My Acer Travelmate 8200 review

[Hyperlite]

Sorry It took me so long guys, here is my review of the Acer Travelmate 8200.


Fit and Finish
The first thing that struck me was how gorgeous this thing is. Carbon fibre lid with black and chrome accents?what more could you want? It is very thin, 1? at the front and 1.6? at the back. Everything has a good, solid feel to it. Lid latches are solid and actuate smoothly, keyboard is perfect IMO. In general, it is just a great looking machine. Button layout inside is fine, no complaints?4 programmable hotkeys across the top next to the power button, pretty generic layout, but presented very tastefully. The Windows XP sticker at the bottom left has been modified with a small portion at the bottom that says?are you ready for this?...?Windows Vista Capable.? I found that pretty exciting. Front bezel has two long speakers behind honeycomb-like grills, two status lights for battery/power, jacks for headphones (S/PDIF), mic, etc., multicard reader, on/off toggle sliders for wifi and Bluetooth (very handy), firewire port. Left and right sides both have 2 usb ports, right side also has smartcard slot, RJ45, VGA out, and the main air vent. Left side has PCMCIA?s, DVD combo drive, and RJ11. I really like the display, resolution is great, screen is clear and bright. IMO, newegg has the best pictures, and Laptop Logic has the best professional review.


Operation

General Operation
Boot time: 22 seconds
Shutdown time: 17 sec
Superpi-30 sec

General performance is as to be expected from a 2ghz dual core 2GB ram machine. No waiting for pretty much anything. All windows applications, Office 2003, WMP, and firefox function as fast as they possibly could.

Using the Function button and the ?F? keys, you can do lots of neat things including display switching, bring up power options, sleep/hibernate/disable touchpad/disable LCD backlight. Volume and display brightness are controlled by sliders in software or by Fn+direction keys.

Gaming
I wasn?t quite sure what to expect here, but I am very impressed. I?m playing HL2 at high quality, full HDR, 2x AA, 1680x1050 smooth as butter. Same goes for oblivion, though I do occasionally dip to lower frame rates, where it just barely becomes noticeable. Oblivion is particularly hard on this system?both cores stay above 80% constantly, and ram usage peaks out at about 600MB.

Wireless reception is good, though I don?t really have anything to compare it to. Battery life, in my opinion, is great for a system this powerful. I can get just over 3 ½ hours. I have to compliment acer on their system software, I really like all its functionality. The camera actually takes remarkably good pictures, as well as video, and is extremely easy to use.


I can?t think of much else, fire away with questions.

 

[AmigaMan]

Nice! what did you pay for it and where did you buy it? Also, you need pics man!

 

[ubercaffeinated]

Heat issues? I heard it runs hot, ejecting hot air around the back right side, and also that it can get slightly loud.

Also, how is it for portability? Sturdy? Can you see yourself carrying it around daily? Awesome lappy

 

[6000SUX]

Congrats!!!

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: makoto00
Heat issues? I heard it runs hot, ejecting hot air around the back right side, and also that it can get slightly loud.

Also, how is it for portability? Sturdy? Can you see yourself carrying it around daily? Awesome lappy

i am having this really wierd problem, only in halflife, where it will sort of freeze. its not like a hard lockup, the screen freezes and the sound loops, like a CD skipping. i thought it may be overheating, but i've tried to prove it and it seems to happen almost randomly. As far as the vent thing goes, it does blow a good bit of hot air (not loudly though, this thing is dead silent unless you are playing oblivion) from the right rear side, but i have NEVER found my mouse hand back there or found it bothersome in any other manner.

its extremely sturdy, extremely thin for the power it packs, and i could definantly see myself (and will be) carrying it around all day, every day.

btw, got a 29 sec Superpi yesterday.

sorry about lack of pics...believe it or not, the only digital camera i have is the one in the lid of this lappy.

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: AmigaMan
Nice! what did you pay for it and where did you buy it? Also, you need pics man!

I got it from Zipzoomfly for $2150. IIRC, the prices have come down somemore.

 

[JE78]

How did the format and install of XP Pro go? Did you have that hidden partition?

 

[Walzber813]

sounds like an awesome maching. how is the service on acers? i've heard they are known for pretty bad tech support.

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: JE78
How did the format and install of XP Pro go? Did you have that hidden partition?

i actually didn't do it. i left it in fat32, i just had too many worries about reformatting my brand new machine, and i wasn't sure how many times i had used the copy of windows that i have.

as far as service goes, i have also heard a few horror stories. I hope that in the event something should go wrong, they can live up to their products.

 

[AmigaMan]

The service and support issue is why I went with a MacBookPro. While that Acer looks like a really nice machine (and has a really good price), since I use my laptop for work, I really need to have quick and top-notch service in the event something goes wrong.

 

[Hyperlite]

thats perfectly understandable. if this machine was crucial to my day to day operation, i would definantly have gone with a company with a more pronounced service record.

 

[Walzber813]

ok..so for a guy who wants a nice machine for school, but the ability to game as well. maybe not the acer?

 

[Hyperlite]

if you've got the cash for the macbookpro, i'd say go for it. i would recommend the acer if someone wanted to spend around $2k.

 

[Walzber813]

the 2ghz macbook pro is 1799 with educational discount...so for very similar prices. which one would you guys recommend...acer or mac?

 

[Hyperlite]

yeah but the 2ghz MBP is in no way comperable to the tm8200, except for processor. an equally configured mbp is still $2700, so like $2500 with discount. even then, you're still at a lower resolution screen, two less USB ports, no internal modem....but you're gaining killer service and reliability. so i guess i'm going back to what i said before, if you have the cash, get the MBP.

 

[corkyg]

Good info. But - how much does it weigh with the battery installed? Can't find that in any of the Acer ads. How many cells in the battery?

 

[abakshi]

I've been looking around at a bunch of different Core Duo machines, and the 8200 is looking pretty nice spec-wise.

I'm concerned about a few things though -- the first thing being where the heck can I go check it out? CompUSA only sells it online, Micro Center has it listed in their internal system (as 0 stock) but neither in stores nor online, and no one else seems to have it (Worst Buy, Circuit City, Costco, J&R, everywhere else I checked). I really don't want to buy a laptop without seeing it in person...

As for the machine itself, how is the build quality? Since I couldn't see the 8200, I spent some time looking at other things, like the Acer 4670, which is also a 15.4" Core Duo line, with lower specs all around. I didn't like that at all - the exterior was too plasticky and flexible, with a very cheap feel and look. The keyboard was kinda iffy, but I guess I could get used to it. Screen was nothing special, and overall appearance was just plain and boring. Is the 8204 built better than that?

For appearance, I don't need a bright-yellow-painted screaming-for-attention monster, but I'd like something with a nice sophisticated design and a solid chassis.

My primary laptop at the moment is a WinBook J4 (P4 3.0 HT, 1 GB DDR, 60 GB, 15.1" 1400x1050, ATI MR9000, Wifi, DVD-RW, etc.), which has been absolutely awesome over the last 2.5 years or so that I've had it. It has a metal casing on the inside and a relatively large and firm keyboard, so that's my reference point for comparison.

I'm also considering getting a bigger 17" widescreen DTR instead, as mobility is not quite the most important factor for my uses, and there are faster graphics options available (e.g. 7900GTX, hopefully X1900 at some point).

 

[Hyperlite]

if you are considering getting a full blown dtr, just get a E1705 or something and do a gfx mod. the build quality of the tm8200 is, in my opinion, excellent. its design is just gorgeous. the lid is carbon-fibre, with black and chrome accents. Check out laptoplogic's review, thats the best review i have found so far. i didn't look at it in person before i got it, but read soo many reviews and looked at so many pictures i felt as though i had a good idea of what i was dealing with.