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| | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 35 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
57 of 59 found the following review helpful:
 Not for Everyone Apr 11, 2011
By Dale H. Reeck
While the dual screen configuration is more useful than I would have originally thought, the Iconia 6120 is not for everyone. Its especially not for people who do a lot of writing. While the virtual keyboard works well, it is not the same as a physical keyboard.
And I have to contradict one of the reviewers here, the machine is very fast and I have noticed few bugs. The machine booted up the first time just fine, with no issues and the keyboard appears after a few seconds. I also have not noticed any unusual warmth.
But that doesn't mean all's perfect. There's the unexcusably missing bluetooth and multimedia card/ExpressCard slots. Also, while they give you easy access to the inards, via an easy to remove bottom access panel, that reveals an empty PCI Express card slot, there are no antenna leads. The European version of this system includes broadband, but without antenna leads, the slot becomes useless for USA upgraders who might want to use a CDMA broadband card or even a bluetooth card. There are ways to add your own antenna via third party solutions, but these usually don't work well. And, as others have mentioned, the poor battery life is compounded by the fact that the battery is inconvenient to replace. The bottom access panel must be removed to expose the battery release latches. Not difficult, but the extra step of removing the bottom access panel is unwelcome, especially in a cramped space like an airplane.
I am very pleased with the performance of this laptop. I am used to working on dual screen systems at home and at work and it is only natural that this capability be extended to my laptop. But the system is missing some basic features, like bluetooth and multimedia cards, that are common on even a low end laptop. Its puzzling why Acer removed these features, though it appears there was sufficient room in the case for them.
EDIT: I modified the above text to indicate that the battery is indeed removable, though not very conveniently.
17 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 Lacks software support May 13, 2011
By James Buckeyne
This is a fairly fast system. Decent enough video - can play quite a few games pretty well. However, there aren't a lot of applications that support multi-touch especially all-point touch.
Me, I'm a software developer, and am working on a few ideas for projects I wanted, and have learned some technical limitations. At this point, only one screen gets touches at a time, and my application only gets a single touch event on the lower screen; although I know that acer's stock scrapbook application definatly can recognize multiple points. Also, the WM_TOUCH information that is received does not have the width/height of the touches.
The touch surface itself is Cypress.
Someday it will be a good platform. I find it relatively easy to type on the surface except the keys my pinkies hit - my finger span is wider on my pinky than other fingers - would be nice to scale the keyboard in sections. Also from habit of touch typing, hitting the shift or control keys, I end up folding a finger back so my nail hits the screen instead of fleshy capacitive detectable material.
THe keyboard doesn't behave the same way a keyboard does - that is it doesn't send the key press when you are holding the key down, it waits until you release the key then sends a single down-up message. This makes WASD keys unusable for moving in a game.
A single touch doesn't always resemble a mouse click to games, so even piloting menus can be difficult.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Perfect laptop for audio and performance use! Sep 04, 2011
By RebelSamuri
The Iconia is definatly a specialized laptop. The new design is well suited for live performance DJing, web browsing is fantstic, and has also proved valuable for some photo editing. The touch controls are well designed but sometimes can be buggy, this laptop is not intended for standard users. The dual screens are simply fantstic for running multiple apps and provides enough performance to run multiple softwares without issue.
I imediately upgraded the built in memory to 8 gigs ddr3 1333, as this will improve multitasking functionality and provide almost desktop performance. I may invest in a faster system drive at a later date, I would not recomend ssd as there is only available drive bay, and I'm sure a 7200 rpm will provide a serious performance boost, as the 5400 rpm drives can lag at times. Not that Im not impressed with the standard 5400 rpm drive, it runs as fast as the last generations 7200 rpm, the buss speed is quite impressive!
I highly recomend investing in ObjectDock as these can add some the missing functionality from not having any hardware interface. It also alows for a far more comfortable experiance, being able to switch applications without need for the built in solutions, and not to mention, compleatly customizing your experiance. RocketDock is a free choice but does not allow task switching. The built in solutions are usable, but task switching can get tricky when both screens are in use. The keyboard is quite comfortable, especially for being a touchscreen, but I would not recomend it for heavy writing! I find this to be a "specialty" laptop and if you find yourself needing more destop on the go this laptop cannot be beat!
I see many complaints for the lack of extras, but in most cases the extras they removed do not hinder the experiance. Blutooth, DVD/BlueRay, and the general lack of friviouls features, in my humble opinion; have removed much of the lag and bloat that can severly hinder the response of the machine as a whole. The bloatware for this PC is non-existant, and the programs they did include generally improve the experance. Microsoft should be taking notes, as these are the missing elements needed to make a fully touchable Windows OS!
I use this machine strctly for DJing, and could not be happier, much of todays DAWs and softwares are quite "touchable". The lack of blaot, made for plenty of room to add USB devices without lag or much latency. I recomend disabling all power-saving featurs on your USB devices, but hard drives (they require it for parking the external drives heads), as this resolves many issues one can have from a saturated USB buss. This laptop is also quite a head turner, and again is one of the best designs I have ever seen!
Pro's:
Two screens!
Low bloat!
Gorrilla glass!
Added UI improves functionallity!
PCIe expansion!
Snappy performance!
Upgradeable!
Designed with Awsome!
Con's:
Needs external keyboard for some system errors. (Sometimes fixed simply by rebooting.)
The onscreen keyboard can sometimes lag.
4 gigs is the minimum, they should have used 8 gigs as the internal software uses a decent chunk of memory.
The built in task switcher is not stellar, but usable, ouside software easily enhances this.
Could use a few more USB slots.
No DVDrom/BlueRay for adding software, and external drive is nessasary.
No express port.
Recomended items/upgrades:
U.I. Software ObjectDock, RocketDock, or Tiles.
Upgrade the memory from 4 gigs, 8 gigs DDR3 1333 is well paired with this machine.
Internal HDD is very snappy, but a 7200rpm drive would boost performance by 10-20%.
Turn off USB power saving modes on everything but HDDs! This will save headaces!
USB 3 Hub!
42 of 56 found the following review helpful:
 On its way back to Amazon! Apr 21, 2011
By R. Redyk
"ReconTrojan"
I have wanted this since I saw the first ad in Wired Magazine. By accident I noticed Amazon had them in stock and at 1200 dollars it was a total impulse purchase.
Packing: A
Docs: B
Ease of setup: B plus
Like the other review the bottom screen is pretty tough to observe under most lighting conditions. I did like the software, virtual keyboard and apps, very well executed.
However, the fan...is-the-worst-fan-ever! Loud and I can actually change the pitch by pressing harder on the virtual keyboard. A deal breaker. Sure, this could be defective if I ignore all the other complaints about Acer fans but the straw that broke my back was Acer technical support. So three hours into ownership I called Acer, of course you have to recite a 22 digit S/N into a computerized system and hope that it can understand your inflections of your voice, it didn't for me until after 5 failed attempts.
I felt like a lottery winner when I was finally admitted entry into Acer technical support, unfortunately it was in India. After the standard banter that is borderline insane ( who writes this stuff for these people) he asks me to remove the back cover, I inform him page 5 of the guide says if back cover is removed your warranty is removed...his reply is saying he is sorry and to remove the back cover so we can " WE REMOVE THE KEYBOARD" I ask him if 1) he heard what I said 2) does he know what this product is...he apologizes for my difficulty and asks me to hold before hanging up on me.
At this point even if they sent me a perfect device I could not run the risk I would have to call Acer with a problem.
FYI you can be patched directly into sales in the US if you want to buy an extended warranty. ;)
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Great system but.......... Dec 20, 2011
By Thöm Frost
It takes time getting use to the on screen keyboard. I use the keyboard on my phone and its not as easy.
It has predictive text that you can turn on and off.
It comes with 4gb of ram but I up'ed that to 8gb.
The screens are very bright and crisp.
There is one big cover on the bottom that you can use to open it up and get to the memory and hard drive.
The Windows index score with the 8gb is:
Processor 6.9
Memory 6.9
Graphics 4.6
Gaming graphics 5.3
Hard Drive 5.9
What would make this system better?
SSD Drive
Nvidia or ATI Graphics, a nice Nvidia 460GTX would do wonders for this system.
Have the screen where it can rotate so you can use as a tablet on one of the screens.
A second gen i5 or i7 processor
The system is surprisingly heavy compared to my other systems.
A ultra book version of this system would be great.
A dual boot with Windows 7 and Android would be nice touch.
One issue I had with the system was that Windows updated the video drivers and the on screen keyboard didn't work and I had to get my USB keyboard out and roll back the drivers.
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