Acer Aspires to a Greater Ethos - Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G-9600 Review

The Acer Aspire Ethos wears its role of desktop replacement like an good, off-the-rack suit. It fits fairly well, but needs some alterations before approaching perfection.

I found many things to like about the Ethos. The bright, 18.4-inch 1080p display makes working with documents easy on the eyes. Color fidelity and saturation were good, both on photo images and video material. Typing on the keyboard is a positive experience for the most part, and the built-in Blu-ray/DVD combo player's movie playback is among the best we’ve seen in a laptop.

Those are the high points.

The Ethos employs an intriguing gimmick: a detachable touchpad with a built-in battery (which recharges when it’s docked.) Make no mistake, it is a gimmick. As a trackpad, it’s terrible. The default sensitivity setting forces you to swipe multiple times just to move the cursor across the screen. I tried repeatedly to use multitouch gestures on the touchpad, but I couldn’t get them to work. At times, the touchpad refused to respond at all, even when docked.

The touchpad has a small, soft button that changes modes so that it can act as a remote media controller when detached, but I rarely lean back from an 18.4-inch display enough to need a remote. If you connect the Ethos to your HDTV, you might find this gizmo worthwhile, but it’s almost useless in its primary role as a pointing device, so you’d best get a mouse.

The keyboard is much better, with a fairly clean layout, though the arrow keys are tiny. The keyboard's tactile feedback and response are pretty good, too.

Audio playback quality is above average, though you won’t get high volume for music playback. My chief complaint is that reverb seemed excessive. You'll want to use the minimalist Dolby control panel to switch modes from music to movies when you pop in a Blu-ray disc. Movie audio quality was exceptionally good for a laptop, with clear voice imaging and a soundstage that seemed wider than the display without sounding smeared.

Video quality is top-notch, as long as you sit in the sweet spot. But viewing the screen from even a little distance off-axis yields noticeable shifts in video contrast and color. Upscaled, standard-definition content looked clean, without much noise or excessive edge enhancement, but it did appear a bit soft. High-definition content was impressive, however.

Performance is another weakness. The Ethos ships with 8GB of DDR3-1333 memory and a quad-core, Intel Core i7 2630QM CPU. However, the laptop's WorldBench 6 score of 127 was a little below average for a desktop replacement. The Acer system comes with an Nvidia GT 555M GPU that offers better gaming performance than the integrated Intel HD Graphics do, but it's hardly a gaming powerhouse. You’ll want to dial down graphics detail and possibly the resolution before playing current-generation of DirectX 10 and 11 game titles.

The GT 555M takes advantage of Nvidia’s Optimus technology to switch automatically from the discrete GPU (when needed for high performance graphics) to the Intel integrated GPU for normal desktop use and video playback. This arrangement can substantially improve battery life, though the Ethos will likely spend most of its time plugged into wall power.

The Ethos comes with plenty of ports built in, including five USB ports (three USB 2.0, one USB 2.0/eSATA combo, and one USB 3.0 port). HDMI and VGA video output connectors are located on the right side, as are three audio jacks and a four-pin Firewire connector.

Acer provides gigabit ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi. It also supposedly offers Bluetooth--and even includes the Atheros Bluetooth suite--but we didn’t find any evidence of Bluetooth hardware, and the Bluetooth software refused to run.

You get plenty of capacity at 750GB, but the 5400-rpm hard drive is a bit on the slow side. The Ethos supports SD cards (all formats), plus Sony Memory Stick and xD cards. The Blu-ray drive works well and isn’t too noisy during playback. Acer includes Clear.fi media playback and sharing software. It works well, but permits only limited adjustments.

Although this desktop replacement is bulky--you’ll want to be sure you have a bag large enough to hold it if you plan on lugging it around--it’s surprisingly light. Without the 120W PSU, the Ethos weighs 8 pounds, 13 ounces. The power brick raises the weight to more than 10 pounds.

Overall, the Acer Aspire Ethos has a functional though imperfect design. The detachable trackpad doesn’t work particularly well and performance is fairly average. But the laptop looks and sounds good, and movie playback is superb. And $1499 isn’t a bad price for a system with an 18.4-inch display--especially if what it does well is a good match for your needs.

 

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laptop displayed battery was unable to charge normally?

 

The laptop's motherboard was at fault – could this affect battery life?
A few weeks ago my daughter's laptop displayed a message saying that the battery was unable to charge normally. The message also said the battery was reaching the end of its life and suggested buying a replacement. I contacted Dell and was advised that the laptop was outside the warranty period and the battery was not covered.

It has been established that the motherboard was at fault and this has been fixed. Dell then said if the problem continued it would replace the motherboard free. I am concerned that this fault caused the much reduced lifetime of the battery.

Adrian Dobson

Dell explained to Mr Dobson that the motherboard problems he had experienced were caused by static building up in the motherboard’s capacitors. Once these were drained, the problem was resolved.
However, Mr Dobson wanted to know if he had a case to force Dell to replace the battery, which was just over a year old. He asked if Dell has a duty to do this, free, because he believes the problem with the motherboard reduced its lifespan.

While there is legal protection if faulty goods cause damage to other components or property, he would need to prove his case. He won’t find this easy. Laptop batteries are notorious for giving people problems and are often not covered by warranties, or covered for longer than 12 months.

It is hard to say how long a battery should last too, as this depends on how often it is charged and discharged. Some will inexplicably fail within six months; others can last up to five years or more.

He could appeal to Dell to see if the company will consider providing a new battery. The company has said that if the motherboard continues to show problems it would replace this free of charge.

As a goodwill gesture it may consider offering a new battery as well. But if it refuses to do this, Mr Dobson will probably find it difficult to prove that the build-up of static – which is not an inherent fault – reduced the battery life. It will probably cost more to prove this than buying a new battery.

He could try recharging the battery and exhausting it a number of times. This may extend battery life and improve the performance.

The Sale of Goods Act 1979 says a customer should not be out of pocket because they have bought inherently faulty goods. This means that the customer must be in the same position financially as they were before a fault was discovered.

So if one faulty component in a computer damages another, the retailer will be liable to ensure that it repairs or replaces both of these.

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Google-Motorola deal unlikely to topple Apple

A number of prominent analysts believe Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility and its 17,000 patents are unlikely to significantly affect Apple.


For example, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster reiterated his belief that both Apple's iOS and Google's Android will remain "winners" in the rapidly expanding smartphone market - with Apple projected to sell approximately 36 million iOS devices in the current September quarter.



"While Android adoption is outpacing iOS, both platforms are share gainers," he explained. "This confirms our belief that unlike desktops, there will be two or three winners in mobile (iOS and Android and possibly Microsoft)."



Meanwhile, Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley predicted iPhone shipments and market share will accelerate despite Google's Motorola acquisition.

"On the one hand, the acquisition highlights the risk that Apple's IP portfolio presents to the Android ecosystem and the competitive strength of Apple's vertically integrated products," Huberty opined. 

"On the other hand, MMI's 17,000 patents and Google's $27 billion cash after the deal raise legal risks for Apple."


The Morgan Stanley analyst also noted that any "disruption" in the Android ecosystem originating from the Google-Motorola alliance was likely to help bolster sales of Apple's iPhone.

Similarly, Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank said he remained "confident" in Apple's position and emphasized Google had paid a 60 percent premium in buying Motorola.

According to Whitmore, the deal is more than likely to create confusion within the Android dev community - and potentially alienate other device manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung. 



Whitmore also said he saw the deal as an opportunity for Google to replicate Apple's approach with iOS by "marrying" hardware and software development to create a more cohesive user-friendly experience.

"Google surely recognizes the poorly marketed cadence of its OS releases and growing product, pricing and branding confusion among consumers and developers... While this acquisition may have been made under the guise of IP enhancement, its roots may lie in Android's forking, inconsistent user experience and poor momentum in tablets."

Finally, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky said he believes the deal clears the way for a "Nexus on steroids," along with the eventual removal of the "Motoblur" skin which "no one will miss."

Abramsky concluded the Google-Motorola deal was likely to affect other Android manufacturers, while placing additional pressure on RIM and Microsoft. 

However, like the other above-mentioned analysts, Abramsky does not see the alliance significantly altering the "competitive landscape" for Apple.

 

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Microsoft Windows 7 to dominate PCs by the end of 2011

Microsoft Windows 7 remains on track to become the leading operating system (OS) in the PC market - running on approximately 42% of systems by the end of 2011.

"Steady improvements in IT budgets in 2010 and 2011 are helping to accelerate the deployment of Windows 7 in enterprise markets in the U.S. and Asia/Pacific, where Windows 7 migrations started in large volume from 4Q10," explained Gartner analyst Annette Jump.

 

 

"However, the economic uncertainties in Western Europe, political instability in selected Middle East and Africa (MEA) countries and the economic slowdown in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 will likely lead to slightly late and slow deployment for Windows 7 across those regions."



Interestingly enough, Gartner's forecast assumes Windows 7 is likely to be the last version of a Microsoft OS that is deployed via mega corporate-wide migrations. In the future, many organizations are expected to use alternative client computing architectures for standard PCs with Windows OS as they move towards a virtualization and cloud computing paradigm.

In other OS related news, shipments of Apple iMacs and Mac OS share on new PCs posted increases over the last 12 months. To be sure, Mac OS was shipped on 4% of new PCs worldwide in 2010 - versus 3.3% in 2008. As such, Cupertino's OS is forecast to be on 4.5% of PCs in 2011 and increase to some 5.2% of new PCs by 2015.

"The adoption of Mac PCs and Mac OS is a result of Apple's ability to grow well above the market average in the last 12 to 24 months," said Jump.

"[This can be attributed] to its ease of use from the user interface (UI) point of view and ease of integration with other Apple devices, such as the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and the existing Apple ecosystem of applications and programs."



Meanwhile, Linux is expected to remain a niche OS over the next five years with its share below 2%, due to the high costs of app migration from Windows to Linux. In the consumer market, Linux will run on less than 1% of PCs, as Linux's success with mini-notebooks was short-lived and few mini-notebooks are preloaded with it today.

Finally, Gartner analysts do not expect Chrome OS, Android or webOS to claim any significant market share on PCs over the next few years. 



"To get any consideration as an alternative for a traditional PC, lighter OSs will first need to get strong positions on emerging client devices such as Web books and media tablets," she confirmed.  



"Even then, it is unlikely that they will have any impact on Microsoft and Windows OS's hold on positions on traditional professional PCs in the time frame of the current forecast. This is because of application compatibility issues and the high proportion of Windows-specific apps within many enterprises."

Jump noted that only in 2012 will the market reach the point of crossover between Windows-specific and OS-agnostic applications for enterprises - as approximately 50% of apps are likely to be fall into an OS "neutral" category by then. 



In the consumer space, the proportion of OS-agnostic applications is already above the Windows-specific applications, something which could help Chrome OS and Android make inroads into the lucrative market over the next three to five years.

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Review Laptop Refresh: Top 6 Ways to Revitalize an Older Notebook

Do you have an aging laptop that you want to save from the recycling center? With a few software and hardware upgrades, you could bring that old notebook back to life and possibly avoid having to plunk down cash for a new laptop or a secondary device such as an Apple iPad or an Android tablet.

Refresh the Operating System: Three Options

Back up first! Before making any operating system changes, be sure to back up your data to an external hard drive (or two), and confirm that you have all of your application discs handy so that you can reinstall them. Check our tips on what you should back up, as well as on how to back up manually or through Windows.

1. Reinstall Windows: Over time, Windows naturally slows down. A fast way to bring your laptop back to square one is to use your system-restore disc (or the restore program installed on the laptop) to reformat and reinstall Windows. After a fresh install, your system will run much faster, undoing the years of application installs and uninstalls, disk fragmentation, and everyday wear and tear. See our eight-step complete guide to reinstalling and restoring Windows for assistance in starting over from scratch.

PC Decrapifier Unfortunately, reinstalling Windows from your laptop manufacturer's restore disc or program will also reinstall any bloatware that initially came with it. A few utilities can help you remove those useless programs: Previously we've mentioned Revo Uninstaller Portable, which is free and doesn't need to be installed on your laptop, as well as Total Uninstall ($30), which has more features, handles uninstalls that require a reboot, and can remove 64-bit programs. If you want a more automatic tool that finds bloatware for you, check out the free PC Decrapifier.

2. Upgrade to Windows 7: If you're running Windows XP or Vista, you may find much better performance under Windows 7--if your laptop meets the requirements for upgrading. Download and install Microsoft's Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to determine whether your laptop can run Windows 7.

At Microsoft's suggested retail price of $120 for the OS upgrade, this option isn't cheap. If you intend to use your old laptop as just a secondary computer, the investment might not pay off. But if you'll be using the laptop heavily, keep in mind that Windows 7 has been shown to run well on even very old and underpowered laptops and netbooks, and that it boasts a ton of nice features for connecting to other computers, finding your documents and other files, and using your laptop in general.

Windows 7 Upgrade AdvisorWant to upgrade? Check out our instructions for upgrading to Windows 7, including how to perform the custom (that is, clean) install required for XP users, as well as the upgrade path for Vista.

3. Try Linux: For a free, lightweight, and secure operating system upgrade, consider trying Linux, specifically Puppy Linux. My PCWorld colleague Katherine Noyes pointed out several features of Puppy Linux that make it a nice option for older PCs, including its ability to run off a CD or USB flash drive, as well as its small footprint. It boots quickly, too.

Easy Hardware Upgrades: Three Options

Memory module 1. Add memory: The easiest, and often the most cost-effective, way to add a performance boost is to install more RAM. If your laptop has 512MB or less of memory, you can boost its speed by a third by upgrading to 1GB. (Find out how much memory is installed by clicking Start, going to the Control Panel, and clicking System. In the General tab, you'll see the amount of RAM.) Memory is cheap these days--1GB of RAM can cost as little as $20--so I recommend upgrading to the maximum amount of memory your laptop can use. As mentioned in our guide to upgrading PC RAM, memory vendors Crucial and Kingston both offer easy-to-use tools for finding the right memory for your computer.

2. Upgrade the hard drive: Replacing your laptop's hard drive will not only get you more space, but it can also significantly increase the laptop's performance. Older laptop hard drives may have a low, 4200-rpm rotational speed; upgrading to a 5400-rpm or 7200-rpm drive will produce a noticeable speed difference during boot-up, data transfers, and general use.

For about $50, you can buy a 5400-rpm hard drive with 320GB of storage space, or a 7200-rpm drive with 320GB of storage. (Compare prices on notebook hard drives.)

You can upgrade the hard drive yourself in just a few minutes. Before ordering the replacement drive, confirm what type of hard drive your laptop currently has (look on the drive itself for the interface type and height, or note the model number and look up the information on the drive manufacturer's website). A notebook hard-drive upgrade kit, such as those from Apricorn starting at $19, can clone your old drive and make transferring your data to the new one very easy.

 D-Link DWA-1313. Upgrade your Wi-Fi to Wireless-N: If your home router uses Wireless-N (aka the 802.11n protocol), you can get faster network connectivity on your laptop by upgrading the notebook's wireless card from the older 802.11b or 802.11g standard to the latest protocol. Wireless-N products have been shown to be as much as seven times faster than 802.11g. Another benefit: Since older wireless devices can drag down the rest of a Wireless-N network, upgrading your laptop can improve your network overall.

Although it's possible to upgrade the wireless card inside the laptop, an easier option is to buy an 802.11n adapter that you just plug into the laptop's USB port. You can find an adapter such as the D-Link DWA-131 for about $20.

Uses for an Older Laptop

The upgrades above can make your old laptop more usable. A refreshed old laptop is handy to have around as a backup in case your main computer fails. You might use the laptop as a quick information-lookup tool in the kitchen, or another area of the house. Or perhaps your kids, other relatives, or a charity could make use of it.

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