Finally decided, buying an Acer

I origionally wanted an IBM and had many questions over on the IBM forum, but they really want and arm an a leg for their stuff! So I was shopping around for a deal and came across this:

Any experience with these travelmates? The price on this bad boy is VERY nice. I'd love to hear your experiences on them, and any possible drawbacks. I read Acer makes a reliable notebook now. I owned an Acer desktop years and years ago (back when that was Best Buy's flagship computer) and well I was not impressed. It was about a step up from Packard Bell. Has this company improved on quality? And what about upgradability? If I ever wanted to add ram on this thing, when I pop her open I'm not going to find the chips soldered in there like I did on the Acer desktop I had am I? Thanks for the input!
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ACER TravelMate TM291LMI-G Centrino Pentium M 1.4Ghz, 15"TFT, 512MB, 40GB, DVD+ / -RW, WirelessLAN, WinXP Pro
Weight: 6.2lbs
CPU: Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz(400 FSB)
Display: 15" TFT (1024x768 @24bit)
OS: Windows XP Pro
Memory: 512MB
Graphics: Intel 855GM integrated, 64MB(shared)
HD: 40GB
Optical Drive: DVD-Dual drive (DVD+ / -RW)
Communication: 56K, 10/100 LAN, Wireless LAN802.11b/g
Ports: 1x LPT, 1x VGA, 3x USB, 1x 1394, PC Card slot, Audio ports, 1x RJ11, 1x RJ45, S-Video
Battery Life: 5.5hour(s)
Dimensions (WxDxH): 13.1" x 10.9" x 1.3"
Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year

 

I am also looking at Acer.

I like the Acer Travelmate 2500 and the Acer Aspire 2000.

Travelmate 2500

Aspire 2000

From what I have heard, they are a very respectable company.

 

I just purchased the Aspire 2000 last week and I love it. I got the Lci version (1.4Ghz,40GB,DVD-ROM/CD-RW) instead of the Lmi (1.6Ghz,60GB,DVD-RW)version to save money, around $370. I plan on getting an external hard disk (200GB+) anyway and I plan on waiting for the DVD burners once they get to 12X - 16X later this year. Didn't want to wait around to burn DVD's at 2X. When I purhased it from newegg.com last week it was $1379. I checked earlier this week and it was $1391. I wish it had 802.11g instead of b and Bluetooth but overall it has everything I wanted (except for a DVI output but can't really find those on laptops).

The screen is really amazing and the viewing angles are quite good. I also love the look of the cover compared to some of the blah looking notebooks available. I just added a Wireless AP (Netgear WG602v2) to my network and got it running pretty quickly, once I figured out the WEP thing. Haven't been able to get WPA going but that might be due to the 802.11b card.

Sound is pretty good too for a laptop. Louder than other laptops I've heard. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

javyn, I've bought the ACER TravelMate TM291LCi almost two weeks ago. So far so good. It's got the same configuration as the one you're interested in, except for the optical drive (mine has a combo drive instead).
The battery lasts around 3.5-4 hours on average, mostly doing office tasks, listening to music and this sort of tasks.. You can achieve better results although.
Forget about playing the latest games with the onboard Intel Extreme video card. Older games run well although.
Leaving that apart, the laptop is okay. Go for it if you get it on a deal; it's got great value.

As for the RAM issue you mentioned in your post, the TM290 series have two DDR slots. Since that configuration has 512MB of DDR memory, expect both slots populated by 256MB DIMMs.
The optical drive is removable, in case you want to change it with something else. The HDD is also upgradeable..

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Acer TravelMate 291LCi

 

thanks for all the help guys! i think ill be pretty happy with my decision. Wonder if I could yank the dvd out the optical drive and stick another battery in there like the IBMs, for when I want to do some long research or office work.

As for the video card....well I'm still kind of finding it hard to believe people actually watch full length dvds on their laptops, let alone play the latest games!? On those tiny little screens?

For gaming I'm going to stick with good ole homebuilds from components from pricewatch. That way one could go ALL out...7200rpm hd, 8 meg cache, 1 gig of fast as hell ram, nice athlon processor...all for cheaper than a lot of laptops heh

Actually, I probably will play some games on my notebook, some NES roms hehe. Got a USB gamepad around here somewhere.

 

javyn,

Unfortunately, Acer doesn't offer a battery for the 291's modular bay.

You can definitely play the latest games on some laptops. As for DVDs, people watch them on their notebooks when they don't have access to a TV/DVD setup. I'm sure you'd rather watch a DVD on a notebook when flying then sitting doing nothing. Flying to Asia takes about 20 hours from the East Coast, keep that in mind.