Acer have put together a well featured notebook at a great price, coming in over $300 lower than our price cap and offering a DVD burner and 2.8GHz P4 processor for maximum grunt. Despite the inclusion of a 4-speed DVD writer, this unit only boasts RADEON 9000 IGP shared memory graphics, a little less than ideal for gaming, but more than adequate for 2D display and some basic 3D usage. Rear mounting all four of the USB ports makes them hard to access, but this is a minor quibble. Despite its hefty 2.8GHz processor, the Extensa ranked in the bottom third in PCMark04 but climbed three places to eighth during graphics testing to sit around the middle of the pack. Battery life was a little low, managing only 111 minutes, the lowest scoring notebook in our roundup. However, what it lacks in performance it makes up for in service, Acer offering a two-hour RTB warranty and 72-hour service centre turn-around time.