Acer Travelmate 8204WLM

The Acer Travelmate 8204WLM, got it almost a year.

The specs:
Intel Core (Centrino) Duo 2 Ghz
2 GB RAM
ATI Radeon X1600 mobility
Realtek HD audio
Firewire port
15.4 inch widescreen
Integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam (acer orbicam)
Cardreader (memory cards)
PCMCIA reader
Smartcard reader
Integrated Bluetooth and WLAN
Infrared
DVD (re)writer (R, RW, DL)
Bluetooth VoiP PCMCIA phone

This nice laptop has got 4 USB ports, a LAN and a modem connection.

It is very fast, and useful for games. It is Vista capable (tried it, and it ran very fast).

First I had trouble with shutting down. I found out that the preinstalled software was malfunctioning (even using recovery cd). So I installed an OEM version of XP Pro (with the drivers from acer) and used the product key of the laptop, and that solved it.

Another downside, the heat of the laptop is blown out to the right side, so you'll get a hot hand if you operate the mouse with your right hand.

The case looks great (has carbon-fiber) and it is very light.

Also, Acer Gravisense is used to protect the harddisk against vibration.

So my overall opinion:

+ great performance
+ mobile (very light)
+ Has everything that a travelling user needs
+ Acer has all the drivers for custom OS installation
+ Runs Vista just as fast as XP
- Preinstalled software malfunctioning
- Heat blows at the right side (where most people have got the mouse)
- The LCD screen is not bright
- Card reader doesn't have a press-to-release system, so you'll have to pull out the SD card, or memory card


So (from 1-10) I would give it an 7.

Microsoft is like this intellectual roach motel: big brains go in and you don't see anything come out

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