Acer Aspire 5670

Acer's first dual-core notebook gives the biggest names in the notebook world a run for their money. The 6.6-pound Aspire 5670 is fast, easy on the eyes, and chock-full of thoughtful and fun features.

The 15.4-inch glossy widescreen offers an excellent picture for playing DVDs. Users can easily access music, photos, and videos using Acer Arcade, the manufacturer's answer to Media Center. Other multimedia-friendly perks include dedicated playback buttons, a DVI port, and an S/PDIF port for connecting the 5670 to a surround sound setup. On the business side, Acer Empowerment technology puts everything from file encryption to backups a few clicks away.

The Aspire's 5670's 1.66-GHz Core Duo processor helped the machine score an impressive 259 in MobileMark 2005, aided by a whopping 2GB of RAM and 5,400-rpm 120GB hard drive. ATI's Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics allowed the 5670 to notch a good 3DMark03 score of 3,452, which means that this system can handle most recent titles. Battery life wasn't great at three hours, but this mainstream system wasn't designed to be used unplugged for very long stretches.

Like the HP dv1000t, the 5670 features a built-in Webcam, which swivels 225 degrees. The video quality left a bit to be desired in terms of frame rate and clarity, but it's a handy feature for those interested in informal video chats.

Acer's Aspire 5670 is jam-packed with all of the bells, whistles, and zip that one could want from a dual-core notebook, all for the non-premium price of $1,799.