Acer Aspire 3613WLMi...your thoughts on laptop/price??

I didn't see any posts on this model so here goes... Acer Aspire 3613WLMi

Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition; Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370 (1MB L2 cache, 1.50GHz, 400MHz FSB); 512MB (256/256) DDR2 400 SDRAM; 60GB hard drive; integrated DVD-Dual drive (DVD+/-RW); 15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800), Acer® CrystalBrite Technology; Mobile Intel® 910GML Express chipset with integrated graphics; 802.11b/g WLAN, 10/100 LAN, V.92 modem

Specifications Link:
http://www.acer.ca/acerpanam/page9....aram=CA&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&crc=3875090789

I want an inexpensive laptop for Internet, Office, DVD's, Itunes, Email, etc...No games, no 3D, no Photoshop. Really just the basic things.

In Canada this is on sale for $900. Any thoughts on this setup? Brand? Celeron Chip? Battery Life? Intel Video Chip? I know this is not a great laptop, but all this considered I think this is a good price and a decent brand name. But feel free to correct me, please!!!

 

Performance wont be too bad, but since it has only a 4 cell battery expect a life of ~1 - 1.5hrs. The Celeron M can do all the tasks you listed without any problems. It basically will perform the same as older generation banias Pentium M's. But the major disadvantage is that the celeron m does not have speedstep and so consumes maximum power where as the Pentium M can downclock and shut down some of the core components to save power.

The GMA 900 is just fine for non gaming puposes, but do try to upgrade the RAM to 1GB if possible.

Try to find the Acer 4011...It comes with the P-M and should give you battery life and performance. But I dont know whether it is available in Canada.

 

Is that one of the Acers with the four cell battery? Combined with the Celeron battery life won't be good, but if you are plugged in all the time it won't matter,

 

In Canada I have found it at Staples for about $1100CDN, so it is available now. I actually thought of this one myself, but was not sure if the upgrade was needed for my purposes. I was concenered about the 4-cell in the 3613 myself and think it will be plugged most times, but 1-1.5 hours is kind of useless and think that if I did want to cord free then it would be severely limited.

In my searching I found this Compaq as well...diff setup (chip, vid, etc..). Any thoughts on this one?

http://www.hp.ca/products/static/presario-notebooks/v2410ca/index.php

Someone mentioned to me that Compaq's have had issues with battery life. I will search the Compaq forum, but if any one had any quick thoughts it would be appreciated.

Thanks again.

 

Yes the Turion will be much better than the Celeron battery and perfromance wise. You can upgrade to the 12 cell battery if you need a lot of time.

 

The Compaq will definately perform better and with the 6 cell will have a battery life of around 2 - 2.5hrs(according to the majority of the people and from the reviews of the laptop). Some even have got 3hrs but that might be pushing it a bit. The 12 cell will add a bit of weight and sticks out from beneath the laptop but it does double the battery life while providing better ventilation and some people liked the angle it created which was helpful in typing.

Regarding the TM4011 I think it might be worth the upgrade if you are concerned about battery life and cpu performance but just noticed that it uses the older graphics card and chipset. The chipset is fine but the graphics card is just too basic.