Acer Aspire 3003 review? (3003WLCI)

Has anyone heard of this laptop? I've seen the 3002 around online - i wanted a cheap laptop for college, and I had decided on averatec. So i went to circuitcity, and lo and behold, they had another even more powerful laptop, the Acer Aspire 3003, for almost 250 less (about 750 bucks) and more powerful.

Specs:
AMD sempron 3000+
512MB DDR
80GB 5400rpm
128MB integrated vid
802.11b/g integrated

not too shabby at all for the price. A little heavy at 6.2 lbs, (compared to the 4.5 lb averatec), but the 15.4" widescreen is a beauty, and is well worth the extra measly 1.5 lbs (does 1.5 lbs REALLY make a difference? I didnt think so either).

And so, in one of the most impulsive moments ever, i bought the 3003 aspire, without even looking up reviews for it except for the ratings on circuitcity.com (GASP!!) Yes, yes, I know. But I like the laptop so far, tho I've had a problem with the battery life on the first charge (only got an hour and a half on first charge...maybe i wasnt counting properly lol, havent tried a second charge, its charging as I type)

The screen is beautiful, a full 15.4 inches, bright, and good contrast, excellent for watching movies. Nice sized keyboard too. Handy wireless toggle switch (to conserve battery power). Very sleek looking when closed (MUCH better looking than the averatec), and while it's thin, its very wide and large, with a large surface area - though, its lighter than it looks. I havent spent more than a few hours with it, just enough to tranfer all my important stuff from my desktop.

My question is, where are the reviews of this thing? I've scoured the net, to no avail. The only thing I could find were the 3 measly customer ratings (not reviews) on the circuitcity website (4.3/5). Apparently, the only place its being sold is circuitcity and another online company. Is this like, some failed experimental laptop thats not fully supported by Acer, and I'm going to encounter some fatal flaw soon? Or is it just really new? Either way, the lack of reviews on this baby is kind of discomforting.

If ANYONE owns this laptop, PLEASE feel free to share ur experiences...

Thanks alot guys,

Neel

 

I too have searched the net and can't find anything on this laptop. My guess is that it is REALLY NEW. I'm thinking about purchasing it as well. Can't beat the price!!!

 

My Acer 3003 is supposed to arrive tomorrow[ ][ ], I will share my experiences as soon as I have time to do so...

I ordered it online since my local cc didnt have it in stock, cant wait...

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Compaq Presario R3340US AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512MB, 80GB 5400rpm
15.4" Brightview WXGA.
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Yea, you need to get a life. moderator, could you remove the previous post? I dont even know who that guy is.

 

I bought one today for cc with a 100 dollar mailin rebate and so far I love it. Its a great notebook for the price.[ ]

 

Quick Review...
It is a decent laptop. Well Designed & pretty slick looking too. Everything is fine except for the battery life. Acer should have atleast offered a 6 cell battery which could have extended the battery life to around 2hrs. The crystalbrite screen is bright & has good viewing angle, the colors do invert around the 150 degree angle. The laptop does get pretty warm after half hour of use, but it is not unbearable. Although 1 annoyance is that the touchpad is the warmest...The fans though silent, they turn on and off quite often(there is an option to let it run 24/7 if it is used as a dektop replacement).

The Sempron 3000+ is also fast for a budget processor, much better option than the celerons. It completed the 2Million SuperPi calculations in 2min09sec with some backround processes like the antivirus & firewall running. The keyboard experience is fine, although I dont really like the curved design. Keyboard tapping noise is minimum & havent seen any flex. The placement of the euro & $ keys next to the arrow keys is awful since I keep hitting them instead of the arrow keys, but I guess i could get used to it.

The laptop is made of plastic so the build quality is not rock solid, but still it does not feel flimsy...It should hold up to some abuse. Finally the specifications list the optical drive as a CD burner DVD ROM. But in fact it can burn both DVD's(including dual layer) as well as CD's. So that was a nice surprise since I do burn dvd's quite often & dont have to use an external burner.

So to sum it up...
Pros:
1.Price - for about $600(after MIR) you cant find a better performing laptop.
2.The specifications -The surprise dvd burner and a laptop with a 80gb hdd(albeit 4200rpm), a fast processor & 512MB RAM...
3.Weight & Size- the laptop is a bit wide but it is thin & light(6.2lb) for a 15.4" screen laptop
4.Speakers - turned out to be pretty decent, not bad for a laptop.

Cons:
1.Battery life - Just about an hour max...too low for a laptop which is supposed to be mobile.
2.I also hate the touchpad area getting hot, it does not get burning hot but still on a hot day it becomes uncomfortable to use.
3.They should have included a firewire port to connect to digital cameras. The position of the USB ports could also have been better.

So, for the price it is a fine laptop in every area other than battery life, at a time when there are laptops with 4-5hrs of battery life getting used to 1hr is painful. The whole reason for this is the 4 cell battery

Specifications: Acer Aspire 3003WLCi
AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+ (1.8GHz, 128KB L2 cache)
15.4" WXGA Crystalbrite screen, 512MB PC2700 RAM
80GB 4200rpm HD, DL DVD+/-RW/CD-RW combo drive,
802.11b/g WLAN

Cheers

 

I just bought one after reading this message last week. i'm quite happy with it. I have a toshiba, a dell and now this acer. All bought around $770 and with 15.4 screens. Battery Life: Acer sucks, only around 1 hour with ther screen turned down. The dell celeron is amazing at 4 hours at 75% intensity on the screen. the toshiba runs about 2 hours on batteries. SPEED: i like the acer better and the toshiba(1.5Ghz) slowest. Reliability and stability: Toshiba was a little erratic and it was repaired once after 6 months (wouldnt accept charge), dell is fine so far after 4 moths, not sure about the acer but feels solid booting and running apps. Customer support for toshiba was great. i prefer the toshiba apps for monitoring battery and searching for wireless networks. Range of the wireless networks on the acer not as good as dell and toshiba. i'll write more as i drive the beast.
tchau
Vini

 

Hey everyone, I am pretty new to laptops. I just bought my first one a few days ago, and guess what? It's an acer 3003wlci. Just looked to me like a good computer for a good price. I'm sorry if any of these questions are annoying or anything but i really don't know much. But anyway, when i charge the battery i just plug the computer into the wall with the battery in the computer right? How do i know when it is fully charged (i am guessing that when the green light on the front turns off)? How long does it usually take to fully charge? Also, I am a bit worried that I won't get too long of use out of it being away from a plug-in, so is there any way i can get a longer lasting battery for this model? If any of you guys have any other kind of advice for me it would be much appreciated, i really don't know much about laptops. Thanks

 

The battery should fully charge after around 2-2.5hrs & yes you can charge the battery when you are working on the laptop. You can check to see the light on the case or check the battery/power cord icon in your taskbar(right next to the time display, near the bottom right corner of the screen). If you hover over that icon it will list the status of the battery as charging or discharging or when fully charged it will list the status as On AC power. You can also double click the icon & see the battery status in the Power Meter.

There is supposed to be a larger battery which does work in the Aspire 3003, but I have never tried it so I cannot conclusively state that it would work. But on the face of it should work since it has the same shape, size & the connectors are in the correct place.

http://www.global-batteries.com/product_info.php/cPath/1_11/products_id/1788

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Compaq Presario R3340US AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512MB, 80GB 5400rpm
15.4" Brightview WXGA.
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hey all, nice to know other people have bought it. I got permission to write a review, so I'll try to get that posted in a few days.

The link you gave for the battery doesnt specifically say it works for the aspire 3000 series (although maybe it does). I found another site with a spare battery that should work ( http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?Sku=5258730), and it mentions the Aspire 3000 series on the compatibility list.

Peace

 

I picked the 3003 up a few days ago. They were selling like hotcakes at Circuit City. I went ahead and picked it up even though I had a hard time finding reviews (this is the only place I found. CNET's review was pathetic). So I thought I'd contribute.

Ditto on the battery issue. After charging overnight (I had no idea what I was doing, since the manual doesn't get into specifics), I got maybe an hour out of it. Thanks for the link to PC Connection NGOWDAR.

The DVD Writer was a VERY nice suprise. I was frightened at first to find out the DVD-ROM wasn't encoded for North America, but it let me change it. Does anyone think the Screen is better than specified as well? It seems as nice as the SONY's I looked at.

One problem I had so far, was when the battery died the first time (I was in the middle of installing my Macromedia Suite), a dialog box popped up quick (I missed what it said) and it went into hibernation. Even though I plugged it back in, I couldn't bring it out of hibernation. The Green power button lit up, but nothing appeared on the screen. (I had to unplug it and remove the battery to get it to restart).

And here's my BIG QUESTION...

[:0]The specs say the video memory (shared) is "up to 128meg". Mine is currently set at 64meg. How can I allocate another 64megs of my ram to the shared video memory???[:0]

HELP! The Manual SUCKS!



Yes, I am a notebook n00b.

 

One more thing...


It has a blue tooth LED indicator in the front, but does it actually have Bluetooth capability? Or is it just part of the cookie cutter notebook case?

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Yes, I am a notebook n00b.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Zung

 

how far can i travel and still be connected to the internet on this thing?

 

By the way, those two links go to the same battery. Check the manufacturer's number on them. The first link just didn't label all of models it is capable with, but it's about $50 cheaper. I'm thinking about getting one myself.

 

I'm also thinking of getting a second battery, even though I use this in the house, more of a desktop replacement, the battery lasts me just about 45 minutes to an hour when I use it unplugged! (Wireless on, backlight on medium settings).

 

I'm still getting just shy of an hour's worth of battery time.

Anyone have any recommendations on extending that? (First time Notebook owner here). Like ways of conserving power while still using it.

Thanks for the advice and links so far!

Yes, I am a notebook n00b.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by idrumyay

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by miner

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Roger77

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by miner

 

I purchased this Notebook about 2 weeks ago, it offered exceptional value as it was priced similarly to notebooks with 1/2 the RAM and 1/2 the drive capacity. I was also lucky enough to land one of the "mistake" models that have a DVD burner included rather than a DVD read only drive.

Battery life is the primary issue for me, I see "58 mins" listed when I mouse over the battery system tray icon when I first boot up after a night's charge. I could have sworn that the Circuit City website had this listed under specs as 3-4 hrs when I bought it as I comparrison shop almost obsessively - but now either I imagined that OR Circuit City removed that line/lie from their spec's listing.

I have a couple of questions for people more experienced with notebooks than I - my last one was purchased when a 486 with 32mb ram and Windows '95 was "hot"

1. How is longevity on notebooks (assume I'm a careful person unlikely to ever drop or mistreat it) - would anyone add in the $200 for an extended warranty or should I just fly with the 1yr factory warranty and treat it as disposable - which at the low cost I paid for it isn't unreasonable.

2. Is there really a need for the 4 CDR's the system prompts you to burn as recovery discs on your first logon or can you simply use the factory restore discs?

3. Can you archive or make traveling copies of your DVD's with this burner - I was thinking about making copies of 4-5 movies I have here in the US to take with me to England on my next trip this weekend if so is the included software able to do this?

4. Would a replacement battery be a good idea or are they likely to provide just as crappy life as the one it shipped with - I'm getting just 45 mins with the screen on medium and WiFi active on a full charge - IE has anyone bought one of the "Li-Ion Graphite Battery for Select Acer TravelMate and Aspire Series Notebooks" that were linked earlier in this thread - and if so are they better?

5. I signed up with Boingo WiFi as they have full terminal coverage at my home airport and a hotspot in the closest pub to my residence in England, however they don't appear to cover Phoenix International or London Heathrow airport. What WiFi hotspot provider to other people use and how do you rate their coverage (USA and UK).

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>1. How is longevity on notebooks (assume I'm a careful person unlikely to ever drop or mistreat it) - would anyone add in the $200 for an extended warranty or should I just fly with the 1yr factory warranty and treat it as disposable - which at the low cost I paid for it isn't unreasonable.<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

Well, if you take care of it, it should last for more than 5yrs. But realistically 2 - 3yrs is probably the average lifespan without any problems.

<blockquote id='quote'>quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>2. Is there really a need for the 4 CDR's the system prompts you to burn as recovery discs on your first logon or can you simply use the factory restore discs? <hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

The restore disks can restore to factory settings. They just want to give you another option(or maybe it is one of those hidden partitions). I didnt burn any CD's though.

<blockquote id='quote'>quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>3. Can you archive or make traveling copies of your DVD's with this burner - I was thinking about making copies of 4-5 movies I have here in the US to take with me to England on my next trip this weekend if so is the included software able to do this?<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

Dont know about this one...

<blockquote id='quote'>quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>4. Would a replacement battery be a good idea or are they likely to provide just as crappy life as the one it shipped with - I'm getting just 45 mins with the screen on medium and WiFi active on a full charge - IE has anyone bought one of the "Li-Ion Graphite Battery for Select Acer TravelMate and Aspire Series Notebooks" that were linked earlier in this thread - and if so are they better?<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

If you travel a lot then definately consider extended batteries...the standard battery has only 4 cells(it is very light)...extended batteries have upto 8 cells, which should atleast double your battery life..

------------------------
Compaq Presario R3340US AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512MB, 80GB 5400rpm 15.4" Brightview WXGA.

Acer Aspire 3003WLCi AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+, 512MB, 80gb 4200rpm 15.4" CrystalBrite WXGA
------------------------

 

Just thought I'd let everyone know, I found that spare battery on ebay. Plenty of em!!! Buy it now for $88.66 plus $10 shipping. Just type in the product number in the search... LCBTP03003 ...I think I am gonna go ahead and get one. Each of the three stores selling them have really high feedback ratings, so no need to worry about being ripped off!

 

yeah what about bluetooth on this model /Aspire 3003WLCi/ ???
i think that beefore i install new-regional win xp version there was a lighting led-means it was a bluetooth device inside -but for now my xp can't find it[ ]
MY QUESTION IS:
1. is Aspire 3003WLCi has a bluetooth device inside ??
maybe someone of You used-it ??? or it's just optional thing -not in this model
///Yes, I am a notebook n00b too//
<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Zung

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by zygfryd

 

Just got my Acer Aspire 3003WLCi and am very happy with it. I was majorly influenced by the reviews posteed here. One question though:

The DVD-RW drive is listed as a Pioneer DVR-K15RA. So, exactly what media can this drive burn (Cant seem to find any specs on the drive)? DVD-R/RW? DVD+R/RW? Both? I want to start burning some stuff with Padus Discjuggler, but I dont know what disks to buy. Any help would be appreciated.

 

8x Dual Layer, Dual Media (plus and minus).

You can see the markings on the faceplate of the drive..

 

Ah, thank you very much. I saw the markings on the drive (although they are a bit hard to read), which made me question the sames rep about the tag saying CD-RW/DVD. They told me that was a misprint and that the drive could indeed burn DVD media, but they could not tell me what types. After some light searching I turned nothing up. Thank you for your help!

 

I've uploaded some pictures for those who would want to see more what this laptop looks like.

Benchmark score in 3dmark 2001 se is 1495.
SuperPi 2M time 2min 9 sec.

 

Nice Pics. The SuperPi scores are right up there with the lower end Pentium M's...

 

Just bought my 3003 and compared it to a Dell Inspiron 6000 at the Dell store at the mall here. Eerie how similar these machines are in frame and architecture. Look at the case, the keys, the speakers, touchpad, LCD.... Could we have the same manufacturer here as ACER...? HMMMM.... Maybe I am wrong but the physical evidence is pretty clear to me.
Want to save about $200 over the Dell? Get the Acer and settle for a little less notorious processor, one that sure works fine by me. The truth is folks that the number of companies that actually make these gadgets is shrinking fast, and it will not be long before they figure out how to sell direct to us from China. Watch Lenovo from China who now has the best notebook R&D and manufacturing team in the world at their disposal through their acquistion of IBM PC division.
Anyway, the 3003 blows away my IBM T-41 with a M715 processor in it with 512mb of RAM. And the screen is killer. Sound is tinny compared to the Thinkpad, but I paid over twice the cost of the Acer for an IBM machine that is inferior in performance. However, there is no doubt that the IBM build quality is more sturdy. We will see how the Acer travels, but this 3003 is the best bang for the buck out there right now.

 

They already do. Compal, Quanta, Clevo, Arima, MSI, Asus all sell in the US under their own brand names through resellers. Not a lot many people know about them and only probably geeks with an intrest in computers and people who want to buy something else other than dell.

Good choice!! Great that you are enjoying the laptop. :acer:

 

I've been enjoying this laptop (it's my first).

My only complaint is that games don't do too well on it. It runs Unreal Tournament 2005 (a bit choppy), but it won't run City of Heroes.

Does anyone think throwing in a gig or two of memory would help that, or is it always going to be a video card limitation?

(I just ordered the battery on Ebay, thanks for that info! $96 with shipping!)

 

Increasing the system memory will not help much for gaming but will improve your overall computing experience. Integrated gpu's arent powerful enough to run newer more demading games.

 

Does every Aspire 3000 (3003 WLCi) have a DVD burner? When I go to my Device Manager it says under DVD / CD Rom Drives that I have the QSI CDRW/DVD SBW242C. I have a feeling I wasnt so lucky to get the suprise DVD burner with my laptop. Could someone please let me know? Thanks alot!!!!

 

Ref the extended battery LCBTP03003, Has anybody bought one of these? I'm curious to hear some reviews about it.

 

Sorry to give you the bad news, but the device manager will have to list the drive as as a Pioneer for it to have a DVD burner. But on the other hand I guess you are one of the lucky ones to have gotten the laptop as advertised (although I could say the 1.5hrs battery life as advertised was a total BS)

 

O well...... no DVD burner but I only paid $640 for a lap top that compares to those going for well over $1000. Is $640 about what all of you other Acer Aspire3003WLCi owners paid?

 

Yeah, CC ran a few rebates, so the price was in the range of 650 - 770. I paid $700 and I agree it is great value for the money.

 

I paid $699 for mine. And they bundled a free printer and digital camera (a $65 polaroid, I gave it to my girlfriend to use).

 

Have any of you guys switched to the 8 cell 4400 mAh ? Its going for around $100 after shipping on ebay and I was curious to what it increased the battery life too compared to the 4 cell. If the 4 cell 2000mAh lasts 45 minutes on my 3003WLCi i would assume the 8 cell might increase the life to a little over an 1hr 30 minutes.... The seller of the battery claims it powers laptops anywhere from 4 to 5 hours which I find very hard to believe. Maybe thats a Centrino with a 10.4 inch screen compared to our 15.4 widescreen crystalbrite screen. Let me know if youve made the big switch... thanks, Mike.

 

Bought the laptop a couple of weeks ago when my HD on my 3 year old Toshiba died, and I must say that I'm rather pleased with it. and I did get lucky enough to get the DVD burner on mine, however, now I've ran into a problem. Without warning or prelude, my optical drive decided to stop reading CDs, both audio and CD-ROM, however it will play DVDs (I haven't tried a DVD-R yet).

Any ideas? I'm somewhat comfortable tinkering with the computer, but by no means an expert.

Harry

 

I havent tried bigger battery yet(the $100 is keeping me away), but I think it should be able to give around anwwhere around 2 - 3 hrs depending on what type of Sempron Acer uses. I have been trying to find out which version(62W or 25W) they used but have received conflicting reports from 2 system utility programs and I really dont want to open up the laptop to check the serial number. My Compaq r3000z with the 8cell running a 89W Athlon64 gives around 2 hrs so I believe the Sempron should definately give much more than that.

Try reinstalling the drive. Go to device manager and unistall the drive and then restart the computer. Win XP should automatically recognise the new drive and try reading CD's. If it still doesnt my guess would be that the laser for reaing the CD's might have gone bad(DVD & CD's use different lasers).

 

"Ref the extended battery LCBTP03003, Has anybody bought one of these? I'm curious to hear some reviews about it."

I just got my battery today in the mail from Global Batteries, and I must say I'm impressed with it. Right now I'm getting 3 hours on this. Lowering my settings really increases my time even further too! I'm only on my first decharging cycle too, so who knows how far I can get.

If you're sick of only an hour of battery life, get the LCBTP03003, you won't be disappointed!

:acer:

 

What settings did you lower? As this is my first laptop (and I've got that battery on it's way to me), I have no idea how to improve battery power.

 

Lowering the LCD Brightness settings (Hold Fn and press left arrow key), always helps to lower the settings. So far I can get up to 3 and a half hours on this laptop with brightness down.

 

Hello All,

I too have just purchased the Acer Aspire 3003WLCi.

I actually purchased the Acer Aspire 3002LCi, Open box at Circuit City for $599, Went back 2 days later, and found they had a 3003WCLi for $599 after $100 Rebate. Obviously the 3003WLCi had the better 15.4" Wide Screen Display, 80GB HDD (compaired to 40GB), and 512MB Ram (compaired to 256MB). So i exchanged the 3002LCi, for the 3003WLCi.

I am VERY happy this this laptop, I wasn't able to find anything pound for pound better than this unit for any less than about $800 after rebates. Even at that, it was negotiable.


My only complaint is the same as every one elses. The Battery life SUCKS. I have never seen a laptop with less than 2 hours battery life! My OLD Gateway Solo 2150 with a 650MHz Celeron lasted about 3 hours. But than again this computer is much faster, and has a MUCH larger LCD, and HDD. Also my Gateway had a 12-Cell Li-ION battery, as compaired to this 4-Cell Li-ION battery.

---------------------------------------------

Information about the 8-Cell Battery (LCBTP03003)

This battery can be purchase from ACER Directly for $93.38* + $10.00 Ground Shipping.

I don't know who the manufacturer of the betteries on e-bay, or the other posted suppliers is, but if you buy it from ACER you know its OEM. It's only a few $'s more then the e-bay battery's and ALOT cheaper then some of those other online suppliers.

You can order it from the Acer Tech Support Phone #.

* This information is no longer correct. See Following posts
----------------------------------------------

Information about the Pioneer DVR-K15RA

Some people have posted they have done searches for this drive and have not been able to find any specs on it. I too when threw this, and found that the actual Drive model # is: DVR-K15, the RA is Acer's OEM Model #. If you do a search on google for Pioneer DVR-K15 you will find lots of information about the drive.

For Confirmation, the drive DOES burn everything. DVD+R (Single & Dual Layer), DVD-R (Single & Dual Layer), DVD+RW (Single & Dual Layer), DVD-RW (Single & Dual Layer), CD-R, and CD-RW.


This really is an awesome laptop. Its really a shame the battery life is soo horrible. Even with an 8-cell battery, i couldn't see how you would get more then maybe 1.75 hours. But We shall see, when the people who have purchased the 8-Cell batteries begin to post their results.

-TheChad

 

I just got off the phone w/ Acer Tech Support and they quoted me $149.00 for the LCBTP03003. He said $93.38 is for the regular 4-cell battery.

 

Interesting.

I've called 3 times, spoke with 3 different people in Tech Support, and speciffically said 8-Cell battery. All of them quoted me the same price.

I was given the Part Number: BT.T5007.001 which I was told is the 8-Cell battery for a Travel Mate 4000, and would work with the Aspire 3000 Series, as they are the same case.

I called again today and spoke with the order department. I gave them both the BT.T5007.001 & LCBTP03003 Part Numbers. You are correct, the BT.T5007.001 is the 4-cell that comes with thease laptops, and the LCBTP03003 is the 8-cell and is $149 + $10 Ground shipping.

I guess the Tech Support guys are all misinformed.

-TheChad