Notebook with Huge 20 Inch Screen Reviewed

An anonymous reader writes "Trusted reviews has a look at the Acer Aspire 9800. This massive machine has a 20.1" screen, two 120GB hard drives in a RAID 0 array, super-multi DVD burner, analogue and digital TV tuners and an Intel Core Duo dual core CPU. And at over 17lb you can even use it for weight training!"

slugs

[everphilski]

0.53 slugs for the engineers in the house

Add one more type of user to your list...

[raygundan]

3. Those who work at a desk at client sites, but are required by company policy to take their machines home at night.

I'd LOVE a monitor that size-- but I'm stuck with a puny laptop screen as long as I'm working outside our main office.

The weight is impressive but not a record

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

The once-popular Osborne I was 23 pounds (over 10 kg to most of the world)

Slashdotted

[Enrique1218]

Here is the review of Dell's 20" laptop [cnet.com] if you hungering for a review from a site that won't be easily slashdotted. With that out of the way, I notice a lot of 20" inch springing up all over the place. Is there really a demand for these behemoths? I know some people might enjoy the screen real estate for some graphical as well spreadsheet applications but 17 to 20 lb notebook? It gets any bigger and they won't let you take it on the plane. Is there someone who will shell out 2000 extra for this just for the ability to clear their desk once in a while? Buying a bigger desk is expensive these days. Also, are lan parties that popular? Oh Lord, I must be so geeky that geeks don't want to invite me to their parties! Though I have been to few parties, we generally bring beers not computers. Where is the market?

Re:Quality

[Kenshin]

I have to agree. A while ago I got a computer with components from Acer's A-Open brand. The motherboard was nothing but trouble, and the monitor went into spasms after about 18 months. I know someone who curently has an Acer laptop, and she says that's a piece of crap, too.

Beware of BenQ. It's just Acer's new name for consumer electronics.

Re:Not only that,

[russellh]

I'd rather lug a 20 inch iMac than one of these things.

ergonomic

[r00t]

With that much room, they could split the keyboard down the middle and angle the halves a bit.

Why does nobody do this? Regular keyboards make me hurt.

It's making more and more sense now, with bigger screens and with the old 4:3 screen shape being abandoned.

I'll take a 21.5 inch (19x10) screen please, 1920x1024 (100 dpi, .254mm pitch) or better, with a full split keyboard that has 100% of the standard keys and nothing else.