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I have had a lot of laptop computers, and if you throw in desktops, well let's just say it becomes almost embarrassing. I've chosen to stick soley with notebook computers for the last 6+ years and reserve any desktop purchases I've made for family use. I've got quite a bit of experience with various notebook makes and models so I'm confident in my analysis. I am however going to take this opportunity to insert my disclaimer. This review really only amounts to my opinion and you know opinions, well I'll spare you the old adage. But here's the point. Who's to say my reality is yours, and just because you don't see it my way, that doesn't mean it's not true. Perception is everything and this review is mine. You really can't argue about fact. That is to say specifications like processor speed, and RAM or hard drive size. But you can with user experience. That said this is my user experience to date with the Acer TravelMate 8204. I hope that my experience will in some way help you decide whether or not to purchase the 8204.
Of late it would seem my turn around has been on the average of 9 months. Seems a bit excessive but there always seems to be a willing buyer for my current notebook right around the time I get bit by the newest technology bug. Since I haven't quite found a cure, I pacify the urge with several weeks if not months of careful consideration. Followed by the purchase of what ever I decide will fit my needs the most, at that particular time in my career. This most recent go around I've found myself researching since about the first week of November. I had made my purchasing decision by the second week of January and then found myself held up only by availability.
I'm fresh off a Gateway M680XL (I reviewed it here) which I was very happy with. From the day I bought it till the day we parted I really had no complaints (except the finish where my palms rested when I was typing started to wear). I feel I made a great purchase decision and again find myself in the same situation. Of course like any relationship only time will tell. But after a 4 days of heavy use I have found that I am enjoying my new TravelMate 8204 immensely. I've been looking for things to pick on because no one wants to say something is perfect. I am hard pressed to find anything wrong, but will point out what amounts to for me a few quarks and I'll let you decide if they're anything more. So with out further banter here we go... |
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The TravelMate 8204 Configuration
Primary Specifications:
Windows XP Professional
Intel Core Duo Processor T2500
2 GB of RAM DDR2 667MHz
Modular Dual Layer DVD Burner
120GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256 MB DDR Dedicated (Plus 256 MB HyperMemory for a total of 512MB)
15.4" WSXGA LCD (1680x1050 native resolution)
Complete Specs |
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The Unveiling
The Acer box which holds the well packaged 8204 was also lovingly packaged in it's own box with a healthy serving of styrofoam peanuts. Both the boxes looked very good so I suppose a kudos to UPS is in order. |
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The TravelMate 8204 was well packaged and there were no concerns with it's condition whatsoever. The notebook is in flawless condition and all the accessories and literature were present and accounted for (except for the additional A/C adapter they were supposed to have accidentally put in there ;-) Seriously though, I have every intention of purchasing the Acer EZDock and an additional A/C power adapter. I will use the EZDock at work and the extra A/C power adapter will be for downstairs at home. I like to keep the wires tucked away at my desk upstairs and find the price of an additional A/C power adapter a small price to pay for the convenience of not having to untangle it every time I want to move down stairs. (more on battery life further down in the review) |
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This undoubtedly has got to be the best looking laptop I have ever owned, heck that I've ever seen. The looks and quality are all there. From it's low profile to it's portfolio design. Even the keyboard is well above par. All the seams are solid. The lid is tight and closes like a vault with a solid click. The material is not shotty at all and of course the carbon fiber lid just rocks.
Quark: There's a little card on the left side of the notebook just under where the PCMCIA slot is. It's a filler card for something that should go there. I believe it's where the 3G card might go, but since that's not an option in the US there's a fake plastic card in there. The problem is it wants to just fall out. You would typically push it and then it will pop out and push it again to get it to go back in, but it's a hair to small on the sides. So if for example you picked the laptop up and tipped it to the left, the card will just fall out. I can already picture putting the fabric side of some self adhesive velcro on the bottom of it (the card) as a fix to take up the slack. |
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| At this point I may have board you to tears. Let me make it up to you by providing you with a link right here to all the pictures. Let's face it, that's probably your primary reason for humoring me and reading my review up to this point ;-) If you're actually enjoying the review, well you'll probably want to see the pictures any way, they're the best part! |
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It is very well balanced. The build, the design, and even the actual weight distribution. It feels very comfortable to carry, and at 6.6lbs it's pretty easy too. I immediately noticed a difference in carrying it in my briefcase. I only dropped just over a pound from my M680 but every little bit helps. All the seams are tight with no gaps where there shouldn't be and there are no flimsy areas or flex at all. Even the camera is solid and has a solid click as you rotate it from one position to another. |
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Visit the main Photo Gallery |
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| The Performance |
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| The performance is outstanding and quite frankly why I purchased it. What else out there right now can reach Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy in 1m 15s. Hardly anything comes close. Additionally it rockets on office app's and is the best thing going right now for Internet content creation applications which is what I spend most of my time doing. I'm not going to put a lot of time into benches and the like because there are a lot more trusted authorities out there that have already done so. All I can say is believe them! I actually have a problem with the speed if you can believe that. I've never had this problem before. It's so fast menus open instantly. Here's the problem. I am not always right on the menu and if you slip off even a hair to another it instantly pops up the next. Usually there is a lag so if the arrow strays you have half a second to get back over the selection you wanted. Not with this thing. It's like bang, bang, bang. So quick, I'm not use to that. I guess if there's got to be a problem, that's the one to have. |
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The Battery |
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I'm calling the time of death at 3 hours. I know there has been a lot of reviews saying 3 1/2 but for me, at what I would consider working settings, it's just over 3 hours. With out regard for battery life I set everything the way I would want it in a separate profile and named it normal. I have the screen at 60% which is quite comfortable and the CPU speed up one notch from the lowest. With this configuration I am able to work on battery with out too much sacrifice. This was also with out any tweaks to the graphic card power settings. I had hoped it would be slightly more, but as long as I get 3 hours or more, I'm ok with it.
Quark: There is currently a driver problem with Microsoft ACPI and it causes the USB controller to continually drain power. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and is working on a fix. So that will mean at least another hour if not more of battery power. The problem only occurs when you have plugged a USB device in, but the problem with the TravelMate is the built in Logitec Orbicam uses a USB controller. There is no way to disable it in the BIOS and efforts to disable it in the device manager and disable all drivers from loading at boot have been unfruitful. If you want more information about this problem you can read the articles on it at www.tgdaily.com Again, this is not only an Acer problem, but a problem none the less. |
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| The Graphics |
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The graphics are smooth and fluid. The 3DMark05 score was 4218 with out any tweaks or over clocking. I love to game but do to life's constraints I'm not a big gamer. That said, so far I've been able to load up COD 2 and F.E.A.R. Both look amazing and game play is incredible. For you F.E.A.R. fans here's the breakdown on the FPS Performance Test with everything set to at least medium and with shaders on, no FSAA and a resolution of 1024x768. These settings are visually great for balanced game play and performance and can obviously be taken higher. Especially when you consider none of the frames fell below 25 FPS and the average frame rate is 43 FPS. |
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FPS
Minimum: 26 FPS
Average: 43 FPS
Maximum: 84 FPS
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FPS Distribution
0% Below 25 FPS
57% Between 25 & 40 FPS
43% Above 40 FPS |
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The Screen |
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I am 110% happy with everything about this laptop except the screen. It's not that I dislike it because I think it's fine, but that's it, it's just fine. It's average and I guess I expected more. It's crisp it's clear it's even brighter than when I first got it if you can believe that, I almost don't and I've watched it with my own eyes (could just be me adjusting to it). I shouldn't pick on it because I like it twice as much as I did when I first opened it. But I think going from the glossy super bright M680 screen to this was a huge jump in screen type. Not quality, but type. Again, so I don't scare anyone, it's a great screen, but has just taken me personally more time to adjust to. Although I do find myself wishing it could go a notch or two brighter, you should be able to tell from the picture to the left it is quite bright. The horizontal viewing angles are great as you can see below. The vertical viewing angles do however fall short from what I would consider acceptable. There's about a 5-10 degree sweet spot and then it's all over. Keep in mind that you're looking at a digital picture taken of an LCD screen that was then compressed to a web quality graphic and one with which you are looking at on your LCD screen. That's quite a few degrees of separation, so please keep that in mind when looking at them. The pictures really don't do it justice. It really is a great screen. Not that this will help everyone, but if you have ever seen the screen on a Dell Inspiron 8600, it's almost identical to that. Maybe a notch brighter. On a final note, I did have one stuck pixel. I was able to massage it out with a Q-Tip in the first hour of use. The screen has been flawless since. |
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Visit the main Photo Gallery |
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The Keyboard and Mouse |
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I am extremely picky about both keyboards and touchpads. I've returned my Dell 7500 many years ago just over not liking the touchpad. I was particularly nervous about the keyboard on the 8204 for obvious reasons. I'm delighted to say both are awesome. The keyboard has a very solid feel, no flex, great key travel, and is very comfortable. I'm a touch typist and found myself comfortable with it in less than 10 minutes. I could see how if you weren't a touch typist it might take a little longer to adjust to it since it was designed to be more ergonomic with your fingers at the "home keys" position. The mouse is great. No jitters or jumps and it's very responsive and wide. Wide like the screen. Hey there's a novel idea. The 4 way scroll button is a nice touch but I find myself forgetting it's there. All in all, it's one of the best keyboard/mouse combinations I've used. |
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| The Speakers |
| They are adequate but far from great. They're your typical laptop speakers (no base). I suggest if you don't already have some, pick up a set of head phones. |
| The Wireless |
| The wireless card is spectacular and I with out a doubt have increased range over the wireless I had in my M680. I don't quite know if it's due to the new Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG or due to Acer's SignalUp technology. But either way, I'll take it. |
| The Heat |
| Not too bad. I've definitely had worse (can anybody say hp zd7000 with a pentium 4HT). Really the only part of the laptop that get's warm is the bottom middle right. The only vent for the fan is on the right side and it blows war air out of the right side. It does not bother me but it's worth noting. If you have your hand 6 inches or more from the right edge of your notebook when using an external mouse, you should have nothing to worry about. The touchpad gets a little warm as does the right palm rest. But far from a problem for me. The notebook is not noisy at all, and even thought you can hear the fans, they are not loud at all. If you have even the slightest of background noises you probably won't hear them at all. |
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Bluetooth VOIP Phone
I do not currently have VOIP phone capabilities and only recently began to entertain the idea. I will not be testing it now so I can't vouch for it or how well it works. I may be able to sometime in the near future. But since I have seen many questions from, does it come with the notebook? To, what does it look like and does it open? I thought I would throw in a few pictures that may help clear up some confusion... |
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...and that's all I know about that. |
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Visit the main Photo Gallery |
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| The Verdict |
| Solid build. Quality materials. Awesome looks. Screaming fast performance. In searching for the words to describe this laptop those are what come to mind. If that's what you're looking for well, you do the math. I wanted a laptop that could take everything I threw at it in a work environment with a fast paced all day long multitasking environment and beg for more. But also be able to be a top performing game machine. Well that's what I got. One sentence to sum up what you can do with the Acer TravelMate 8204 is, "Work hard, play hard" because that's what you can do with it. |
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