Hands on: Acer Aspire 6920 and 8920G Gemstone Blue Notebooks

i just bought this laptop and man talk about software issues. first of all the acer arcade is nearly impossible to navigate let alone use… and periodically crashes with a total windows failure when using a bluray disk. not only that but normal uses of the computer are also hindered with the periodic crashes on all the programs (which happen ever ten to twently minutes and last about 5). Like i said i have just purchased this computer (yesterday) abd i was very impressed with the specs and the look, but as for the functionality, this computer is about the worst i have ever used.

I bought this laptop last week and I am not happy too. There were not a lot of choices for laptop with blue-ray disks… Last Saturday I rent my first blu-ray disk, kung fu panda (DreamWorks) and it has been impossible to play it on my laptop.
I have also several problems with the keyboard using different programs.
I am not sure if it is Windows Vista or the hardware/firmware itself.

I had a lot of problems with the laptop. I formatted the whole thing and went with vista home premium x64. Only installed the drivers and avg free anti virus. Works great. No problems at all.

Anybody had problems with your keyboard! My shift key and caps lock have just come loose. Only had my 8920g for two weeks! Now taking a closer look at the keyboard I can see how flimsy all the keys are. I will have to take it back. I at least the keyboard to last a bit longer than this! not impressed

I bought this laptop 4 months ago I am soooooooooooooo happyyyyyyy !!! It’s a great laptop, I’ve never thought it would be this good…. I was a kind of afraid first but when I bought it I didn’t know where to start to explore it… I even find it better than my last year model Toshiba!! Even though I am hard to pleased I found the perfect laptop for me (PS I have the 18.4″ not 16″) & everything works well I am kind of in looove with my laptop now, I don’t leave my place without it… It’s my 2nd best friend…. love it… So recomended for ppl who get attached to their laptops… & looks for reliability & security, fun, style & originality… Great laptop great performance… for great ppl…

I’ve been looking at this laptop for a few months now (the 18.4″ model) and i have decided today i’m going to buy it on Saturday. I hope it is as good as I expect it to be!! Thanks for your comment Joanna yours made me decide I will get it, the other comments are quite derogatory. i hope I dont have any problems with mine.

I am happy that I could help you, I am really satisfied, Have you ever bought an acer laptop before ? Well I am in love with this company , this is my n’ 9 laptop (i think) by the way the extensa from acer is nice too. & just for you to know I am from lebanon & we don’t have the acer gemstone blue 8920g, so I just took a risk in buying it from Canada & without even taking a look at it first (only through internet) I payed & they sent it to me. I bet I am the only one in Lebanon who has it. lol

joanna have u had any software problems with the 8920G???
Have u used the blu-ray yet?? How does it perform with HD ??

No I haven’t had any problems with my 8920G & yes I did use it it performs perfectly… It’s just nice… It’s like in any other laptop (which has it) But it’s better than the Hp one (my sis bought it) It really sucks…

& if you need any other help my e-mail adress is: beso.de.muerte@hotmail.com

I have the 6930 Gemstone and I have not had one problem at all. The only problems I have seen (if u want to even call them problems) were….believe it or not Vista. Nothing at all hardware related, but you have people that do not really know anything about computers/laptops besides how to turn them on and off and of course when they do have a problem its the piece of sh**t laptop! Not the software…well enough ranting I just wanted to say this is a very nice laptop and for the price it’s almost unbelievable.
(I also setup and dual boot linux with it and it really flat out screams with a linjux distro…

Hi all most of your by the sounds of it are having problems with your blu ray player thingy (acer arcade deluxe) which is frankly pants it is better to get a copy of power dvd 8 ultra and this plays blu rays fine and i have the acer 6920g and i found the same problem as it didnt work for me so i got power dvd and now it is all working beautifully

what it comes down to is this: the acer boasts its hd screen (which if you look at the specs isn’t true (the resolution is too low)), the blu ray (which is the main feature of the acer) doesnt work, and the overall performance of is lacking in all aspects. After the all the problems i had with the acer (enough that i will never buy an acer again), i switched to the sony FW, which was the same price, and it runs faster and better than the acer could ever run at. When it comes down to it… if you are looking at these reviews to buy the acer… DO NOT BUY IT!, trust me as a consumer who has been duped into buying it, if you are looking for a quality computer than can play blu ray and at a proper resolution then spend the extra money and buy the sony FW featuring blu ray or and HD computer that includes a blu ray. You wont regret it

and ps. for the guy who said i don’t know anything about computers, i am a third year computer engineering student, with enough knowledge to know that it isnt vista that is causing the problem with the computer, its the software added by acer (eg the arcade) and the low grade motherboard (which fails to utilize the full capacity of the ram or chipset).

o! and my only problem is with the 6920 version, not the 8920. form what i ahve heard the 8920 version works like a charm

Alrite guys im a animation student and lookin too buy 1 of these new acers do my work on, n so far i have a choice of 8930 and 6930 i dont really know which 1s beta, they both have amazing spec, really good graphics card which i need and memory capacity, but dont know which 1s best any advice

I hate this computer. I have the 18.4″ and nothing but software problems. The stupid thing keeps booting to acer arcade in Windows XP platform and I have to just shut down numerous times and restart until it boots into Vista randomly. Now, the cinetouch is broken. The full volume is lit up, but so is the mute button, and the whole cinetouch is unresponsive. Now I can’t get it to boot into Vista at all. I should have taken it back on day 1 when I first noticed the Vista/XP boot problem, but I was enticed by the large screen and thought I could live with the problem, or thought at least there would be some support. Oh well, now all I can do is complain because my 3 month warranty is up.

I just got the 8920G about 1 mounth ago and was verry happy with the laptop verry fast system and dose all that i want and more and with no softwhere probs. then after a week or two I noticed two of the 6 speakers had stoped working which for me wasent mutch of a problem but should not happen on system of this spek.then about a week later graphics card had stoped working and crashed the system tryed a sys recov from disk but this faild to work the laptop has now been sent to acer to be fixed under warranty so fair acer have been verry helpfull and exalent coustomer service and hope to get my laptop back soon.hope this of help to you dont let my problems put you off of one this is a verry good computer and well bult I just got a bad one.

Hi Joanna..i need some info abt acer laptp..as i hv dcidd to buy 1 frm them..cn i mail u??

I have had the same problem with it booting into Acer arcade, then hibernating then hoping it will boot inbto Vista. I have sent it into the workshop and apparently it was a faulty motherboard, then Acer sent another one that was faulty. I will never buy another acer as long as i live. Out of warranty costing a heap to fix and spent almost AU $3000 on the bloody thing.

R.I.P.
It was a great machine until the motherboard went for a ball of sh1t. I've since been hunting for a replacement M/B on the net, but all I came across are 8920Gs with dead motherboards. Acer seems to haev f….d up on this one… (