Acer Aspire 2020 - Centrino desktop replacement

Construction - Build, Appearance, Size (cont.)

The front side of the system is home to two other function buttons (right side, left to right): one for Bluetooth (lights up blue when active) and one for wireless (lights up orange when active). Below the status LEDs on the lip of the notebook are the headphone jack, microphone jack, and flash card reader (Secure Digital, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, and MultiMediaCard). It would be nice if there was also CompactFlash support, since it is more popular than some of the other media out there. Keep in mind that some models of the Aspire 2020 don't have a card reader, but as far as we can tell, the model sold in North America will come with it. Also note that unlike the Envy M:860, this specific card reader doesn't implement the push-in secure and push-in release design.

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Situated on the left side of the system is the PCMCIA slot, which uses a dummy card when not currently populated. As we have stated before, we prefer the hinge door design over the dummy card, but this is going to be a matter of preference.

To the right of the PCMCIA slot is the Matshita UJ-825S slot-load multi write plus optical drive (2.4x DVD+R/W, 4x DVD+R, 2x DVD-RW). We don't often see slot-load optical drives on laptops, which is why we asked a few of the system vendors out there, "why?" They told us that it is due mainly to the cost premium that slot-load drives have over tray-load, especially those designed for laptops. And, the fact that slot-load drive models for laptops are usually slower than their tray-load brothers. We thought that servicing and reliability might be factors, but none of them brought up this issue. Our personal preference is for slot-load drives, since it helps reduce the amount of space needed on the side of the notebook to load a CD or DVD.

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The back side of the system is home to (left to right): s-video port, VGA-out port, two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet jack, modem jack, parallel port, USB 2.0 port, and a 4-pin IEEE-1394 firewire port. Left of the s-video port is one of the system's two exhaust vents.

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Acer places the IR window on the right side of the system, along with the power and lock port, as well as another exhaust vent.

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The Lite-On charger for the Aspire 2020 is smaller than most used on DTR notebooks, but then again, most DTRs don't use Centrino parts. Compared to other Centrino notebooks, the charger's size is fairly average, measuring in at 4.1" x 1.7" x 1.1".

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The bottom of the Aspire 2020 reveals the system's 14.8V 4.3AH Lithium Ion battery (bottom left) along with several access panels. The panel on the left accesses one of the system's two SODIMM slots. The panel just right of the battery pack is home to the system's hard drive, and the rightmost panel hides away the mini-PCI slot, home to the system's WiFi card.

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There are two speaker holes on the bottom of the notebook, which give voice to the Aspire 2020's subwoofer. And while this notebook is marked as property of "Acer America Engineering", it is not a preproduction sample. Apparently, this is one of the production samples used for that department. Weighing in at about 6.6 pounds, it is one of the lighter DTR notebooks that we have had pass through the labs.