Acer TravelMate 290 Notebook PC (1.4 GHz Pentium M, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW )

Rating:
Summary: Value and performance for the buck!
Review: Acer has come a long way with its 290 series. This particular model seems to be a genuine winner with its unbelieveable price.
Out of the box the Acer looks sleek with no real curves. It has sleek styling with a titanium alloy lid with sturdy gray contrasting plastic base. It looks like a block, very stylish and comtemporary, somthing like Bang and Olufsen would put out.
Startup time is really unbelieveable at a staggering 29 seconds (XP Pro). Applications run smooth and trouble free. The 64 MB shared video RAM is utilized well with no real performance hindrance. When I used dual display at 1024 pixels the output was slightly choppy on DVD video, but on any single screen it is smooth and flowing.
The real advantage with this model is that it incorporates wireless / wired ethernet, firewire port, 3 USB ports and still allows room for expansion via the PCMCIA slot. Not only that but it also comes with a DVD and CD burner with rewritable capabilities. Battery life on normal use with speakers playing mp3's is a long long 4 hours minimum.
My only two real complaints with this laptop was the display options are limited (XGA Maximum - 1024 by 768). Would be perfect to get this with the SXGA screen but I guess thats a slight let down. The other small problem was that there is no physical buttons for adjusting the volume, but rather has to be done using the function key on the keyboard. Hence half a point for each had to be removed from the 5 total.
Overall, the Centrino provides for a great mobile computing experience with its exceptional battery life. Graphics are good, by no means the best, and everything works smoothly out of the box. Also this was a great buy since it comes with the Acer one year warranty that is applicable internationally. 4 stars, well done Acer, well done.

Rating:
Summary: Value and performance for the buck!
Review: Acer has come a long way with its 290 series. This particular model seems to be a genuine winner with its unbelieveable price.
Out of the box the Acer looks sleek with no real curves. It has sleek styling with a titanium alloy lid with sturdy gray contrasting plastic base. It looks like a block, very stylish and comtemporary, somthing like Bang and Olufsen would put out.
Startup time is really unbelieveable at a staggering 29 seconds (XP Pro). Applications run smooth and trouble free. The 64 MB shared video RAM is utilized well with no real performance hindrance. When I used dual display at 1024 pixels the output was slightly choppy on DVD video, but on any single screen it is smooth and flowing.
The real advantage with this model is that it incorporates wireless / wired ethernet, firewire port, 3 USB ports and still allows room for expansion via the PCMCIA slot. Not only that but it also comes with a DVD and CD burner with rewritable capabilities. Battery life on normal use with speakers playing mp3's is a long long 4 hours minimum.
My only two real complaints with this laptop was the display options are limited (XGA Maximum - 1024 by 768). Would be perfect to get this with the SXGA screen but I guess thats a slight let down. The other small problem was that there is no physical buttons for adjusting the volume, but rather has to be done using the function key on the keyboard. Hence half a point for each had to be removed from the 5 total.
Overall, the Centrino provides for a great mobile computing experience with its exceptional battery life. Graphics are good, by no means the best, and everything works smoothly out of the box. Also this was a great buy since it comes with the Acer one year warranty that is applicable internationally. 4 stars, well done Acer, well done.