis

586217219[/snapback]

Huh? SIS makes the worst chipsets in the world. Everyone knows that :p

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