Acer Travelmate 8204WLMI Or Apple MacBook Pro

[ExtremeGamer09]

Apple is $2899

Acer is $1999

The same componets

Which one

 

[MichaelD]

I own an Acer TM4402WLMI (not positive on the alpha part of the model #, it's not in front of me ATM).

I paid $1200 for it on Newegg. For another $150, I bought a 1GB memory upgrade, for another $120 I extended the warranty to THREE years. So, $1470 total.

It's an awesome laptop; does everything I want it to, is stylish (IMO) and has given me zero probs so far.

Acer is where it's at.

ps
Just for comparision's sake, here's what it came with. I bought it six months ago, so take that into account.

AMD Turion64 1.6GHz (has Speedstep, varies b/t 800MHz and 1.6GHz, depending on load)
512MB PC2700
100GB, 5400rpm HD
X700 64MB videocard (not the best, but will play Quake4 at 1024x768, med detail)
15" widescreen LCD (1280x800 res)
4 USB 2.0 ports
1 Firewire port
5-1 card reader
Infrared port
PCMCIA slot
Built in B/G wireless with an excellent antenna. I pick up signals when others don't
WinXP Pro
Dual layer 16x CD/DVD burner
No spyware at ALL. Lots of useful proggys including a a CD/DVD burning program

 

[halfadder]

I love my MacBookPro, but for the price, the Acer is very tempting. It's also one of the few good looking notebooks on the market.

The specs don't compare perfectly. The MacBook's RAM is 25% faster. The Acer's display is higher resolution. The MacBook includes iLife 06 and QuickBooksPro. The Acer includes a Modem. The MacBook has a remote control, sudden motion sensor, and magnetic power connector. The Acer includes a memory card reader.

It's a toss-up, each has it's pros and cons. But one thing's for sure, the Acer is MUCH cheaper. For the same price as the MacBookPro, you could buy the Acer and upgrade to to a 7200 RPM drive and still have enough money left over to buy the student edition of the Adobe Creative Suite.

 

[ExtremeGamer09]

Whats the apple score in 3dmark05 at 1024x768 no aa or af?

I know the Acer scores a 4385

 

[halfadder]

Probably lower. MacBookPro's X1600 GPU and GFX RAM is underclocked by more than 100 MHz due to the thinner base and perhaps also to some manufacturing problems... a few Mac websites have torn apart some MacBookPros and found that the manufacturing process used WAY TOO MUCH thermal grease inbetween the chips and the heatpipe. My guess is Apple underclocked the GPU to solve some cooling issues. This can be re-clocked with ATITool, but is a pain.

 

[Smartazz]

Willing to spend more money, get the apple macbook.

 

[ExtremeGamer09]

i need at least 20 votes to help me decide!

 

[halfadder]

Work paid for my MacBookPro. If I had to buy a notebook for myself right now it would depend on my budget. If I could afford it, I would buy the MacBookPro all over again. If money was tight, I would get the Acer.

 

[Smartazz]

lol, it's still tied.

 

[ExtremeGamer09]

come on ppl i need votes!!!
lol

 

[ExtremeGamer09]

i need 9 more votes boys

 

[Walzber813]

i really like the acer 8200. 2gb of ram, x1600, and a 2ghz duo. thats a steal most definetely. the only thing keeping me from purchasing today is that I'm not sure how the acer service is, as far as tech support

 

[Bobthelost]

Acer, $900 difference is hard to justify when the cheaper laptop will do the job well enough.

 

[Looney]

Acer, just because it's $900 cheaper! But if money isn't an issue, MacbookPro

 

[phantom404]

I'm using the Acer right now as I type. I had my work get rid of my dual core desktop pentium and get me a laptop and I'm happy to say I made a great choice. Bluetooth,built in wireless a/b/g, built in 1.3 MP camera/web cam,2gb of ram, 120 gb HD, and a x1600 that can have up to 512 mb...ohhh and bult in card reader. Does everything thing I want it to and more. Also has vga and svdieo ports. It plays wow really well Play that at work alot when I have nothing to do.

 

[ExtremeGamer09]

i might do a little gaming on it but mostly business work since i am a doctor

 

[SparkyJJO]

I'd go acer because of price and because it is a PC. I don't like mac

 

[DannyBoy]

I've had an Acer laptop the past 2 and a half years and I haven't looked back.

 

[ExtremeGamer09]

thanks, for the votes ppl...I will probably be ordering the Acer in about a week or two off zipzoomfly, the price is still dropping its down to $1965.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe...jsp?ProductCode=265252&affiliate=yahoo

 

[SeanDonnelly]

I came accross this thread while doing some research on the Acer 8204WMLI. I am currently a Macbook Pro 2GHz owner and am going to be returning it. I am trying to decide what to buy. The MacBook Pro has a lot of issues which include annoying whine (particularly when on battery) odd mooing sound (yes it really does sound like a cow) incredible heat and issues with the wireless (resets every time it is powered off and often sluggish performance).

This does not even touch upon the fact that there is little software for MAC Universal so most software requires you to run under a Rosetta emulation or boot into a Windows XP parition using MAC Bootcamp. Yes it is nice that you can have a MAC that will boot into Windows XP, but honest I find myself running my MacBook Pro in Windows XP so often you start to wonder what you purchased a MAC for.

I was sooo excited when I purchased this thing. Thought it was a really nice machine until the problems started to kick in. I had read a lot about the problems on the MAC discussion forums, but thought I was one of the lucky ones that got a problem free MBP. Come to find out that the problems are rarely there when you first buy the MBP, they seem to come later on (maybe due to the heat) but it took about 2 weeks for them to show up. In any case you may want to look at the MAC forums before deciding, it may help sway you. Lots of unhappy folks in the forums who are on their second and third MBP with the same issues.

The lack of a modem didn't bother me with the MBP, but the slow SuperDrive with no support for dual layer may be an issue for you. What was definitely a shock for me though was not even a set target date from Adobe for Mac Universal support for Photoshop CS2 or the upcomming CS3. Coming from the PC world I thought I could live with running my Windows version of CS2 until CS3 came out with Mac Universal support, but it looks like that may not be the case and the wait may be longer than that.