My first impressions of the Acer Aspire 7720-6395

[evident]

I got the Acer Aspire 7720-6395 from best buy for $1000+$300 3 year service plan w/ accidental dmg

Let me go over the specs
C2D T5250
2Gb DDR2 pc5300 i believe
17" WXGA screen (14x9)
250GB 5400 rpm drive
DVD/RW with BluRay(!!!!!!)
draftN wireless
gigabit lan
Geforce 8400M GS w/ DVI, VGA and Svideo outputs!
Built in webcam
Vista Ultimate(again, !!!!)


for that price, this laptop is a steal. a PS3 would run you about $400, i'm sure other blu ray players are around the same ball park, vista ultimate runs about $300 too! It's also hard as hell to find a laptop in this price range that has a DVI output. Outputting to my samsung lnt4042H will be the ultimate test, as i am planning to use this primarily as a media center PC to play blu-ray movies.

Took it home today, booted it up. First time booting takes about 20 minutes, setting up my windows account settings wasn't too bad. It's loaded with a bunch of bloatware (norton, a bunch of useless games, a spyware ridden IM client) and the first thing i did was disable UAC and uninstall a load of it. I kept many of the acer proprietary s/w on there though. The laptop did NOT come with a recovery disk. I believe the only way you can get to it is access through the software, which seeks a hidden partition on the drive. ran windows updates, installed opera, and pidgin.

Next i decided to play with the blu-ray a bit. The laptop comes with a disc w/ some movie trailers.
I think it is required that you use the bluray software that acer provides (it is a snap-in to media center). The screen does its job pretty well, and movies are very watchable on this screen.

I do have to note that the screen has a pretty weak viewing angle. You pretty much have to be in front of it or else you will start noticing some dimming. Oh well, keep in mind it's a $1000 laptop, and this is probably where they cut a corner. It's something minor relative to what you get, in my opinion.

that Acer did a phenomenal job as far as out of the box usability. their blu-ray snap in interface to media center is not bad, and it works perfectly.
I have an old windows media center remote from a DIY media center box i parted out months back, and much to my surprise, it works with the laptop!!!

Now, I am hooking up the laptop to the TV. I am doing it through a DVI->HDMI cable. when i first plugged the dvi cable into the laptop, vista detected my tv with no probs, and prompted me to the multiple display wizard, where i selected the single view only (due to copyright BS, if you have two displays at the same time, your blu-ray disc won't output and will just give an error when trying to play) to the tv. vista adjusted the resolution automatically to 1366(?)x768. upon unplugging the dvi it would switch back to the laptop monitor and to its original resolution.

speakers are pretty acceptable, for a laptop

pretty badass so far. I was very leary of vista at first, but it seems like it isn't as bad as most people claim it to be. My next test will be hooking it up to my network via lan and streaming HD videos off my desktop, and then seeing if i can VNC into vista from my desktop (it's an XP machine)
i can remote desktop into it okay with mstsc, but i prefer vnc so that i can control the laptop outputting to my bigscreen, as well as from my desktop. lets hope blu-ray isnt too lame with this

another con i would say is that the touch pad isnt "deep" enough, i accidentily touched it a few times and it woudl register on the screen.... not too bad at all though

cliffs:
it's good

pros:
price for features
blu-ray
dvi, vga and svideo outputs
vista ultimate

cons
touch pad can be accidentily touched very easy
its big, but it's expected for a 17" laptop
viewing angle is very narrow

PICS
laptopRightSide.jpg
laptopLeftSide.jpg
laptopClosed.jpg
laptopCenter.jpg

 

[evident]

bump, no one cares i guess? =\

 

[IlllI]

here you go

 

[TC91]

i have the acer aspire 5920, pretty much a very similar laptop but with a 15inch screen and blue accents instead of the green on yours, and i think it is a great laptop. love the gemstone concept for the design. i could have got the higher up version with the 8600m gt and hd dvd rom, but i didnt think it was neccessary for me. my only complaint was the preloaded acer empowering technology stuff, it was quite a system hog, made boot up extremely slow but i got rid of it and everythings fine. glad to hear your enjoying your laptop, im really enjoying mine too.

 

[evident]

Originally posted by: TC91
i have the acer aspire 5920, pretty much a very similar laptop but with a 15inch screen and blue accents instead of the green on yours, and i think it is a great laptop. love the gemstone concept for the design. i could have got the higher up version with the 8600m gt and hd dvd rom, but i didnt think it was neccessary for me. my only complaint was the preloaded acer empowering technology stuff, it was quite a system hog, made boot up extremely slow but i got rid of it and everythings fine. glad to hear your enjoying your laptop, im really enjoying mine too.

seriously it is a steal for the price. my only complaint is the viewing angle bites.

 

[Dalimar]

Are you having any sound(hardware) issues with your 7720? Mine intermittently crackle/pops the speakers/headphones, then goes out completely. No problems with Acer tech support, getting ready to send it in to have the sound chip replaced. TS is thinking heat issue, only happens after the laptop has been on for a while. Why o' why didn't i get the BB warranty Other than that little inconvience, no problems, got rid of the Acer empowering stuff + cleared off the IM software that came with it. Boot times are quick, runs games well, considering hardware. WOW runs great, haven't had a chance to load Doom3/quake4. Morrowind runs clean, Don't even try Oblivion. Not sure about Crysis or Bioshock. I give em 50/50 on low settings. Besides thats what my desktop rig is for. BD movies look great. Haven't outputted them to the big screen yet. Waiting for sound issues to be corrected. Otherwise, still good laptop for the $$. think i just got the lucky 1 out of XXX that was bad, been building computers for close to 20 years now, i swear never seen bad parts in the yeilds :laugh:

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: evident
[M]y only complaint is the viewing angle bites.

You know what...

Most lappy panels are built this way now. I hated it at first, but...

One day, somebody was walking past me and said, "Oh, you have a privacy screen, huh?"

I'm like, "Uh, yeah..." wink, wink, nudge, nudge!

Then, I started thinking... I wonder if they make lappy panels that way on purpose, to keep unwelcome eyes from viewing your personal details and data...

Now, I kinda like it!

 

[evident]

Originally posted by: Dalimar
Are you having any sound(hardware) issues with your 7720? Mine intermittently crackle/pops the speakers/headphones, then goes out completely. No problems with Acer tech support, getting ready to send it in to have the sound chip replaced. TS is thinking heat issue, only happens after the laptop has been on for a while. Why o' why didn't i get the BB warranty Other than that little inconvience, no problems, got rid of the Acer empowering stuff + cleared off the IM software that came with it. Boot times are quick, runs games well, considering hardware. WOW runs great, haven't had a chance to load Doom3/quake4. Morrowind runs clean, Don't even try Oblivion. Not sure about Crysis or Bioshock. I give em 50/50 on low settings. Besides thats what my desktop rig is for. BD movies look great. Haven't outputted them to the big screen yet. Waiting for sound issues to be corrected. Otherwise, still good laptop for the $$. think i just got the lucky 1 out of XXX that was bad, been building computers for close to 20 years now, i swear never seen bad parts in the yeilds :laugh:

As with most laptops, I am getting a minor hissing noise with the onboard sound card. This was a common issue on my old Dell Latitude D610 and i think it's a common issue with laptops, since the onboard audio circuitry is in such close proximity to all the other electrical components. I rarely use the built in speakers, i have it hooked up to my receiver via mini to RCA. It is definitely noticable, but only when there is no output happening (you wont notice when you are watching a movie) if you are serious about making this a home theater thing as i am, you might want to consider an external USB sound card such as the SB or emu 0404.

keep me up to date on your experience sending it in! I got the BB service plan, since I am not too familiar with acer's build quality or technical support.

oh, and if you cant run oblivion, you can forget about crysis!

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: evident
[M]y only complaint is the viewing angle bites.

You know what...

Most lappy panels are built this way now. I hated it at first, but...

One day, somebody was walking past me and said, "Oh, you have a privacy screen, huh?"

I'm like, "Uh, yeah..." wink, wink, nudge, nudge!

Then, I started thinking... I wonder if they make lappy panels that way on purpose, to keep unwelcome eyes from viewing your personal details and data...

Now, I kinda like it!

you make a really good point! :laugh:

 

[Dalimar]

update***
Bought a Coolerpad to go under laptop, sound is working much better now. Appears to have been getting a little warm under a load. Also thinking that my leg was covering the intakes. Been running under a heavy load for a couple of hours now, no problems. So just a heads up for anyone with this set, keep the vents clear. My old Dell didn't have the problem, then again the parts were low end, even for 3 years ago.
The only other problem is the touchpad, mouse keeps jumping around even while typing this. Trying to figure out how to disable the touchpad, i'm using a usb mouse instead. Now i'm waiting for my DVI->HDMI converter + cables to come in to put the BD up on the big screen.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Dalimar
The only other problem is the touchpad, mouse keeps jumping around even while typing this. Trying to figure out how to disable the touchpad, i'm using a usb mouse instead...

Mileage may vary, but...

My Toshiba lappy has an an Alps touchpad, which is kind of odd. Generally, Toshibas use Synaptics touchpads.

Anyway, I updated my Alps touchpad software using Dell drivers, and the Dell drivers have a setting available that automagically turn off the touchpad when I plug in a USB mouse.

So, if your touchpad drivers don't allow you to do this, you might look around and see if you can come up with some that do...

 

[Wolffmann34]

I purchased the 7720 for my wife for Christmas. She loves it and has been using it for at least 10 hours a day since she got it. I had to do the typical clean up on it to remove a ton of the pre installed garbage.

As for the touchpad, I have ALWAYS had problems with touchpads and typing. I am typing on my Dell D810 which has a touchpad and a stick in the keyboard for the mouse. The touchpad has been disabled since the day I got it. (Pretty funny when people try to use my laptop). As for the touchpad in the Acer, as long as you go into the settings and turn off the touch to click options you won't have any problems with it. I purchased the Logitech mouse with the micro receiver for my wife and it is a great mouse.

I have only one problem with this laptop that I have been unable to fix. I installed the Dual Core sidebar program that monitors the CPU and the memory usage. I noticed that at idle with no programs running it shows 50 percent memory usage. I found it takes very little to max out the memory usage. I am pretty sure this is due to the video card sharing 3/4 of a gig from the main memory. I would love to turn this memory sharing off as I feel 256MB is plenty for a video card, but I found no where to do this in the bios or OS settings. I am looking at upgrading it to 4 gigs, just to resolve this.

As to the other problems listed, yes I agree the screen quality is a little low, it does not begin to compare to this Dell I am on, but the Acer cost 1/3 of this Dell, so I understand the lower quality LCD. We have had the laptop with for 2 hotel stays and used it to play music. It is the first laptop I've owned with good enough speakers to use for music without some add on speakers. We have had no clicking or popping noises. The fan runs as expected, during light duty operations you never hear it.

The long term will tell, but right now this seems to be an excellent 5 star laptop at a very low price.

 

[evident]

Originally posted by: Wolffmann34

I have only one problem with this laptop that I have been unable to fix. I installed the Dual Core sidebar program that monitors the CPU and the memory usage. I noticed that at idle with no programs running it shows 50 percent memory usage. I found it takes very little to max out the memory usage. I am pretty sure this is due to the video card sharing 3/4 of a gig from the main memory. I would love to turn this memory sharing off as I feel 256MB is plenty for a video card, but I found no where to do this in the bios or OS settings. I am looking at upgrading it to 4 gigs, just to resolve this.

As to the other problems listed, yes I agree the screen quality is a little low, it does not begin to compare to this Dell I am on, but the Acer cost 1/3 of this Dell, so I understand the lower quality LCD. We have had the laptop with for 2 hotel stays and used it to play music. It is the first laptop I've owned with good enough speakers to use for music without some add on speakers. We have had no clicking or popping noises. The fan runs as expected, during light duty operations you never hear it.

The long term will tell, but right now this seems to be an excellent 5 star laptop at a very low price.

The reason why your memory usage is showing the way it is is because of the way Vista does memory management apparently. try doing a search on these forums or google for it,
but from my impressions i think all is well with your computer in that respects.

I'm loving my laptop! it is doing real well as a media center replacement. I am trying to find an alternative to the blue-ray player that is incl. with the laptop though, but im in no rush. I also bought an EMU 0404 USB external sound card only to find out that it is not compatible with vista. go figure.

 

[evident]

updated: pics added

 

[Flynn Arrowstarr]

I have this laptop as well. I think the one thing people have left out of their reviews is that there are two hard drive bays in the laptop. Right now, I have the original 250 gb hard drive and a 160 gb hard drive. This coming weekend, I will be replacing the 160 gb drive with a second 250 gb hard drive. I'll also be updating the memory to 4 gb.

I use the laptop for a number of things. Primarily development, but also a few older games (San Andreas, Morrowind, The Sims 2, The Movies) and video editing. The two things that sold me on the laptop were the Blu-Ray drive and the onboard 256 mb video card.

I've had this laptop a little over a month now (delivered 12/21/07 from BestBuy.com after a BestBuy employee and I had a difference of opinion as to what "in stock" meant). Setup was a snap -- made a set of restore DVDs, removed apps I didn't need, ran the Registry module of CCleaner), made a new backup image and went to town.

Flynn