Acer Aspire 5633WKMi laptop

The Aspire features Vista Home Premium, a 1.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 and a 120GB hard drive. The Acer achieved a WorldBench score of 54 points but was outperformed by the rest of the pack. And we were surprised to find it could offer only 16fps in our gaming tests, despite having an nVidia GeForce Go 7300 graphics chip.

Acer Aspire 5633WKMi

With mostly metallic black-edged styling throughout both exterior and interior, the 5633WKMI feels well built, with a solid optical disc drive. Its keypad is average sized, but the spacebar and Enter key are a little small. We found the keys provided too much resistance and were spongy, making typing difficult.

Placing the speakers at the front has helped to make the sound more resonant. It also creates room for quick-access buttons at the rear of the keyboard and space to rest your palms at the front. Practical media and volume-control buttons are located next to the keyboard, but are close together and tricky to select. There's no scrolling panel, but a directional control device allows for minute vertical or horizontal movements.

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Connecting to a, b and g wireless networks, the 5633WKMI has a useful switch to disable the wireless LAN, with another to activate Bluetooth. Its range of ports include four USB sockets, a VGA port and a five-in-one card reader. There's even a rotating 1.3Mp (megapixel) webcam for video conferencing.

The glossy screen suffers from poor viewing angles and light reflection, but on the whole is sharp with true colour reproduction. Although the Acer doesn't have the smallest dimensions, it is a light and perfectly portable entertainment laptop.
Test performance

* WorldBench 6 benchmark score: 54;
* Battery life: 81 minutes;
* Games test: 16 fps.

Verdict

Aspire 5633WKMi laptop

The Acer Aspire 5633WKMi laptop features Vista Home Premium, a 1.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 and a 120GB hard drive. It's a well-specified, light and cost-effective laptop.