Acer Extensa 5620z Review

I absolutely hate this computer.

First of all, it is not mine, and it was only bought to be used for going on the internet, which is the only thing it is good for.  I use it all the time; it is certainly much better than my seven year old Dell desktop.  But it's not what you might want.

This computer has only about an hour and a half of battery life, and the screen is visibly brighter when you plug it in. 

I don't know if it was just the way it was bought, but this thing came with pretty much nothing on it. Just the bare minimum, and a 60 day free trial of Microsoft Office 2007.  I had to install the old 2002 version onto it.

And I use Word a lot.  When I noticed that the internet wasn't really up to speed, I decided that deleting my documents would help.  All 300 of them. And that was just the Word documents. I also deleted videos, pictures, music, and a bunch of other stuff that I didn't need.  It did help speed up the computer a bit, but I shouldn't have to delete files that I may or may not need anymore just to keep some computer working properly.

Another thing that I don't like is the placement of the wireless connectivity switch.  It is located on the front edge of the computer.  If you happen to have the computer on your lap (because it's a laptop), and you move, or rub against it, the computer will disconnect from the internet.  Even though you only have to flip the switch again to make it reconnect, it is quite annoying and it does take a few moments to find a signal and be back to normal.

What I hate most of all actually occurred a few moments ago.  You see, this computer really can't handle much.  On Internet Explorer, you can open tabs, which are like little mini-windows in one window.  Sometimes, if I have maybe seven tabs open in a window at once, a message will pop up that says, "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem." Usually, I don't care.  Just that tab will close and then I can open it right back up. But this time, I didn't have any tabs open. In fact, I was finished writing this very review.  Except, I was finished.  I had well over 2000 characters written.  I was just about to press "Publish," when that horrible message popped up, and shut the whole window down.  And there was nothing I could do about it.  No way to retrieve it. I just had to rewrite it. (I don't know if it was a problem with Internet Explorer, but I'm reviewing this laptop as a whole.)

Even when having multiple windows open, the computer freaks out, and may encounter an error.  If I'm lucky, it will just be slow switching between windows.

Also, I do like gaming, and would love to venture more into the PC gaming world.  I could probably name ten games that I would like to try.  But, I would never try and put a game on this computer. 

First of all, the system requirements for most games are way higher than what this laptop can handle.  Also, I would be afraid that if I did try to install something, it would freak out, go into self-destruct mode, and blow up in my face.

If you just want to go on the internet, and maybe just check your e-mail, this may be the computer for you.  If you want to play games, do your homework, and not encounter errors in all programs, I would probably stay away.