Acer 8204 experiance

Can't you just lower the resolution of the screen to something like 1024x768 in the Control Panel to enlarge everything?

 

still waiting on it. it has been at Acer repair a few days longer this time!

 

I got my TM 8204 3 days ago. so far so good. The net work connection is working fine, no buzzing noise from the video card, screen is fine. have not tried the VoIP phone yet. I was kind of nervous about getting this notebook after reading some of the user opinions, however so far so good, I guess the problems were only in the first batch on computers.

 

What is the manufacturing date of your laptop *menas*?

 

Ok, i ordered my Acer TM8204WLMi from CDW Canada on the 28th... With taxes and everything it came to $2736 canadian. I have been reading these forums for a while and i notice that lots of people are having difficulties with the LCD, networking and even some graphics issues. On the other hand everyone has been saying that the machine itself is ultra-fast in all aspects including games like BF2 and even F.E.A.R. I game a lot so this is important to me. I have called CDW (great company by the way, excellent customer service) and they said that the laptop is almost here. As soon as i get it, i will let you all know what issues are present with the factory drivers and settings. Then i will try and change the HD to NTFS, update the EEPROM, BIOS, and the X1600. If i succeed, i will tell you if it solved the issues (if any are present). However, the overall feedback on this laptop that i have been getting is very positive.

 

I'll be waiting for your review before buying one!

 

Homie, the short answer is "No"

LCD displays are completely different from the old style desktop monitors we are used to. An LCD physically can not change it's resolution, ever. It's a limitation of the LCD technology.

However, of course, in windows you can move the resolution slider to different resolutions. On a CRT monitor, the actual CRT changes its resolution, so picture quality is not affected.

However, on an LCD, since the display can not change resolution, the graphics card simply scales the Windows Desktop environment down or up depending on which way you move the slider, (like scaling a bitmap). The picture quality gets bad when you do this. Fuzzy edges, etc.

Windows Vista is SUPPOSED to address this function by offering vector based scaling. But thats still in the future.

 

Thank you very much skypine27 for explaining that to me

 

Today my TM8204WLMi has finally arrived. It was ordered on March 27th 2006 from CDW in Illinois. I havent powered it on yet - no time... so just wait a bit

The Packaging:
It came with Norton AntiVirus 2006 CD. Thats pretty funny because that wasnt mentioned anywhere on the site. Quite a sweet surprise. There is a cloth to cleen the screen, a VoIP phone, Smart Card software CD and two Smart Cards (security). Some documentation - not too much. Obviously a powercord with an adapter are included. Everything is neatly packaged, securily held by two styro-foam holders inside a biefcase-like box. Very good. The only negative that i could find is the lack of Windows XP SP2 Pro CD... Its not included in the package... But i guess thats how they dicrease the overall price of the laptop... The box has a sticker on it with some specs of the computer and it mentions that the latest bios drivers are installed. Overall: 4.5/5 (no XP)

The Build:
I have heard many complaints about the 8204 series laptops... Actually i was very worried when i discovered that there are so many possible issues. So when i opened the box and took the laptop out... i was amazed. Its probably the best looking and the most well-built laptop i have ever seen. There are no cracks, spaces between seperate parts, noises and difficulties when tilting the screen, nothing falls of out its place, not a single scratch ANYWHERE. Actually, there was even a pad placed between the screen and the keyboard in order to prevent the screen from accidentally being scratched by the keyboard. My powerbook G4 (2004) came by far underequipped and less-solidly built compared to the 8204. The build is VERY solid, the plastic doesnt feel "cheap", the overall look of the laptop is amazing. The WebCam rotates 360 around its axis. When my friends saw the laptop, they used words like: CIA and Sex. I can see why Acer won the design award for the 8204. I was pleased to discover that the laptop is "designed for XP and ready for Vista" (sticker on the chassis Overall: 5/5 for sure.

Now im just gonna wait until classes are over and go see what its like when turned on. Its charging right now

 

Well be sure to tell us all about it when you do. I'm a very happy 8204 owner.

- Ed

 

I second EdF's notion.. I'm a very happy 8204 user, love my new machine.

The only real negative I have is the expresscard slot card falls out occasionally (well it doesn't fall out, but is very easy to pull out by mistake).

 

K, finally got to use it.
To tell you the truth, i have seen quite a few powerful laptops in action... alienware and all them... but this... Its incredible
First thing i did was install BF2 and the expansion pack and updated them. Set everything to High, 1024x860 and full antiliasing. works like a charm. no glitches, nothing... excellent performance.
To make a long sotry short - it is a stunning machine. It installed all the software pretty much by itself, set everything up - very user friendly. Unfortunately the norton antivirus's auto update feature expires in 90 days. It has no light leakage, no wierd noises made by the graphics card, none of that nonsense at all. The only thing i noticed is the ENORMOUS amount of heat thats being blown out of the right side - right onto my mouse hand. Im going to have to get used to that... I havent noticed the 5400rpm harddrive beign a problem either... BF2 loaded faster than on my Western Digital 120 7200rpm desktop...
This machine was worth waiting for. Any questions... feel free.

 

Two thoughts...

One, why are you keeping your hand right next the heat vent? I would have thought even with a mouse you don't have to keep it right next to the vent.

Secondly, why is the fan always on? Is it just when playing BF2? I find mine DOES blow a lot of hot air when playing EQ2, however almost all other programs do NOT cause the fan to even turn on in general, let alone blow lots of hot air.

 

Same here - the fans blow only with graphically intense games, and then not very hard or loud. And the fan vent is toward the right rear, further back than I typically have my mouse positioned at. No problem for me, at all!

 

Well the fan works at all times - during gaming or during internet browsing. however the intensity varies greatly. During gaming it works like a jet turbine and during regular usage it works very quitely and blows out little heat. Whatever, its not an issue really.
Do i need all this Acer junk on my laptop? I have all these empowring tools, converting tools, whatever tools, RAM-Eating tools and processor-killing utilities. LOL. During regular windows usage (nothing running but the Acer apps), i hit 500 mb of RAM usage... Its not a performance issue, nothing is affected, but seriously - 500mb is a lot for just running windows...

 

Windows XP uses around that much. Its pretty typical. A lot of those Acer utilities are quite useful, especially power management, webcam utility, eNet management for easily managing WiFi connections, eRecovery management, eSettings management. They use little to no processor and very little ram. You must be used to dealing with systems that have only a little memory. I tax my 8204 pretty heavily at times, Opera browser, email utilities, Word processing, file transfers running in the background and photoshop working on multiple images at 900 DPI (i tried this all at the same time once to see how this would load the system) Processors were at around 40% and RAM usage only came up to 1.5GB. For everyday usage, typically 5 or 6 apps running and a lot of stuff running in the background (firewall, antivirus, acer apps, mailwasher) RAM usage is only around 650-750MB. Only twice have i gone past the 1GB barrier. There is RAM to spare in this machine. And as soon as 2GB modules arrive, you can add even more.

To see how your system really uses resources, go to www.sysinternals.com and download their Process Explorer (only 1.4MB in size, nothing to install just run the executable). Use it in place of your task manger (Under Options, check Replace Task Manager) and add all the columns you want to the display to give you an extremely detailed view of what your system is doing. Here is a screenshot of mine. notice the apps i have running and the amount of resources used. This system has a lot of headroom, just enjoy it. If you use it for gaming as well as a lot of other stuff, why not create another user profile for gaming that has minimal background processes running.

 

Yeah you hit the spot. I have 512 RAM on my desktop back home so im used to having 1-2 "big" processes running in the background (antivirus, and video graphics control center... lol). Im going to have to get used to the roomy 8204 and its potential power... which remains unused the whole time. Thanx for the tip on creating a seperate profile for gaming, didnt think of that one. Its a good idea and i will put it to use.

 

Is it really needed? I game on mine pretty much still at base configuration.

My major update is dropping the virtual memory to 0, why bother with it, I'm really unlikely to hit up to 2GB of RAM.

Oh, and running EQ2 the processor stay at around 40%, pretty nice.. hopefully they will improve it to work with dual cores sometime...

 

Wow, I've been reading all of the 8204 threads on this site. Artem1985il's review (from this site) really scared me off this pc about two weeks ago. But after looking at everything else out there and getting the shaft from Dell on my E1705 order, I'm reconsidering the 8204 again.

I originally ordered a Dell E1705 with the Intel T2500, 2 GB PC5300 RAM, 80 GB 7200rpm HDD, and the Go 7800. After waiting 4 weeks, they called me and said not to expect my laptop until the end of May! No thanks.

As for other options, I have looked at the HP nx9420, Dell M90, Toshiba P105, and even the Mac Book Pro with Boot Camp. No matter which computer I choose, I seem to make some huge sacrifice. The T2500 version of the HP does not come with Brightview (unlike the T2300 version) or DVI outputs. The Dell M90 only comes with Quadro cards. The Toshiba was unimpressive at Circuit City. And lastly, the Mac Book Pro is just wierd for Windows. For example, you need a patch to allow you to hotkey for a "right click" because there's only one mouse button. PC Mag says game run half as fast on the Mac in XP vs. the 8204.

So now I've come full circle back to the 8204. Should I go for it, or accept defeat and wait another month for my Dell?

 

If you are prepared to sacrifice a LITTLE BIT of graphics power... go for the 8204. There is absolutely nothign wrong with the new models. I have spoken to a few people and they all said that the problems was in the first batch of these models. The laptop is light, powerful, VERY SECURE, and does NOT cause problems that you would not see otherwise on any computers. There are no "special" problems associated with this laptop, only the regular problems that you will experience anywayz. I say order the 8204... you won't regret it. Runs half-life on full settings in native resolution... he he

 

Did you consider the LG S1 Express? LG T1 Express? Asus W3J? They all have the ATI X1600 video card The Asus A8Jm has GeForce 7600 w/512MB (no turbocache) + 2GB system RAM + 1.83GHz Duo Core CPU.

 

The problem is that it does not have "W" in front of SXGA. Nowdays, when one shop for the laptop, the laptop MUST have "W", it MUST have bluetooth, it must have DVI. If something is missing from these three elements it is a no-go. NONE OF THE LAPTOPS TODAY HAVE ALL OF THESE ELEMENTS TOGETHER.
Take for example P105 Toshiba. It got 7900, it is not sturdy but that is OK. But it has NO bluetooth!

 

Bran,

While I agree with you about the necessities of current laptops, I'm sure if you are referring to the 8204 or the others mentioned by homie. The 8204 has a widescreen ("w"), bluetooth, and DVI. Maybe you just found your next notebook, too.

 

homie,

I think these computers are not available here in the US yet. I can't get any information on them except for on foreign sites.

 

Um, I'd question all three of those "musts" for notebooks.

Bluetooth? Why MUST it have bluetooth, I realise that some people use bluetooth (mice, headsets) but I've personally never used Bluetooth and have no real plan to.

Widescreen? Again Why, while my new PC is widescreen, and I do like it, my prior pc and my work pc aren't widescreen and they still work perfectly well and I don't find myself thinking "if only this was widescreen" even after using a widescreen notebook.

DVI? Again, why? I've not used DVI, honestly, I'm not even sure what it's used for (hooking up the PC to an HD TV? hooking it up to a LCD display?) why are either of those a MUST for a laptop, I use my laptop display 100% of the time, and I don't have anything I can hook a DVI laptop upto (again even though my current laptop does have DVI)

 

BTW, what is the horizontal object above the lcd on the left side? I have seen it in all the pictures from both reviews on this site, and I still have no idea what it is. It almost looks like a fingerprint scanner.

 

Arla, when trying to find the best bang for my buck, individual features are what set the different duo core notebooks apart.

As for bluetooth, it's great for using at home or at work without needing to find the cable or plug in a wireless adaptor. Not to mention the fact that I work in a cube next to 40 other people using wireless devices and there have been problems with peripherals working securely (crosstalk). I believe that Bluetooth is more secure because it requires pairing of the two devices. Also, I use a PDA that has bluetooth, so syncing can be instantaneous and automatic. Lastly, my cell phone is a wireless modem capable of getting my laptop online with my cellular service without cables.

Widescreen is great when you start to use screens 15" and above because your normal plane of sight is wider than it is tall. You see more horizontally than you do vertically without shifting your eyes. Watching widescreen movies is much more enjoyable on business trips. Not to mention that all networks here in the US have an approaching deadline for switching to HD.

And DVI is the newest standard for getting the best image specifically on LCD screens. Again, the larger the LCD, the more apparent this connection makes on visual quality. Many desktop video cards don't even come with VGA connectors anymore, just adaptors. DVI just helps to extend the future utility of the laptop.

Besides all that...It's a Guy (Bloke) Thing!

 

I personally love widescreen...and yes, I can not see myself living 1) without widescreen and 2) without 1600 X 1050 resoulution (err or whatever the 8204 is. I think that is it)

I actually wish I had more room, and am probably going to buy some kind of multi-monitor extra display. As it is, I couldn't live without having 2 windows open side by side with at least almost no discomfort.

 

It's a sticker illustrating the correct way to rotate the web cam.

 

Are there 2 versions of 8204? I could swear I saw SXGA+ for 8204 somewhere and not WSXGA when I started research for new laptop? Maybe in Canada it is different?

I remember I eliminated 8204 from my research because of washed-out screen as well. Is the screen washed-out? Is there a leakage? Flexing? It must be, otherwise it wouldn't be so cheap compared with others?

I also assigned "lack of sturdiness" to 8204. Was I correct?

There was a rocket exhaust system on the right side if I correctly remember. And problems with NIC rebooting. Finally, salesman who sells Acers and Asuses told me not to buy 8204 (salesman in PacificNotebooks in Canada). He told me out of 20 10 were returned for various resons!?

 

Not sure about the SXGA+ version, never saw one myself, but maybe another country.

Washed out screen, nope not on mine, well I guess it is if I place it in bright sunlight, but I've never seen a laptop cope well with bright sunlight. Light leakage, not that I've noticed, flexing, nope, it does have a "grey pixel line" issue, but I don't notice it at all (so I'm not worrying about it).

Lack of Studiness? in what regard, mines a pretty solid machine.

The exhaust can be an issue, I did notice it more in Texas this weekend (in San Francisco I never notice it) and if you are running the processor quite high a lot of the time then you would notice it (and some programs are bad at this, for example Word quite often maxes my processor at 100% on my work PC even when I'm not doing anything with it).

NIC issue, yes was there for about a week after launch, never noticed it since the patch was released.

Overall I really like my 8204, no major complaints, runs like a rocket, and I think is going to last me at least 3 years (assuming the motherboard doesn't die or something, I'm comparing it to my last two toshibas which have both had the motherboard die within the first year and again in the second and third years).

 

OK Vlad, I probably should have listened to you. My Dell E1705 suddenly showed up before I could cancel it and before my 8204 shipped. So I cancelled the 8204. Now that I've had some time to check out the E1705, I wish I had chosen the 8204 instead.

Here's my comparison (in all fairness, this is based on having and E1705 vs. what I've read about the 8204):

Display: The E1705 has a BEAUTIFUL 1920x1200 display. However, text is VERY small, even at the best dpi setting. The 1680x1050 display on the 8204 would certainly provide slighly larger text. There is also noticeable light leakage at the bottom of the 1705 lcd, comparable to pics I have seen of the 8204. The reflective coating can be distracting if you don't turn up the brightness, but this seriously eats the battery power. Also, Dell Media Experience seems to lower the screen resolution, giving pictures and movies a slightly soft image IMO.

Size: The E1705 is huge. It doesn't fit into my Tumi briefcase like I thought it would. I can already see how this will be a pain to take to work everyday or carry onto planes. 90% of all laptop accesories seem to be made for 15" laptops.

Connectivity: The Dell's lack of a realistic port replicator is a real issue to me. I have a 20 inch widescreen lcd at work and I want to use DVI. With the Dell and a USB port replicator, I still have to plug in power, DVI, and the USB replicator. With the 8204, one plug does it all. Also I'm really upset that Dell did not include a PC Card slot, just an Express Card. There aren't any express cards yet, and the only way I can get a Cingular 3G connection is with a pc card. Acer provides both ports to cover all the bases.

Multimedia: Ok, again, the display on the Dell is fantastic and I haven't seen the one on the 8204. The speakers on the Dell are the best I've ever heard on a laptop. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise; they're exceptional. But how often am I really going to use them. I'll use my ipod for music, and I'll probably use headphones for movies and gaming. It's a great feature, but somewhat overated. Also, Dell's Media Direct is a cool feature, no doubt. One real disadvantage that the Acer has is no multimedia buttons. But I found a solution for that. CompUSA sells a PC Card IR multimedia remote. It stores in the laptops pc card slot and can use the Acer's builtin IR receiver. It even has a touchpad. I actually like that setup better than the front-mounted buttons on the Dell.

So now, all I have to do is get Dell to take this laptop back, then find a new company to sell me a 8204 (since I probably burned my bridge there). Oh well...live and learn.

 

All the number of posts in this thread just prooves that u should think twice before buying an Acer Travelmate 8204!

 

Yes of course, because all posts in this thread are negative, no wait they aren't... and of course every owner of an 8204 comes here to post their thoughts, oh wait, no they don't.

Give me any laptop and I can point you to a site that has lots of negative posts about it, doesn't mean it's a bad laptop, just means that that site has people moaning about that particular laptop, remember dis-satisfied customers are far more likely to find a place to complain than people happily using there new laptop are to find a place to post that the new laptop they got is working perfectly.

Yours does appear to have a screen issue, I'd send it back for replacement/fix personally (and I advise anyone looking to get a laptop to carefully examine all the choices and pick one that is right for them, which may or may not be an 8204 or even an acer).

 

I think "Amek" doesn't have Acer TM 8204 at all. He has one point agenda to distract people. He didnt put any complain either.
Atindra
Future TM8204 owner

 

Sampling bias people, sampling bias. people only come to comment/find answers when they have problems....

 

K, point is... 8204WLMi is godlike whichever way you look at it. I play FarCry at native screen resolution with everything maxed out...
The batter y lasted me for 2 and a half hours while playing half life 2 at native maxed out...
Its light, doesnt break, doesnt glitch, worth its price, amazing view angles on the screen, doesnt get too hot, read ANY KIND OF MULTIMEDIA, has bad speakers (who cares) and looks like it came out of a Sci-Fi movie. Stop doubting it, BUY IT

---
Happy and Proud Owner of Acer's Flagship Notebook - 8204WLMi

 

Yep I admit when i brought my laptop there was nothing even close to the specs. If he doesn't like it then he should go buy a HP or Dell. I must admit i'm tempted by the XtreamCTX. I mean who wouldn't. 1920 x 1200 X-bright glass screen, T2600 proccessor and a X1800 GPU. But it wasn't out and i don't regret the choice.

 

HA Ha... the same thing happened with me and my iPod. I bought it in october 2005 and the next thing you know, the new thin video iPods come out and they cost the same... You can never catch up with technology. There is always something better out on the market the next minute. But thats really nothing to be sad about... just life. lol

 

Yea...don't now what that guy was talking about. It seems more and more people are coming out of the wood wood work to say the good things that are needed to be said about this notebook. Namely, that it ****ing rocks!

Took mine up to my fellow nerd buddies that all have Dell XPS and Alienware machines and they were blown away. I'm definitely taking advantage of the bragging rights.

It's way lighter than any machine of similar performance, the case makes me want to splooge everytime I look at it. The screen takes some getting used to, but I have managed to tweak my Catalyst settings to get it as bright as I want it with some great color truth and richness. I'm sitting infront of an apple display and on the Acer the color is way cleaner, real and not washed out like a lot of bright LCD's.

Buy the Acer, your friends will be jealous.

 

Yeah, that's really good reason to buy a computer...
3D Mark scores are impressive in a fact - but it doesn't say anything about overall quality of this notebook! You can impress your "nerd buddies" but if you want to use this laptop at work, those scores don't mean a thing. It's a pretty box full of bugs. It has so many issues that I highly doubt if Acer will ever be able to fix all of them. I wonder if they made any beta tests before they started to sell it - I think that they didn't have too much time to do so... It looks like we are their beta testers... Good luck Acer...

 

Thank you to everyone here that has been sharing their experience. I was very interested in the 8204 but as a result of reading everything here I am going to play it safe and go with the T60p.

 

Another very happy 8204 owner here. This thing is light for the power it's packing, the resolution is perfect for the size screen and I have no issues to speak of except for one little black splotch on the screen. I'll have a go at Acer replacing that though. This thing is one heck of a machine at a great price for all the things included.

 

Sure, but half of those things doesn't work properly...

 

Could someone find some hard figures on percentage of defects? I have a 100% perfect 8204, with none of the issues discussed in these Acer forums. I see the same 6 or 7 people with multiple problems posting the same complaints in one thread after another, and another 10-15 people with isolated single issues, but how many buyers have actually ended up with lemons here?

I'm not slamming the people who got duds, because I'd be upset, too, especially if Acer couldn't fix or replace it for me! But to generalize that "Acers all suck" or "8204's all suck" is, I think, wrong as hell, and a disservice to someone trying to find out if a particular model fits his/her needs!

 

Ok. 6-7 people with multiple problems and 10-15 people with isoleted issues... How many 8204 users do we have on this forum? Or on Notebookforums.com? How many don't have "any" issues? And remember that some of those users say like "ok. I have this or that, but this is not a problem, I can live with this, I wouldn't even notice that..." Does it really mean that their notebooks are perfect? Yes, I know that people searching forums when they have problems and we are not proper sample to make any statistics, but things really don't look good for Acer, especially with this model... And I think that we are group of those more advenced users - we are tryin' to isolate and solve the problems and most of people out there would send the notebook back (if they would be able to see that something is wrong, of course ) And one more thing: I have always heard about Acer's poor quality - most of my computer aware friends say don't buy it, it's Acer, you'll have nothing but trouble. I've decided not to hear them - I liked 8204 too much and I thought that if it's Acer's high-end model, it should be the best what they can do, even if it's not such a good company... I thought - flagship models should build company's reputation... Now I know - IT'S ACER... It doesn't mean that I don't like it anymore. I like it. I wouldn't keep it otherwise. I just want to have no problems for a money I paid... But it's Acer... So I will never tell anyone to buy Acer... especially 8204... It's love/hate/love thing .

 

Well if it's any help, here's the problems I do and don't have with my 8204:

Problems I've seen reported but never experienced:

* No problems with the screen - it's great
* No problems with the GPU making noises
* No problems with the Gigabit ethernet

Resolved Problems:

* The Gravisense software was buggy until the latest revision
* Standby time was pathetic (like 3-4 hours) until I uninstalled the Acer ePower managament software and upgraded the BIOS.

Unresolved Problems:

* Either the bluetooth adaptor in the 8204, or my bluetooth mouse drops out every 20mins to 2 hours. As I don't have another BT mouse to test with, I am unable to assign blame yet.

* The smart card reader works fine as POST, but simply does not work in Windows at all - the Platinum Secure software suite does not recognize the the card is inserted. Note that it did work for the first 2 weeks or so, which is why I was able to format the cards in the first place.

Unresolvable problems:

* The headphone output level is incredibly low. I suspect due to the fact the the 8204 uses the cheapest, nastiest audio chipset available (Realtek).

* The air vent on the right hand side of the notebook is quite simply a terrible design, and can get very bothersome in hotter weather.

 

I should note that this is my frist Acer notebook - for the last 7 years (and three notebooks before this) I always bought the top of the line Dell Inspiron, and never (like not even once) experienced a single issue with anything.

It would take a miracle for Acer to retain my business in the future.

 

I have to tell you, folks. I have been using my 8204 and the ezdock for a week now and I have had no problems. I have even used it at work on the corporate network with all their weird security settings and software configurations. Again...no problems. I have THE top-of-the-line Dell Inspiron sitting in my office right now boxed up to go back for a refund, and I'm very happy with my decision. Go read my post here comparing the 8204 to the E1705 and you'll see why I'm keeping the Acer. If I only needed a laptop for fun or if I truly wanted to replace my desktop, the E1705 might be a good choice. But for business, this Acer has all the right stuff.

And I also think that Acer has fixed most of the problems that originally plagued this model. I do hate it when companies release products that seem unfinished or untested (like Motorola!). But I checked my Acer out and it came with all the newest drivers straight from the factory.

Don't get me wrong, there are going to be tradeoffs no matter what laptop you buy. That's the inherint problem with buying a laptop. When you buy a desktop, you can replace anything you want. You can even mod the way it looks. But with laptops, you really have to decide what features you need, which features you want, and which ones you can live without. For me, this Acer was the best alternative, though still not perfect. If you want perfection, Jaad, go build your own desktop....you won't find it in a laptop.

Before I owned this laptop, I really bought into the complaints on this website and it made me a little crazy trying to make up my mind. Don't misunderstand, I know that most of these complaints were valid. If you find yourself in my shoes, then you really need to just find somewhere that has a money-back guarantee, and buy one. If it doesn't work out, you've only lost time. Or do what I did, and buy your top two choices. But don't be suprised when the Acer impresses you more than almost anything else you'll find. Good luck guys. I hope you find what you're looking for.

 

How do you know? You're not here typing away on my 8204, are you? Don't put words in my mouth, thank you very much.