Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I've had mine for a month, and as of October 17, 2007, I think this is a decent product and a good buy. It does not weigh much, has plenty of slots for my purposes and functions well. This is the first laptop that I've purchased, though I have use others briefly for work in the past.
THE SCREEN is bright and clear. It does not create any perceivable eye strain. Even my mom (who is 70 and developing cataracts) could see it well. The screen is gloss and needs to be situated to avoid glare. It is not readable in the daylight. I assume the screen & backlight are the biggest energy hogs, so there are 2 low-energy settings to make it still functioning but not as bright. One button combo turns off the backlight altogether, but the screen cannot be seen at all then. I like to look at the Visualizations in Winamp, and at full-screen, there is a flicker between the top half and bottom half of the screen that I cannot get rid of. I kind of wish there were more dpi because I need a lot of room for graphic work, but at 1200 x 800, it's certainly better than my old 17" CRT.
There is a distinct blue tint to the screen which is annoying. An Intel program allows you to adjust the colors to "Schemes" of your making. This is not exactly easy to do, and it often resets back to the bluish hue after you exit programs or the computer shuts down.
TWO EXTERIOR VIDEO CONNECTIONS are on the back. I used the standard VGA connector to hook up to my Westinghouse LCD screen and it worked pretty well. Looked okay, but the back and fort was not as convenient as I had thought. Also, there's an S-Video out that should work for other TV/Video hookups. I haven't tried it and don't think it allows video in. There's no DVI connector and there doesn't appear to be any other video-in receiving ports.
FOR POWER, the battery seems to charge quickly and works fine. But it only last 2 hours at max, and less than that with full functionality. The wireless antenna can be turned off to save energy. And the computer's default settings have the machine going to sleep often. There is a bundled, 2-piece power cord with a rectangular power adapter. Just a little bulky for traveling.
THE KEYBOARD & TOUCH PAD are fine, I guess. There is a center button between the left and right click buttons. It is used like a Page-Up and Page-Down quick jump around inside a window. I hate all laptop keyboard and touchpads: They give me an electrical cramp that feels like arthritis. So, I've purchased a little mouse and separate keyboard, which work great. Peripherals need to be USB, though. It does not have any of the old serial connections. The keyboard is flat and the only way to position yourself and feel your way around is with subtle bumps on the F and J keys. And there's two currency sign keys for the dollar and euro by the cursor keys... why? There's no keypad, but you can use a Fn key to kind of utilize one from the letters.
THE HARD DRIVE is partitioned into two 70 GB drives. I don't know what's happened to the other 20 GB. But they appear to be fast enough (at least while the system is still new).
THE PROCESSORS are pretty darn speedy, much faster than the Pentium 4 1.6 desktop Dell that I'm leaving behind. It has a Intel Core 2 Duo processor It works well with Windows Vista and only crashes occasionally. There is a problem when I try to run "LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth" RTS game. It crashes often, but it was written for XP, not Vista. It is incredibly speedy with Photoshop and other graphics software that I'm used to waiting for when working with hundreds of photos at once.
SOFTWARE INSTALLED includes Vista, some updated-but-still-standard games and some Acer-specific software. I don't know what the Acer Software is for, really. It just seems like a nuisance instead of making things easier. Vista's system options seem as good if not better.
THE VIDEO CAMERA seems to work well enough. It's just a web cam: You won't make any art with it. There is an Acer OrbiCam software software installed that lets you take photos. However, after just one photo is placed in the default "Pictures" folder, the camera stops working correctly. Actually, it is not the camera, but the Acer OrbiCam software that has some kind of glitch. Many users online report the same problem. The solution is simple enough: Move the photos out of the "Pictures" folder and put a shortcut to that folder inside the "Pictures" folder instead. Once you move any photo files out of the default folder, the camera seems to work just fine again. Perhaps it cannot overwrite the ones there or something. It tilts up and down and you can look at yourself or someone in front of the PC.
SPEAKERS are small but can be loud. There's no base sound to them. The speakers are on the front of the laptop's bottom half. But the AUDIO JACKS are in the front, conveniently, and headphones or exterior speakers can be inserted. A small microphone hole on the right, front side works okay in a pinch, but a headseat works much better.
WIRELESS works pretty well with this laptop. Sometimes the signal drops out of sight for no reason, but I don't necessarily know if that is my provider, my equipment or the laptop. I doubt it's the laptop's fault though. There is a switch for BLUETOOTH and 3G DEVICE, but guess what.... It doesn't do anything since none is built in.
PORTS include 4 for USB -- 2 left side and 2 rear. My SanDisk Mini Cruzer U3 USB key drive works okay, but the software is not quite ready for Vista. My HL-1450 Brother printer works okay when I plug it in, but not over the wireless network (again, a Vista compatibilit issue). A MEMORY CARD reader on the left works great with my digital camera's 256MB MemoryStick. There's a phone modem port in the back which I haven't used. And a LAN line port one the left side which I haven't used yet either. ONE DVD-RW drive is on the right. I haven't tried writing anything yet, so can't judge; but it does read DVD info just fine. I don't watch DVD's much anymore, but I tried the "X2: X-Men United" Widescreen version on DVD and it looked great; didn't skip once; sound is superb. The Play/Stop/FF controls work all right, except FF is more like skip forward. There's also a Laptop Card slot, but I don't know what one would use it for now. There's some more special BUTTONS at the top of the keyboard, but they don't do anything special - browser and e-mail shortcuts. There' does not appear to be any firewire capability.
THE STYLE is okay. Plain gray. Looks metalic but it's really just silvery plastic. The keyboard is black as well as the frame around the screen. It's not going to "wow" anyone, but that's not what I'm paying for. I find it pleasant.
Overall, I give it really good marks. I only take away for the less than helpful Acer software, occasional crashes with one favorite non-Vista game. And the fact that I still prefer a plug-in mouse and keyboard.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Acer Aspire 5630-6288 - Core 2 Duo T5500 / 1.66 GHz - Centrino Duo - RAM 2 GB - HDD 160 GB - DVDRW (R DL) / DVD-RAM - GMA 950 - WLAN : 802.11a/b/g - Vista Home Premium - 15.4 Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) - camera
Product Description:
Acer Aspire 5630-6288 1.66GHz Core 2 DUO T5500 2GB 160GB DVDRW WebCam Gma 950 15.4" WXGA Vista Home Premium LX.AXY0X.101. Product may differ from image shown.
Want to read more honest consumer review about Acer Aspire 5630-6288 - Core 2 Duo T5500 / 1.66 GHz - Centrino Duo - RAM 2 GB - HDD 160 GB - DVDRW (R DL) / DVD-RAM - GMA 950 - WLAN : 802.11a/b/g - Vista Home Premium - 15.4 Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) - camera now ?
