Acer Laptops - Why so cheap?

[Skoodog]

My parents are in the market for a new laptop to replace the ancient POS dell they have now...and I found this:

ACER TM2303WLCI-855-XPH

I like it. I really really like it. BUT...

I also have read multiple posts about how crappy celerons are...what really IS the difference? Is it going to be a big deal with the types of things they do (mostly Word, web/email, solitaire and the occasional airplane DVD)?

I've googled to hell and back trying to find any info in regards to this laptop but there's nothing out there.

Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Peter007]

EASY, THAT IS BECAUSE YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO SPEND EXTRA $100 FOR
a normal battery. This sucker only comes witha 4 CELL = really short battery life!

don't believe the 2hr claims, if you used WIFI, cut that into 1 hour

A decent laptop should come with 6-8 cell battery minimum.
My Bestbuy's Toshiba $499 laptop comes with a 8 cell.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPEC
Battery Type 4-cell Lithium Ion battery pack
Average Battery Life 2 hours

 

[Skoodog]

K, then what do you think about this one?

ACER Notebook TM4000LCi Pentium M 710 1.4GHz

This one has a 5 hour battery life. I like this one but it doesn't have the 15.4 screen which is key for movies...this one is also a bit pricier, but from what you are telling me, maybe it's worth it.

Laptops are definitely not my expertise, so I appreciate the info!

 

[fbrdphreak]

The second Acer is a better choice, esp 'cuz it now has a Pentium M processor instead of the Celeron M. The Celeron M's are adequate for basic usage, but P-M's are much better. On either notebook, go to eBay or FS/FT and spend $20-$30 and get yourself another 256MB of RAM. That will make a huge diff, as Windows uses a lot of that 256MB just booting up.
Basically I see it as two choices:
Acer #1 Positives--15.4" Negatives--Celeron M, Battery, 256MB
Acer #2 Positives--Pentium M, Battery Negatives--15", 256MB

 

[WuGahCha]

and i'd like to know why acer ferrari is so expensive, its like paying $1000 for the red paint!!!!

 

[Peter007]

because the word "Ferrari" cost extra $1000

Anyhow, the second ACER is SUPERB! Buy it and let us know what you think of it

 

[Skoodog]

Will do...It's for my parents, but since I'll be home a few days I'll get to tinker w/ it for a little while as well...and good thing too, my MBA program will need a laptop soon!

Anyone happen to know what kind of RAM this laptop takes? I want to do like fbrdfreak said and get another 256Mb stick. I can't really find where that info is as to what type it takes.

 

[JMoore]

P-Ms can "throttle down" so when you don't need all of your CPU's processing power it turns into a lower setting. Therefore saving a lot of battery life. Also the new P-Ms have 2mbs of L@ cache (very important). Basically cellys in general are crap, and P-Ms were designed from the ground up for laptops/ notebooks. The P-M is worth w/e extra you pay.

 

[Peter007]

I've wouldn't call the CELERON M CRAP!
Since they are just PENTIUM M - with less cache.
My Celeron 340 runs COLD, and the 512K cache really kick butt over the older Celerons D.

What I don't understand is why is INTEL still sticking to the same ugly CELERON NAME?
So far they had
1. Celeron 266 (without cache....the worst CPU ever made)
2. Celeron 300a - much improve with 128K on-board cache, kick butt over PII
* However, why the same name?
3. Celeron PPGA Socket 370 (300mhz - 533mhz)
4. coppermine Celeron II (533mhz - 1100mhz)
5. tualatin Celeron (aka PIII with 256K cache) (1000mhz - 1400mhz)
6. P4 - Celeron (1.7 - 2.8)
7. P4- CELERON D
8. CELERON M - based on the Pentium M

Why not all this Celeron VIII

 

[JeFTuX]

For $699

Its Best buy i guess its got Widescreen 15.4 and Wireless for this price

The celeron M would almost give the same perfomance of Pentium M only problem is battery life

Check this article about about Celeron M

http://www20.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040309/

 

[trungthiendo]

its not that cheap...

u are gonna spend some money upgrading to a new batter with a higher power capacity, that and add another 256 mb of ram...i do not know if the acer is 128x2 or 256x1

it will be close to 900 after the upgrades...

the proc itself isn't bad, its a pentium M with "speedstep" disabled, and half the cache of the old pentium M...

it performs on par, but just has less battery life...

 

[uOpt]

Well, many people almost always have A/C plugged in when using their notebook and use the battery to look up a phone number real quick, or to run from one conference room to the next.

For people like that a 4-cell battery and a Celeron-M is perfectly fine.

 

[Skoodog]

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
Well, many people almost always have A/C plugged in when using their notebook...q]

I would think that the main reason of having a 15.4" dispy is to watch dvds at a good AR in a portable setting. That makes your battery drained before you're through a 2-hr movie...which is annoying. I doubt if it has any real advantage over a 15" for anything else otherwise. I could be wrong though.

This makes the battery life a key argument. I'm already not that stoked about tracking down another 256MB module for it.

Speaking of (yet again throwing myself on the mercy of AT gurus), I'm completely devoid on what kind of RAM I should be getting, or in a laptop how speed of RAM plays a factor, or if that's even an option. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: WuGahCha
and i'd like to know why acer ferrari is so expensive, its like paying $1000 for the red paint!!!!

Show me a laptop that's 6lbs with a 9700 and Athlon 64 that is $1000 cheaper. Not too many of them out there i bet... and i've handled the Ferrari... even though i despise the color and the Ferrari logo, it's a nicely built laptop, especially considering when it was released.

 

[RaNDoMMAI]

how is the screen on the 2nd acer?

it is as good as sony xbrite or toshiba trubrite? i acually dont like HP HD brightscreen at all. It seems dark to me.

~RaNDoM

 

[uOpt]

Originally posted by: Skoodog

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
Well, many people almost always have A/C plugged in when using their notebook...

I would think that the main reason of having a 15.4" dispy is to watch dvds at a good AR in a portable setting. That makes your battery drained before you're through a 2-hr movie...which is annoying. I doubt if it has any real advantage over a 15" for anything else otherwise. I could be wrong though.

This makes the battery life a key argument. I'm already not that stoked about tracking down another 256MB module for it.

Speaking of (yet again throwing myself on the mercy of AT gurus), I'm completely devoid on what kind of RAM I should be getting, or in a laptop how speed of RAM plays a factor, or if that's even an option. Anyone have any thoughts?

Well, if you know you want to watch DVD movies on battery, then you should not get a Celeron-M and no 4-cell battery.

For centrino notebooks there is probably no benefit at all from playing different RAM options (aside from size, of course).

 

[uOpt]

Actually scratch that Celeron-M remark. The Celeron-M is missing the powersaving features that apply when the CPU is idle. While you are decoding a movie the Celeron-M and Pentium-M might draw about the same power.

 

[Skoodog]

Well, Merry Christmas all! I'm sitting here w/ that Acer laptop on my lap typing away...can't possibly be any more pleased...the keyboard is probably the best laptop kb I've ever used, wifi was a dream to set up (nabbed a last-minute present for the 'rents at BB - a $10 d-Link 54Mbps wireless router). Not altogether sure whether I should accredit the ease of setup to D-Link or Acer, but considering I had to reinstall XP Pro on both of my roommates to get their wifi to work on their HP laptops and only one of which was successful...

But I digress. Anyways, light, fast, long battery, etc. It seems a little wide for a 15", but that could just be me.

Next question - How do I find out which type of RAM is good for upgrade on this thing? Can't find anything on Acer's website about upgrades, nor anything in the documentation.

Any help on this issue would be most appreciated!