Acer TravelMate 4003LCi Review

Acer TravelMate 4003LCi Review

System Specs:

Intel Centrino - Pentium M 1.7GHz 2MB L2 Cache
15.0"XGA TFT LCD Screen
60GB HDD
DVD/CDRW Combo
512MB DDR RAM
802.11b/g wireless LAN
Bluetooth
Conexant Sound Card
Conexant Modem
Intel 855GM Graphics (Intel Extreme Graphics 2) 64MB (Not Shared)
Built-In Microphone
3 USB 2.0 ports
Infrared
TV-out 7pin Cable supported
VGA Monitor supported

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Display:
The first thing you will see in this laptop is the great display. Its very clear and no dead pixels. The maximum resolution is 1024x768 resolution. The brightness is level is excellent. When plugged in it will give you the maximum brightness. When in battery, the brightness level automatically reduces for battery power saving but it be configured later.

Graphics:
Obviously the graphics are not good for gamers. The laptop comes with a Intel 855GM graphic chipset, which is different than other Intel graphics because its not shared. The bad thing about this graphic chipset is that it does not support Transform and lighting, and pixel shaders which is similar to the Geforce 4 MX. In result games with high graphics such as Driv3r, colin mcrea 2005, and pysconauts wont work in this system. Overall the graphics is good for basic work.

Sound:
When I first bought the laptop I was really disappointed with sound quality and volume. Till now this is the worst speaker I ever heard in a laptop. One of the worst thing in this laptop is the speaker. Even with headphone the volume isn't that high as most laptops. A DFX plug-in (Can be downloaded for Windows Media Player) is recommended to make the volume and quality better. If still your are not satisfied go buy a Creative PCIMCA sound card replacing the current one in the laptop.

Performance:
The performance in most Acer laptops are great. In this one you get a 1.7GHz speed + a 512RAM which makes it more than enough for basic work. Also excluding the graphic card, the loading times in games are great. Doom 3 loads at 30 secs. As for Windows Booting, the whole system will load in about 20 to 30 secs. Also for applications processing, you will not find any lack of speed while opening multiple applications. Other than the processor, the HDD functions at a very good speed. The HDD is a 4200RPM which mostly all laptops have the same rpm. Having more RPM is good for processing, but also will reduce the battery life.

System Noise:
Like this and almost all Travelmates have the most quite system. When system boots you will hear the fan for like 6 secs and that's it ... nothing else to hear its surely a very quite system. The only thing you can hear is when the CDROM is reading a CD or DVD, but this is not a big deal. However Acer had made one mistake while building this system. The built-in microphone is not quite good. When you try to record, you will hear the voice of the system itself, as you talk, the microphone will record the system noise such as the HDD ticking, CD turning, and the fan.

Battery:
One thing that makes this laptop more portable than it is right now is the battery life. With the Acer ePower Management software your battery will stay as long enough. Acer says the maximum battery life would last for 5 hours and the average is 4 hours. But if you keep your eye on the battery life and keep changing the power setup your battery will last for 5.5 to 6 hours. Its happened with me and I was so impressed that the battery is still processing. Overall the battery is excellent, you wont need to carry the charger with you.

Software:
Acer did not come up with a lot of software installed in the system. Norton Anti-Virus 2005, NTI CD-Maker, Power DVD, Acer ePower Management, Acer eSetting, and Acer eManager. I would recommend uninstalling NTI CD-Maker because it will mostly fail while writing a CD. Replacing it with a better software such as Nero would be good.

Overall:
The system is quite good for its price ($1095). But the only thing that I was disappointed in is the Sound and speakers of this system. Other than that every thing is great. The laptop is good for work, and for low-end game graphics. I would give a 7.8 out of 10.

 

My Acer 303 tablet is very similar to yours, and agree with your review mostly. The sound is not great, but output to headphones or external speakers is fine.

Also, the Intel Extreme Graphics IS shared video memory, the 64MB is dynamically used as needed. I find the performance fine for anything other than gaming.

Lastly, the NTI burning software works very well for me, both burning 8X DVD-R's and CD-R's, never made a single coaster. Did you quit all running applications to avoid buffer under runs? Also a defrag first probably would greatly help.

 

For the graphics there are two types of Intel Graphics one is 852 and 855. The 852 is a 64MB shared graphic card, while the 855 is a UMA 64MB VRAM graphic card... I have tested both graphics and found a better performence in the 855 Intel graphic card

As for the NTI... not all types of CD-R works. And NTI copies MP3 with 44MHz only, below or more than that you will find no sound after burning the CD. Not only thatr, with CDRW NTI sometimes mixes audio tracks randomly and not as the order I burned in. Overall NTI is not stable with burnign CDs. Other software is more recommended.

 

My video is Intel Extreme 2 82855GM/GME...just shared 64MB video, I've never heard of Intel Extreme 2 offering other than shared memory. The 4100 series features the 900 accelerator, but not the 4000, at least the US version. Can you post a link describing 855GM, actually being dedicated, non-dynamically assigned on-demand video RAM?

As far as NTI, I have had no issues at all. Have you tried contacting them about your MP3 problems, they have been responsive for me with questions. Ceratinly burning DVD's at 8X (upgraded drive myself) taxes the software more than just MP3's, something is not right.