I Am Kitty - Hear Me Roar!

Firstly, before we begin, we like to apologize in advance for the inevitable cat jokes that are bound to appear in our next few pages. Rest assured though, we haven't actually turned into a 'icanhascheezburger' fansite, it's just that we couldn't resist the puns. But given the fact that the unit today is based on AMD's Puma (a much bigger cat) platform, and that cat jokes are bound to happen anyway, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Let's start with a quick recap: AMD's Puma platform was launched at Computex 2008 (which we covered) and made its way to our sunny shores just earlier last month, hot on the heels of Intel's Centrino 2 launch. AMD's performance in the notebook category has been lackluster thus far, so it's good to see that they are putting some efforts into staying competitive in the mobile computing category that has been dominated by Intel in recent years.

One thing AMD has going for them of course, is the relatively low cost of their hardware, which means manufacturers can then pass on the savings to you. Case in point is the focus of this review, the Acer Aspire 5530G, which as part of their Aspire line up, features both looks and affordability. Do note that the lower cost of the AMD platform can and may come with a slight performance trade off, but more on that later. Let's see what the Aspire 5530G has in store for potential buyers.

The Acer Aspire 5530G comes with rounded curves and a slick, glossy feel.

The front of the unit hides a 5-in-1 card reader and the catch that keeps the cover in place.

The right side plays host to the the USB ports, optical drive, the TV tuner antenna port and modem jack.

The left side seems more packed with two more USB ports, the Acer EasyPort IV connector, the LAN port, the analog video port, a HDMI port, the headphone and microphone jacks, volume control and an ExpressCard slot.