Do I want the 8204?

I almost came to purchase a TravelMate 8204 for myself when I started reading some of the user reviews and opinions on this site and others. The "professional" reviews are raving about the performance, but looking at the specs of this machine it's not a surprise. I was however surprised with the unproportionately large amount of bad reviews and comments from users.

Almost every component of this notebook is criticized, from its low speed memory and hard drive, light-leaking and low quality screen, hot air blowing at your right hand, noisy keyboard and even its lousy speakers. Considering the price of it, it's a bit hard to ignore all these bad reviews.

So I'd like to know from experienced users, what do you think about the 8204? Is it ready for prime time already? I don't want to speed $2,100+ for a laptop that will fall apart in six months, and disappoint me until it does.

And if you don't think I should get this model, do you have other recommendations for me? Considering computing power and screen quality are of outmost importance to me.

Thanks,
Chen

 

wtf. Low speed memory... you drop prehaps 3 to 4 precent in benchmarks compared to the 677MHz.
Slow hard drive? its a 5400RPM that boot into windows in 7 seconds.
Light-leaking and low quality screen... Going from glossy to Matt is always going to be a change, some people just don't know what to expect, and granted there are afew bugs with the light leakage but they are VERY minute and Acer swaps them out.
Hot air.. i have no freaking idea what gave you that. My laptop ( 8204WLMi ) has been on for 2 days running, doing various preformance tasks Defragment and ALL the 3Dmarks on repeat and there is only a slightly warm right hand side.
No idea where the noisey keyboard stigma came from either.
Speakers in a laptop arn't suppost to give amazing bass or boost... This is a laptop make for excutives and high ranking employee's. Not for multimedia and even then they do well against others.

The 8204WLMi is the best thing on the market at the moment and the tech support is brilliant.

Hahhhh the 8204WLMi doesn't fall appart, all the conponents are top notch (trust me i've dissasembled it to check).
The only thing that excells it is the Xtream CTX from rock Direct and they are based in the UK.

 

i mean half the things we speak of on this forum the normal person would never realize even existed without somebody else mentioning it. I researched this laptop for 3 months before buying it. In my opinion, it is the best 15.4 inch laptop on the market, with the MacBook Pro being the alternate if you want a mac.

Mine has the "light leakage issue" but to me this is so stupid. You can only see it when the screen is entirely black....WHEN THE HELL DO I JUST HAVE A BLACK SCREEN! When it is on, the screen is fluid and perfect and the colors are even distributed across the screen.

I play any PC game on the market on full specs...you may not be a gamer, but that prooves it can handle anything out there.

This PC also looks sweet, it is very aesthetically pleasing. Draws alot of attention.

My opinion: buy. 1 year warranty is nice also

 

I'd believe that when I see it. You could always get the extended warranty. I think it is like $130 on Acer's site. There certainly are other choices like Asus, Fujitsu and Lenovo if you want some other options. Perhaps you should consider the FAQ and post there.

 

I'm sure the other 8204 users will back me up. Especially those who did a clean reinstall.

 

I would have to say that the more recent builds of this laptop are top knotch.

I have not experienced any of the issues that the complainers speak of. This thing flys, and feels very solid. The case is one of the sexier that I have seen besides some of the super high end models like alienware and VooDoo.

Do a clean install of XP. You will thank yourself. I highly recommend downloading the drivers from the acer FTP site as they will save your ass after you do the clean install.

The screen is definitely matte. And if you are a gloss fan (which I am not, I hate the exccesive glare) you may want to look at a different machine. But you will be sacraficing some of the best performance in the market for a slightly brighter screen, which may have even ****pier color truth.

The heat vent on the right is great on cold days

If you are looking for the fastest and sexiest laptop in it's class, and you arn't a Mac user, there is no better choice than the 8204.

 

Thanks for the comments.

Do you know if there's a newer build than the 06/03? I understand that starting with that build things got better with this laptop. Is there a newer one?

 

i THINK the 04 one is out but i'm not 100% sure. The 03 one has had all the problems ironed out

 

That's not true. There are people who have buzzing noise in the 03 models

 

To do a clean install do you need your own separate copy of Windows XP? Can this be done with a restore disc?

 

Yea Falafel but i've only heard of one person with the buzzing noise in the 03.
and Lishiwen refer to HERE
So linshiwen what you can do is find a copy of Windows XP Pro somewhere.. (insert wink here)
And edit it so it has the files which means you dont need to activate it.

 

Can somebody tell me why would one buy 8204 instead of LG P1?

Aside from the fact P1 has 1G DDR2 and 80GB HD which both can be upgraded what else could be the reason to buy 8204 whose screen flexes easily in comparison with LG P1 (you have to press much harder to flex P1's screen)?

Is the DVI port the only reason?
While P1 lacks DVI it has 667Mhz DDR2 as opposed to 8204's 533MHz. Add to it 3 year included warranty, much brighter screen (on par with Fujitsu N3530!), I cannot see any reason why would someone select 8204 over P1, especially having in mind all those problems many 8204 owners have!?

 

Well P1 comes with 2x512MB RAM, but the Acer comes with 2x1GB RAM.

Also, not many people have S1/P1 yet, so can't be sure if there will be more problems with it. Just have to wait and see. I'm still favoring the 8204.

I'm considering the W3J, but I fear that the it may have a warm right palm rest just like the W3V.

 

The Acer screen does not flex, at least not on mine. I have to press Very Hard in the carbon fiber lid in order to flex it.
you get prehaps ~3-4% on synthetic benchmarks comparing 2Gb of 533MHz ram and 2Gbs of 677Mhz ram.

 

If you are comparing 1GB 667 to 2GB 533 - take the 2 gigs EVERYDAY

in the world of ram, quantity wins 99% of the time

 

Thanks CoolHotCold. I actually have an OEM Xp Pro lying around, so I need not thieve it. Though I would have absolutely no qualms about doing so, I assure you. After all the licence comes with my 8204, its not my fault the manufacturer made didnt give me a ()&%&^$^ copy of the disc. Anyway, I probably wont buy this laptop for another month or so (unless I cave in). Then Ill be here asking more questions. That link you gave me looks pretty intimidating, and raises more questions that it answers.

Thanks again though

 

I have an 8204 from the first batch, and the only issue is/was the “buzz” noise. I sent my laptop to repair, and ACER received on March 31. As today (04/18) they replaced the motherboard (04/12) , this did solve the issue, and they are still investigating. Bottom line, the 7-10 days turnaround is gone, and they “did not know” how to solve the issue.

This is my first ACER, and the machine is very good on the technical side, when everything works, but I am a little bit disappointed with the repair. For a expensive laptop that has some issues, like LCD (I do not have), network (I had), and now the buzz… .

I do not use my laptop to gaming, i.e. the buzz was not so big deal, but I expected a U$ 2.5K to have everything working.

 

Yes but the first products had this issue and no doubt new products will aways have issues which will be ironed out later in production phase.
Yes the LCD was abit dissapointing but i have no qualms with mine, its matt which is what i wanted so i know i'm not going to get
'supper bright my eyes hurt glossy shean'

The network thing was Intels fault and they promptly fixed it.
The buzz is apparently a coil vibrating causing no actuall damage. Annoying yes but not fatal, and thankfully has been fixed.

The 7 day turnarround which is promised in AcerAdvantage is abit misleading as they can only do that if they have the parts, and because it is a new laptop(not now) i can understand the delay.

Disapointing about the turnarround but at least Acer generaly actually fix things.

 

Dear CoolHotCold,

Do not get me wrong. I am very happy with the machine. Related to the LCD, I had a Toshiba with “ultra bright” screen, and with external light the reflections is sometimes annoying. The 8204 is supposed to be a business laptop, and I think to work long hours the “ultra bright” does not work well.

However, my point is, if ACER knows that the “buzz” issue is a “coil vibrating”, why they replaced the motherboard, and now is “still investigating”; as far as I know, mine was not the only one and the first to have the issue.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Update : The laptop will be shipped today (04/18)
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No, no, don't buy this machine!
* The machine generates a lot of heat so the fan increase in speed as the time goes. The fan also is directed to your right hand holding the mouse ;-)
* Performance with preconfigured system is really not good at all. Small programs and apps everywhere making this computer slow.
* The screen is not bright enough.
* They have moved the <>-button so if you make html or develop u get angry a lot of times...
I regret buying this computer, TM8204.

 

Amek,

Fan increases as time goes by? Erm, maybe you have something wierd going on, the only time mine goes on is when I'm running the processor at 50% or more all the time. I do agree the vent can be an issue, especially if you use a mouse right next to the right side of the keyboard, I don't so it's not an issue for me, also I did notice this issue more in a hot environment than in a cooler environment (eg it was more noticeable as an issue in Texas than it was in San Francisco).

Performance is great, not sure what your issue is

Screen is fine, I think your particular one was defective but overall my screen is excellent.

Not sure what <> buttons you are talking about, if you mean the arrow keys, then they are in the same position as every other laptop I've had, if you mean the actual bracket keys then they are also in the same position as every other laptop, if you are used to a full 102/104 key keyboard, then yes they are in a different position, but...

 

Don't give up on the company because of a bad technician. (trust me theres lots of them arround and most work at Dell and alienware). Personaly their support team are the best, fast and always helpful. Buzzing is a problem and i put up with it buzzing because its a new laptop which not many parts and technicians are yet to learn all the faults

And Amek i think you must be one of those perfectionists who want everything to be perfect.. Oh no the fan came on its a bad laptop.
Screen is plenty bright for me... Wait you must be a glossy person.. Vainity is a shame.
Buttons have been moved.. Oh no let me compare it with my Time machine.. Wait no stop telling porkies.
Regret buying it.. Should of done abit of research then..

 

Everything you just mentioned seems to be a case specific item except the <> keys. I personally care much more about the CONTROL key being in the CORRECT place.

Few corrections -
* Machine generates almost not heat itself. The heat is dissipated out the heatvent to the right. w3v/j also does this. I don't have my mouse situated in front of the vent.
*By all accounts minus you own, comp runs very quickly. ALl companies have bloatware, Acer has less than most. I deleted the rest
*I have never had a problem with the screen brightness. Some believe the recently updated BIOS have made the screen brighter. Either way, no problems here.

 

I have my 8204 generating too much heat from the vent also! So this is not seperate case... And placing vent exhaust in that place is desinger's mistake for sure! Most of people are right-handed so more or less it always blows hot air into one's hand (if someone wants to use mouse of course) They should put it in the back of laptop and there would be no problem for anyone - especially that dedicated video card will always generate more heat, so they should expect that it could be onerous...