Review Of Acer Travelmate 8003LCi

Review Of Acer TravelMate 8003LCi

Introduction

Acer Travelmate 8003LCi

The Acer TravelMate 8003LCi come up with some new technolgies like high-end ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 graphics chip, 802.11b/g WLAN and a high resolution 15” SXGA display. With these features It also includes a DVI (!) port, Bluetooth, a smart card reader. The keyboard is ergonomically designed.

The graphics chip has just 64 MB memory, whereas the top models are equipped with a 128 MB variant. If someone is not satisfied with the processor speed and with DVD writer then the user can get more by paying extra.The notebook have round surfaces. The body is of grey color and keypad buttons are of silver color. The body looks like of rubber made.
ubber.

The Acer 8003LCi also includes some security features. It includes smart card and some security features to lock the notebook. When user insert the enclosed smart card in the side of the notebook, the notebook will either check the smart card during the boot sequence or at Windows logon.
The Acer Travelmate 8003LCi has following specification:

  • Operating System :Windows XP Pro DK
  • Processor :1600 MHz Mobile Intel Pentium-M 725 (Centrino)
  • RAM :512 MB DDR RAM
  • Harddrive :60 GB 4200 RPM HD
  • Optical drive :CD-RW/DVD drev
  • Graphics chip :ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 with 64MB DDR-RAM
  • Display :15.1" TFT SXGA (1400x1050)
  • Ports :V.90 modem, 10/100/1000 Mbit network card, Bluetooth, IEEE1394 Firewire, 802.11g wireless network card
  • Battery :Li-Ion
  • Weight :2.9 kg
  • Other Card reader: 4-in-1

Keyboard & Hotkeys

Acer Travelmate 8003LCi keypad view
keypad view

The Acer Travelmate 8003LCi have curved design as mentioned earlier.The keypad keys are of sufficient size and quite responsive. The keys include a window key among other things, there is a Window, large enter keys key and as usual Ctrl button in the left corner. Working on keypad is really a good experience. There are two hotkeys on the front to the right of the card reader. These are for turning the wireless network card and Bluetooth on and off. Other hotkeys are the four buttons at the top of the keyboard for optional applications – such as browser and email.

Screen

Acer Travelmate 8003LCi screen view
screen view

The screen is of 15.1” SXGA display with 1400 * 1050. The color contrast is really nice. The brightness can be adjusted. Because of this the battery consumption can be decreased. It also includes DVI port. This makes it possible to transfer the image signal to flat-panel displays digitally, which will be common on the notebooks of the future. In case anyone is wondering if Acer has abandoned the common VGA port, have no fear – it is right next to the DVI port. TV-out (S-Video) is of course standard on a high-end notebook like this, and it is controlled via the built-in ATI driver.

Various Ports available

Acer Travelmate 8003LCi right view
right side

Acer Travelmate 8003LCi left side
left side

There are 4 USB 2.0 ports on the left side, which leaves plenty of connection options for camera, printer and other plug & play units. Because all the ports are on the left side so the usability somewhat decrease as compared to those notebooks whose ports are distributed.

  • 4 USB 2.0
  • 1 Infrared (FIR)
  • 1 VGA for external monitor
  • 1 32 bit type II PCMIA Card Bus slot
  • 1 S-video out (NTSC/PAL)
  • 1 DC-in jack for AC adapter
  • 1 DVI - Digital port
  • 1 4-in-1 card reader
  • 1 100-pin port replicator connector
  • 1 IEEE 1394 port
  • 1 RJ-11 jack
  • 1 RJ-45 jack
  • 1 Smart Card slot
  • 1 speaker/ headphone/ line-out jack
  • 1 microphone/ line-in jack

Battery backup and Performance

The battrey backup is really marvelous. After testing it was foundout that it can work approx 5 hrs which is very rarely heard of. The orocessor performance is really impressive.

According to MobileMark 2002 Battery Rating the following results came out:
In minutes ------higher is better


Acer Travelmate 8003LCi---------------304

Asus A3500N----------------------265

Zepto 4200-------------------253

ABook 3000TXi--------------252

Toshiba Sattelite M30----231

Asus M6800Ne-----231

Mitac 8050D---- 184

The above comparison chart shows that Acer Travelmate has the highest battery backup (304 min) which is 5 hrs 4 minutes. The Toshiba sateelite M30
can work for only 231 minutes unplugged.Because of the battery longivity Acer Travelmate is really liked by users who are mostly unplugged.

Comparison between Acer Travelmate 8003LCi and Toshiba Satellite A-200-E530:

Screen: There is a minor difference between the two screens. The Acer 8003LCi have 15.1" screen and Satellite A-200-E530 have 15.4" screen.

Look: The sattelite A-200-E530 is glossy onyx blue and 8003LCi is of grey and silver mixture. The office users like Acer more because of its color.

Battery backup: The Acer 8003LCi works for 5 hrs unplugged which is really more than any notebook of Toshiba.

Operating System :Acer 8003LCi comes with Windows XP Pro and satellite A-200-E530 have Windows Vista. The users who usually worked on Windows XP prefer Acer. And who wants to work on new platform like A-200-E530.

Conclusion

Each notebook have some pros and cons associated with it. Where its battery longevity and its processor performance impressed the users and in other side its warranty of 1 yr dissapoint the users. The performance is really good for office applications and for graphics users.The smart card interface with security functions, DVI port and a quite reasonable price tag compared to the competitors – makes it the first choice of users.

Pros:

  • Long battery longevity.
  • Great keyboard and finish.
  • Reasonable price.
  • Excellent performance in games and office applications.

Cons:

  • Poor warranty.