Acer Aspire Ethos 8943G review

Although Acer has thankfully moved on from some garish past designs, the Aspire 8943G still manages to divide opinions. Looks aside, it comes with an impressive array of features: there’s a Blu-ray drive that can take advantage of a Full HD display, while an Intel Core i5 processor and dedicated ATI graphics card provide desktop-level performance.

You can switch between the Core i5 450Ms built-in graphics chip and the dedicated ATI HD 5650 chip depending on whether you need the 3D power or you want to conserve power, which is an odd choice for a gigantic 18.3in laptop that weighs 4.6kg. Incredibly, its battery will last for up to five and a half hours if you do want to be disconnected from the mains.

With the Radeon HD 5650 enabled, the 8943G scored 41fps in our Call of Duty 4 benchmark, which means you’ll be able to play most games, although if you want to ramp up the resolution to 1,920×1,080, you’ll have to turn graphical effects such as anti-aliasing off to get playable frame rates. There’s also the promise of speeding up GPU-accelerated applications, although ATI’s Stream technology isn’t as widely supported as Nvidia’s CUDA.

The 8943G managed a score of 90 overall in our Windows benchmarks – that’s only 10 per cent less than our reference desktop PC, powered by a quad-core AMD Phenom II. Coupled with 4GB of RAM, it will handle just about any application, including photo and video editing. A 500GB hard disk should provide ample space for your files, and there are four USB ports along with FireWire and eSATA ports for faster external drives.

While the silver lid is pleasingly minimalist, opening it reveals a mish-mash of design elements. There’s the Sony Vaio-esque tubular hinge, which incorporates the power buttons at one end and a couple of shortcut buttons at the other. Above the keyboard is an odd speaker assembly, prominently advertising Dolby’s Home Theater technology. Then there’s the black wrist-rest, raised above the level of the keyboard, with its curiously glossy touchpad.

We liked the keyboard, with its separated Chiclet-style keys. They have a light action, with a distinct bite in the stroke that provides feedback for touch-typists. There’s plenty of space, so no compromises have been made in the layout, even with a four-column numberpad on the right.

The speakers are a triumph of style over substance, however. Volume levels are low, and rely heavily on Dolby’s technologies to produce a wide soundstage. Turning these off results in the sort of tinny sound we’d expect from a much cheaper laptop, but the effect on the sound is over-processed and unnatural.

A glossy finish on a touchpad seems counter-intuitive: your fingers are more likely to stick on a glossy surface than a matt finish and it wasn’t as responsive as we’d like. The buttons are beneath one strip of plastic, which is large and set close to the edge of the case where your thumb naturally rests. There’s an extra button in the centre that activates LED multimedia controls that appear on the surface of the touchpad, while a volume wheel sits underneath the buttons on the edge of the case. You also get a Media Centre remote control in the box.

Despite the odd design touches and mediocre speakers, we can’t help but be impressed by the Aspire 8943G’s performance and features. It’s great value for money, and wins our Best Buy award.