Acer unveils fatman and little boy notebooks that can't raise a mushroom cloud, but may raise a hernia.
One type of computer that I never understood was the massive screen notebook. I can see the allure of a 17-inch or larger gaming notebook, although they are not practical for anyone looking to stay away from an AC outlet for more than an hour or so. What I really see as a big bag of fail are large screen general use notebooks. You can get a much more powerful desktop with a significantly larger screen than you can get most of the massive 18 or 19-inch screen multimedia notebooks for.
If you like the idea of a massive notebook, Acer has
announced a new notebook that is suitably fat in the screen department. The Aspire 8935G boasts a massive 18.4-inch display that gives me a hernia just thinking about schlepping that beast around town.
Laptop Magazine reports that the 8935G uses an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, runs Windows Vista Home Premium, and has graphics via ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 video card.
Above: Who needs a gym when the Acer 8935G is around?The screen is capable of full 1920 x 1080 1080p resolution, but the Blu-ray player to take advantage of all that resolution is an option. The portly notebook weighs a massive 10.1 pounds and measures 17.34-inches x 1.73-inches x 11.62-inches. Availability for the 8935G is set for June at an undisclosed price.
If a massive 18-inch behemoth is more laptop that you want, the much more manageable Acer Aspire 3935-6504 may be more interesting. The notebook has a 13.3-inch HD Acer CineCrystal LED Display with a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 and retails for $899. The machine has 3GB of RAM, a 250GB HDD, 8x DVD Super Multi drive, and uses an Intel Core 2 Duo T7350 CPU. Weight is 4.18 pounds (less than half the weight of the 8935G!) and it measures 12.8-inches x 1-inch x 9.3-inches. Power comes from a 4-cell battery (we hope they're huge capacity cells, because otherwise battery life is going to be horrible.)
We're waiting to hear back from Acer Australia on its plans for releasing the 8935G here.
UPDATE 21 Apr 2009: Acer Australia tells us:
Acer Australia will launch the new 8935G, exact launch date has not been set but expect it to be shipping this half of 2009.
The Aspire Gemstone Blue 8935G will continue to be our flagship 18.4" notebook. As Acer has lead the 18.4" product segment since our introduction of Aspire Gemstone Blue 8920G and 8930G, first with 18.4", first with 1080p display, first with 6 speakers (5.1ch), etc.
The new 8935G will continue to set new benchmarks in terms of performance, features, usability, and technology. Some key specs include quad core processor, 1TB HDD storage.
Detailed information will become available shortly and we will no doubt be able to share the Australia spec/price with you. Expect the top end spec to be priced around the mid $5k.