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Acer 8002 pricing
Acer 8003 pricing
Acer 8006 pricing
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The keyboard layout is the first thing many notice as it's not a straight line. The keys actually curve for a more natural layout attempt it appears. I've been getting a mixed feedback on it, but it's not to a degree where most people would be affected much.






The power plugs into the right rear side. It doesn't really get in the way of an external mouse because it's toward the back and uses an angle plug.


The audio jacks being on the left side doesn't bother me too much and would be my second choice behing being in the front. I use headphones though and I'm sure those who use speakers probably would be way better off with them in the back and lefties might not be too happy about the USB and audio jacks on the left side.




The battery and media drive are both quick release and have a nice layout. It's too bad there are no options to swap in and out of these bays to utilize the ease of doing so =). To get to the hard drive, you have to remove 2 screws, and 4 more to remove the hard drive from the Acer bracket. Acer only bundles their systems with 4200rpm hard drives which are the slowest on the market you'll find is what is supposed to be high end laptops.




The LCD they chose is probably the weakest part of the system. Its brightness, contrast, and viewing angle are average at best with today's LCD options on leading brand laptops. The below picture is next to a Sager 8790 with the older WXGA+ LCD they use. I tried to adjust the settings and couldn't get it any better than this. This model, like the other Acer models comes with a no deal pixel policy.


The system itself weighed 6.8LBS and the AC power adapter weights .9LBS.

I ran it out of the box with DVD playback and it ran for 2 hours and 47 minutes on the battery before shutting down.

A few quick video benchmarks

UT2K3 1024 X 768 Flyby
122 FPS

UT2K3 1600 X 1200 Flyby
50 FPS

3DMARK01 SE
9,844

3DMARK03 (340 Patch)
2,791

Aquamark 3
22,425

This system is to appeal to those wanting high performance (capable of playing today's games) in the lightest weight package. It's not going to perform up to the point some of the desktop replacement 9LB+ notebooks out there, but giving up nearly a quarter of the performace you get a system that will get you twice the battery life at close to half the weight.

I won't be available for a Q&A on it, but feel free to discuss.

I would agree that the 8003 doesnt hold up against the 9lb machines. However the 8006 almost keeps up with them and in a gaming enviroment i think most people would struggle to see the difference.

I am suprised with the dvd playback battery time you got. I managed to get through the whole Return of the king today on dvd with 9% remaining on the 8006.

Also your 8006 pricing shows the cpu as a 1.7ghz Centrino where as actually it is a 2.0ghz dothan. Also the memory in the machine is PC2700 not PC2100 as it says.

We pull data directly off distributor's websites and with the Acers it's been a complete pain because their specs are wrong all the time =(. I manually corrected it.

With all the reviews I do people note as getting longer battery life because I don't power cycle, or do anything other than pull it out of the box, charge to 100% and start the DVD with the volume at usually a high lvl, with the 8003, I had to crank it to hear JPIII very well in some spots. I don't want to change or optimize it because I would rather it be more accurate for a less than perfect case scenario as always happens anyways as the battery gets a little older.

Adam do you know if the Acer ferrari 3200 has same type of viewing angle?? And are you planning reviewing this unit too?

Great review, but could we get pictures from right and left side of the screen?(when its on)

Thx.

I think the other thing to bear in mind is the machines compared are a widescreen TFT and a non widescreen (8003) - It is well known that the WXGA and WUXGA screens have much better viewing angles.

I think a fairer comparison would have been to compare the screen to a similar NON widescreen SXGA+ screen.

I wouldnt let the screen put you off it is perfectly acceptable and comparable to all other SXGA+ non widescreen laptops i have seen and used.

Yes, I'll be reviewing the Ferrari =).

Hello everybody, does anyone know which LCD is used on this notebook? Is is LG LCD matrix or not? Has it the same viewing angles like LG?

hopefully i will be getting my acer 8006 this week so expect a full review )ordered it from Germany). i borrowed it to our (croatian) computer magazine for a review thus giving me a 10 % off the price.
also mentiond that there will be a broken bone for every scratch


btw are you sure about the 4200 drive policy only? i managed to pay some extra to Recro (acer dealer here) to give me aditional 512 Mb and a 5400 rpm drive.

What is this mini PCI that they speak about in the manuals of the 8006i? Is it possible to upgrade the graphic chip on this laptop in the future?
I am still in a review process with this unit. I will post some findings when I have used 1 month or so.

Thanks.

Mini-PCI is mainly a slot used in notebooks for communications devices. In most current notebooks, the mini-PCI slot is used for the wireless LAN card (802.11b, 802.11g, etc.)

Ok, thank you. Then it looks like it is not possible to upgrade the ATI chip in the future