THE Acer Aspire 4920G laptop may look 'geeky' with its plain looks, but the beauty of the machine is hidden inside it.

It has a well-endowed feature set that includes built-in Webcam with microphones, Western Digital 250GB hard disk, Core2Duo T7300 2GHz processor and 2GB of RAM that is more than enough to be used with the Windows Vista Home Edition.

The Futuremark score for the laptop, however, is a 'mere' 2,747 PCMarks especially when armed with ATI Radeo HD2400 XT Chipset with 256MB of dedicated RAM which is a tad disappointing.

In short, good for everyday use but do not expect super smooth graphics for 3D heavy games at high settings.

That aside, the laptop was a joy to use with its 1,280 x 800 pixel bright LCD screen and a well spaced out keyboard that has shortcut switches/buttons for the most common uses such as Bluetooth, Internet, Mail and Wireless Radio. It also has touch sensitive media buttons to quickly fast- forward or repeat a song track and its proprietary Empower Tech Tool Bar management software controls other features such as PC, wireless and security settings, sound mode and power consumption level.

When it comes to media playing, the Aspire boasts the Dolby Home Theatre Surround Sound system to give

users a more immersive audio experience. But what a bummer when the movie sound is blasted through the headphones and the surround sound is not engaged when changing the sound mode from Movie to Music.

Unfortunately, the onboard laptop speakers churns out a lacklustre performance. Yes, it is louder and clearer than most low- to mid- budget laptops, but if one is to trumpet the use of Dolby Surround Sound, the least Acer could do is to match the laptop with a better pair of speakers.

As for pairing up my Bluetooth stereo headphones with my laptop, it did pair pretty quickly and recognised the device configurations correctly.

However, the music came into the headphones in drips and drabs, and despite trying to remedy the problem, it refused to work properly. This calls into question the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) Certified badge that the laptop wore. According to the DLNA website, the certification should enable it to interoperate with open industry standards that 'enhances and enriches user experiences'.

FINAL SAY

A good all-rounder performer for everyday computing. But technical issues and an underwhelming 3D prowess may dissuade would be owners.

Acer Aspire 4920G laptop
» $2,098
» Get it from Acer authorised resellers