I’d like to respond to Linda’s complaint/review. I do agree that the mfr should be more up-front in disclosing lack of internal mic, however please let me provide a different point of view. . . for the benefits of other readers, at the least. I actually think a built-in webcam and no mic is the ‘best of both worlds’. I know, that seems strange, but here’s why.

A built-in webcam is creepy enough, but you can easily cover it with a piece of tape. We’ve seen in recent news that people can and DO hack into webcams and mics of people online–even (illegally so) a school providing loaner laptops to students, spying on them in their bedrooms.

You can’t turn an internal mic off (no mfr provides a hard switch). You can disable it in the OS, but it’s inconvenient, and you have to trust the OS and apps that nothing’s switching it back on. Plus (and maybe most importantly, if not realistically), internal mics usually SUCK. Even if it’s good, it’s generally too far away and too close to the speakers when integrated. So what you usually get, is a built-in mic which stays on all the time, with the creepy security risk (and Google saying someday it will eavesdrop on your mic and if it hears a dog barking in the background, will spam you with dog food ads, for instance). . . and you end up using an external mic anyway. Maybe you’ve had good luck with integrated microphones? I know I haven’t. Nothing beats a headset, or something close to your mouth. . . . especially if you’re using the laptop’s speakers to hear your party.

A few years ago I had the opposite experience. I bought a laptop with no webcam, and it had an internal mic which wasn’t documented. I’d had it about a year when I installed a recording program, and noticed it was picking up noises when I was just trying out the program (with no input). The quality was so low it wasn’t useful, and the fact I had a useless mic which was only a security and creepiness liability made it an albatross. I wished they made laptops WITH webcams, but NO integrated mics, but I didn’t think anyone would do that. Then I bought this laptop (not this actual model, but similar) and was so happy–but surprised–that there was no internal mic. Really. YMMV.

Let me make a comment on my laptop. I have an emachines version which is identical but mine has a lower-power AMD CPU with a lower-capacity hard drive. Chassis and hardware should be identical. I was astounded at the quality of my webcam. It does appear to be only QVGA (quarter VGA), but the quality is better than the VGA cams I’ve seen. And because it’s QVGA, it updates a 4x faster on the user’s end (seems smoother, more motion-y). Best of all, it really is “optimized for low-light” like it says on the computer. If you have a white background on your screen, the light from the screen is enough for the webcam to pick you up fine in an UNLIT room (too bad Skype has a black background; I can’t seem to change it). (And it works fine in well-lit rooms too; no ‘overexposure’. ) One low-powered light on in the room is good enough for this webcam (exceedingly rare to find on an integrated cam IMO). Which is really nice for those late-night conversations, which is really when you want to use a webcam, right? I can tell you firsthand it’s substantially better than a late-gen iMac webcam which didn’t do well in existing artificial light.

Over the internet, I let a friend a choose between my integrated webcam and a well-respected USB VGA webcam I’d previously bought. I didn’t say which was which, nor give techincal details, just: “which do you prefer?”. My party chose my integrated webcam, to my surprise (and delight). Almost all integrated webcams are crappy, and I’ve never heard of one which is actually excellent. Plus, it is aimed right at me, taking into account proper screen angle. It’s as if someone knew what they were doing when they designed it!

Personally, I use a little over-the-ear mic which came with that previous webcam I mentioned (now made obsolete by the excellent internal cam). These are really cheap to buy on the net. You can also get little “stalk” right-angle connector mics which are made for notebooks as you just plug it into the jack and angle it at you. But something close to your mouth is best. meritline, dealextreme, pcmicrostore, amazon of course and many others sell cheap mics of wildly varying style and quality. You can leave the stalk type ones connected–the smaller the stalk, obviously the easier it is to leave connected but the father away it’ll be from you. Other options would be a USB ‘speakerphone’, also pretty handy, but that’s more wires, or an adapter (which you can get on Amazon) which allows you to use your 2. 5mm connector cordless phone headset in your computer.

With this laptop, ALL the connectors are in the right place. Very rare. The sound, power, and network ports are all on the left–where God intended them to be . You don’t have a power cable running out one side of you and a network cable out the other. Everything comes in at the left (yes!). There is nothing on the back, and nothing on the right to interfere with your mouse hand except for the optical drive, which again is also in the correct place for you to replace disks.

In the front, you have the card reader–which is a good card reader. It’s BOOTABLE, and faster than a USB card reader I have. Yeah it’s a little difficult to get to, and the action is very positive (you have to push pretty hard on the card to get it to pop back out), but I see that as a good thing, as the card is flush and is not going to pop out accidentally pushing up against you.

Honstly, I wish I had this model (I think it’s a new model). What I’d really like to know is how often the fan turns on when idling in this model? Mine is really quiet. Fan doesn’t run much, and is quiet when it does. My 160GB drive is the quietest drive I think I’ve ever heard, and I hope this 250GB is too, as it’s only 5600rpm. A lot of the 250GB drives are 7200rpm, which are quite noisier, and not worth the speed tradeoff for me (I use a 7200rpm in my work laptop daily, so I know). I only have 2GB RAM and most for users running Windows 7 (Windows 6. 1 technically), that’s enough. However, if you open tons of web tabs, it is possible to max out in Windows 64-bit (I was surprised). 3GB or 4 would be enough for me but I’m a power user. This has 3, or 50% more than my 2GB. (The RAM inside may also be DDR3, which if true would be contrary to some spec lists. )

Likewise, I could use the more powerful T4400 processor in this model, I just don’t know if it creates extra heat. The mobile Intels are very efficient. I have an AMD but one of the newer low-powered variants. . . but gutless compared to this. However, my fan is usually off in idle, only coming on a couple seconds every once in awhile after it’s been on for awhile. I’d want to keep that–and want to know if this T4400 is cool enough it behaves similarly. Max heat of a T4400 is in the thirties of watts; my AMD creates 15 watts max, but max heat rating is not a good indication of idle usage. Anecdotal stories are much more useful.

Having used my laptop enough now, I like it so much (everything being in the right place, etc) that I’d pay extra for what I have now with more ram and a better processor–if that did not mean more noise. I’ve seen a lot of crappy laptops in my day (crappy=bad heat management/noisy, bad keyboards, and ports/connectors in illogical places). So I’m soliciting any feedback?

There’s no perfect laptop, but I think the fact that this one’s ‘thicker’ than most laptops these days yields hidden benefits that outway lack of thinness (and the lappy is pretty lightweight when you take the battery out, if you use w/a cord like I do). I have some issues with the keyboard, and yes there are only 2 USB ports (macbook only gives you 1?). But the intangibles are high here, including the very nice glossy screen, almost equivalent with HP/Compaq.

The keys are almost ‘stealth chiclet’, or ‘hybrid’. They have good travel (unlike chiclet), and are larger (unlike chiclet), but have no bevel (like chiclet), and only an imperceptible curve (essentially flat), which makes it surprisingly hard for your fingers to find the keys in the dark (and keyboard is unlit). That said, they’re nice and big and feel good due to good travel. Key location is above average, not perfect. They missed an opportunity to put page-up/page-down where they put those half-sized arrow keys. Why just leave that part of the keyboard as a blank hole, and make a button half-size, when you could either put a full-sized key there or put another half-size key above it? Again, nothing’s perfect. I’m not a fan of numberpads, so I sacrificed the keypad and assigned a slew of non-character keys to it using a freeware app called KeyTweak. Now a pretty happy camper.

If you go through Windows 7 power management in Control Panel and get aggressive on the ‘power saver’ profile (including aggressive screen dimming), as well as turn off the stupid Aero interface and other animations/effects, you can squeeze about 50% more battery time out. Disabling wireless helps, if you can, and also frees up about 50MB of memory.

I love the laptop overall, and friends who see it are envious. Thinner is not necessarily better. Read reviews of the newer thinner Acer models and you’ll see reviews are not as good. Most common complaints about this chassis form factor is only 2 USB ports, the silly layout of the number pad, the flat keys, and an occasional “slow Wi-Fi” problem I’ve seen in reviews which appears to be hardware-related (mine is fine and quite fast, actually). So if you get one, test out your wi-fi speed within the exchange period.
Rating: 5 / 5