Tuesday, December 15, 2009

ACER 1420P - Another Review

After using this PC for a few weeks now, I have the following thoughts.

1. The screen is so freakin glare prone that it's almost unusable while commuting with overhead flourescent lights on the train. I mean, you eventually get used to it, but it's like a railroad spike being slowly driven through your brain. You can't find a position for the screen where the view is still good, and the lights aren't right in your eyes.

2. I really dislike the keyboard. I'm not the greatest typist in the world, and the sharp edges on the keys really catch my fingers and make bad typing worse. Combine that with the really small cursor keys in the right hand lower corner, and navigating a long Word document is pretty painful.

3. I still get occasional character repetitions for no apparent reason, despite having turned down the character repeat speed in the configuration significantly, to the point where if you are using the aforementioned cursor keys, you have to wait almost a second for them to repeat, and by then, you've gone past where you wanted to go.

4. On the plus side, I love the weight and the battery life. Definitely better than my Toshiba U405.

5. I haven't tried to make use of any of the advanced features of the system, partially because I don't want to spend any more time staring at that screen than I absolutely have to.

Based on the monitor, and the keyboard, and the fact that I never use the Touch screen, I would never buy this machine for myself or my family, and really miss my Toshiba, though I would probably buy the Toshiba T-135 if given a do-over. Maybe in the new year.

No comments: