Toshiba Tecra M2 or Acer TravelMate 3201XCi ?

Hi guys,

I need a laptop and it's so hard to decide which one of these two to guy. Their prices, configurations and weight (about 5 lbs) are pretty similar:

Acer TravelMate 3201XCi:
- Intel Centrino 1.5 GHz
- MS Windows XP Pro
- 512 MB Ram
- 60 GB HDD
- DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
- 1 IEEE1394
- ATI Radeon 9700 64MB DDR
- 14.1" TFT 1024x768 16 million colours (XGA)
- ....
Toshiba Tecra M2:
- Intel Centrino 1.5 GHz
- MS Windows XP Pro
- 512 MB Ram
- 40 GB HDD
- DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
- S-Video
- 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce 5200
- 14.1" TFT 1024x768 16 million colours (XGA)
- ....





As you can see, these systems have few different things: the Videocard, S-video capability, and the HDD.

I don't mind the difference in HDD or their looking (I prefer the Acer's look though ). What I concern are the videocard, s-video out (the Acer model does not have this feature) and their battery life.

So here few questions:
- Is the performance significantly different between ATI Radeon 9700 and the Nvidia GeForce 5200? I know there is huge gap in performance between these cards in desktops but not sure about ones in notebooks. I won't play much of first-person-shooting games on laptop as I already have a desktop. However I do need to play some strategy games like Empire Earth, GhostRecon,...with friends when we hang out at a coffee or park
- I won't use the S-video much but the ability to view photos on TV to show my friends or family is cool. Should I trade the ATI Radeon 9700 of the Acer with S-video Out of the Toshiba?
- How is the battery life of these model with the default battery? Will they last 4 to 5 hours with nomal use (watch movies, surf the Net, Word processing,...) ?

- I'm buying this laptop because I need to have a computer with me when outside to do my work. Since both latops are pretty light, wieght is no problem.


I've read some reviews about the Toshiba M2 in Toshiba forums and they are quite positive. However, there is no review about the Acer 3201XCi yet. Someone here owns the Acer 3201XCi laptop? What do you think?

All comments and suggestions are highly appreciated!

Thank you.

kevhuynh,
Are you Viet? I'm.

yeah I just noticed the Acer only has one year warranty. Darn that's short. I will ask the store if I can get extended warranty at reasonable price.

The NC6000 looks sweet too but it's few hundread CAD more here in Canada. Plus one of my friend is having heat problem with his Compag's laptop making me hesitant to consider any HP/Compaq lappy.