Acer Travelmate 292LMi-V64 Versus 8002LCi

Well, this was the only thread I found on this model. I searched on it because I found it on MWave and Acer's site and thought I'd be interested. I'm afraid I won't like the SXGA versions based on the one model I've seen, so I'm back to looking at XGAs. This machine seems to have everything I'm looking for and a very good price. Like you, I think the newer design with the curved keyboard looks nicer, but I think I could live with this. I haven't found reviews on it yet, but I know the 800 series got a great review on CNet; even better than the 8000 series.
I'm a month behind you. Did you end up getting it? If so, what do you think? How is the monitor, the keyboard, the speakers?
The only drawback I see with the Acers are the slow HDDs. How is yours behaving (if you got this one)?

Anyone else?

S*


EDIT: correct me if I'm wrong, but is that the same case as the CL56, only with an XGA monitor instead of the SXGA? Sure looks that way to me. If so, does anyone else offer that?
1 photo at mwave:
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec....iteria=3436429

acer's product page with link to photos
http://www.acer.com/APP/AKC/INTERNET...Document#specs

one of acer's good photos (sure looks like the cl56 case to me!)
http://www.acer.com/app/akc/internet/rwpgslib.nsf/graphic+files/TM290_03L/$FILE/TM290_03.jpg

and probably the 512 mb of ram. that would be a draw back for me. i can't run far cry that well on my computer with 512 ram.

lol. one of these days I'll let myself get into gaming and then I'll understand.

If it makes you feel better, I do prefer the 512 on one dimm. LOL

S*

Trust me, the 292LMi-V64 is a sweet machine, the only 2 drawbacks I found after using it for a week:

I had to change the restore cd's twiceas they weren't readable, now I made one myself

The screen resolution is not that high, but I got used to it.

But hey, 1600$ is a high price for that machine, I'm sure you can find it for at least 100/150$ cheaper.

I just went over your pros and cons and some stuff seem to be wrong in there:

The 292 has DDR333 Ram, I checked mine and it is Nanya PC2700 CL2 2X256

It aslo has a Raddy 9700 64MB

yeah, I don't know where he got that price, but I'm looking at this right now:
ACER TRAVELMATE 292LMI-V64MB PENTIUM M 1.5GHZ/60GB/512MB/15" XGA/DVD DUAL/XP PRO/802.11BG
$1339.56 and another for $1354.90 after shipping

However...
CNet's review
http://reviews.cnet.com/Acer_TravelM...2.html?tag=top
gives it a 7.6, but that is for the 290LMi version (bottom of the barrel), not the 292Lmi (top of the heap)
From the review...
Design 7
Features 8
Performance 8
Battery life 9
Service and support 6

Pros:
* Icons and text appeared nice and big when displayed at the screen's native resolution of 1,024x768,
* but at a reasonable office volume, they play speech and music clearly.
* The TravelMate 290 offers plenty of ports and slots for the average user. It features three USB 2.0 ports, a single Type II PC Card slot, four-pin FireWire, parallel, Ethernet, modem, VGA/video-out, and S-Video-out ports.
* The Acer TravelMate 290LMi is the fastest 1.3GHz Pentium M-based system we've tested yet, easily beating its closest competitor by 17 points in our small roundup of systems.
* When it comes to office and content-creation apps, the TravelMate 290LMi is one of the best mobile performers in its class.
* Mobile application performance: BAPCo MobileMark2002 performance rating
Acer TravelMate 290LMi: 171
IBM ThinkPad R40: 154
Dell Inspiron 500m: 138
* The Acer TravelMate 290LMi lasted more than five hours.... Acer has once again achieved the elusive balance of great performance and long battery life when running office and content-creation apps.

Cons:
* Acer's big keyboard is a letdown. Unlike the mildly U-shaped, hand-friendly keyboards found on other Acer notebooks, the TravelMate 290 series features a straight one. It operates quietly, but it sags under pressure and gives poor feedback.
* but colors looked a bit washed out, especially reds and yellows. DVD movies surprised us when they made a slightly jerky start, even at two-thirds screen.
* Stereo speakers at the left and right corners of the front edge sound raspy when turned up high,
* DDR 266 (not 333)
* slow HDD (4800, not 5600 or 7200) and only 2MB buffer

User ratings:
91% thumbs up to 9% down out of 76 users
* Yellows and yellow lighting (in DVD's) do seem washed out
* Keyboard sags a bit under pressure
* it stays cool all the time
* The screen colours are sometimes not so sharp.
* It boots redicilously fast and the battery really does last 5-6 hours of use. With prime95 running the battery lasted just over 5 hours, not bad for 100% CPU usage.
* you'll really have to buy a set of external speakers for good sound, especially since the speakers point to the side and not directly up or at you
* The heat dissipation is very good. Those parts which you might keeps cool all the time. Also, this machine is very quiet and looks to be pretty reliable so far (haven't crashed yet.)
* Perfect 15" screen, and it stays bright when running on batteries, which is not the case with Sony's and Toshiba's of the same price range. Equally sharp in text and videos.
* Acer software took up too much of the 40GB hard drive.

What do you think? I won't be doing any gaming. I would be using for grad business school -- heavy MS Office 2003 apps, Internet, some Dreamweaver web programming (very little), watching some DVDs while on the road, listening to MP3s while working. I must have wireless (g) and want to use a wireless mouse and keypad, so that kills one USB right away.
Specifically, how are the keyboard and monitor? I will be looking at this all day, so I'd like to have a decent monitor with solid color (no gradiant) and good viewing angles. Even more importantly, a keyboard that is easy to type on quickly and doesn't cause wrist/forearm soreness after long periods of typing.

"a 15-inch screen in a purplish-silvery, titanium-alloy lid" LOL is that true? it looks gray in the pictures. How does it look?

I greatly appreciate your feedback.

S*

hi

I have a question to those already own the TravelMate 292LMi-V64M. Does it really have mono audio output as indicated on the Acer website below?

http://www.acer.com/APP/AKC/INTERNET...B?OpenDocument

I ordered one online the other day and, to my horror, when I read the specs more carefully, it says under Audio: ...stereo microphone/line in, mono headphone/speaker/line out...

I guess the specs apply to all 290 series. Thanks for any insight.