 |
|
Opinion - The TravelMate 8100The new TravelMate 8100 not only lives up to its namesake, it surpasses last year's model in most every category. And last year's TravelMate 8000 was a pretty darn good notebook. With its 2-GHz Pentium M 760 and its 1GB of RAM, the TravelMate 8100 flies like a thoroughbred out of the gates. Even with this heart of a mobile champion under its hood, the 8100 does a relatively good job with battery life. In recent PCWorld.com tests, it held up to four hours on one charge. This was a half-hour less than the 8000, but who's counting?We're not, especially considering another new feature of this year's TravelMate: a widescreen 15.4-inch, 1680-by-1050 pixel display. We're talking more than enough desktop room to spread out your work in two, three windows, and crisp, clean resolution so you don't go blind after a few months of using the notebook. Then come the ports. The 8100 is loaded. In the front of bottom case, you'll find your headphone and microphone jacks, as well as a five-in-one card reader and your wireless communication buttons for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. On the sides, you'll find four USB ports, FireWire, S-Video, smart-card slot for security, and PC Card. A double-layer DVD burner is docked on the right side, but you can switch that out for extra hard drive space if needs be. And with Acer, you can expect some additional fine features in the software, such as a power-management tool that allows you ultimate control in how much juice your laptop gobbles up. There is also a buzz on the street regarding some of the ergonomic features of the new TravelMate, which includes a special 5 percent curve on the keyboard to protect your joints from carpal tunnel and a shorter (by 0.3 millimeters) key depression. You may be cranking out work so fast on the 8100, though, that you may not notice how comfortable your fingers are. Related article: - Travelmate 3000 from Acer wins design award By Matthew Brodsky Friday, August 12, 2005 |
- Laptopical - Apple Laptops - Acer Laptops - Cheap Laptops - Dell Laptops - HP Compaq Laptops - Fujitsu Laptops - Laptop Reviews - IBM Laptops - Toshiba Laptops - Sony Vaio Laptops - About us - Site map |