By The Acer Aspire Ethos line of laptops is just perfect for those who are looking to replace their desktop with a stylish but powerful notebook. Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G is a notebook you might be interested in if you want to replace your desktop and still have something that comes with a nice design. So, here’s the review of Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G.
Coming in two models, that is a 15.6-inch model (5951G) and an 18.4-inch model (8951G), the latest in the Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G is a laptop that you’ll be able to use only as a desktop replacement. That’s because it’s an hybrid of a notebook and an all-in-one PC.
Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G (the 18.4 inch model)weighs more than 4Kg which will stop your from carrying it with you. It’s also 40 cm wide and it comes in a sophisticated and sleek design. The overall design is more classy and the keyboard as well as the lid are black.
Besides the fact that the backlit keyboard gives the notebook a different and attractive look, it also includes a full number pad. The keyboard seems to be more practical with its isolated keys.
The speakers are represented now by a simple horizontal band and to the right and the left sides of the strip you’ll find the Power button, the Launch Manager, Clear.fi and the backlit on/off buttons.
This great and classy appearance hides a quad core 2.2GHz Core-i7, two 500Gb hard disks as well as 8Gb of DDR3 RAM that can be expanded to 16GB. Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G features nVidia GeForce GT 555M graphics card that has 2Gb of memory. The customary extras include three USB 2 ports, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, full HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet and e-SATA, VGA and FireWire.
Below the keyboard you’ll find a fingerprint reader and the bezel comes with a camera built-in. The most attractive feature remains the detachable touchpad. Once you slide the latch, the touchpad will be detached.
Thus, you can use it as a remote control. If you press the On/Off button on the touchpad, you’ll turn on/off the backlit graphical touch controls. The only less attractive part of the touchpad is that finger smudges will get rather easily on the glossy top part of it.
Even so, you’ll probably use it very often as a remote control since Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G comes with Dolby Home Theater audio enhanced 5.1 surround sound and Blu-Ray Disc player. You’ll probably listen to a lot of music since there’s a visible subwoofer on the underside.
The 6000 mAh battery is not that great as we’d expect it to be since the notebook lasts 5½ hours on light use. More likely you’ll get 3½ to 4 hours in general use. For game players, the battery won’t be a plus.
Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G comes pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium (64G version), Skype, Adobe Flash Player 10, Adobe Reader 9.1, Silverlight, Microsoft Office Starter 2010, Adobe Reader 9.1. You’ll also get a lot of blotware that include ePower Management, Crystal Eye, Acer Backup Manage and Video Conference Manager.
Still, once you uninstall all that, Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G becomes a true desktop replacement. It’s hugely powerful and the overall performance is rather snappy. You can use it for different purposes like video processing, gaming and multitasking abilities.
You can get Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G for $1599 if you opt for the 18.4 inch version and $1499 for the 15.6-inch 5951G model. It all depends on your preferences and on whether you need a portable notebook. The 18.4 inch model is definitely designed to be used in a static loaction. All in all, Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G is the right device to get since you’ll enjoy the advantages of a desktop as well as those of a not very portable laptop.
