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Acer TravelMate TM803LCi Notebook (1.60-GHz Pentium-M(Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive)

Acer TravelMate TM803LCi Notebook (1.60-GHz Pentium-M(Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive)

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Shoddy design, lousy keyboard, pathetic salespeople etc.
Review: I had been a big fan of Acer...till I bought this model (though with 40 GB) in Indonesia (they have an official presence there). Entire purchase and usage experience has been lousy. Drove down to the showroom to choose and buy the model.... they told me to wait for 1 hour. Apparently they had to get the model in from another location. The wait lasted about 5 hours. By this time, one would imagine I should have walked out (kicking myself). Nevertheless, I figured such things happen (I mean how could their 'super' marketing division forecast demand for the model). Went home all excited....only to find the system crashed on me the next day....no not a software problem.... a hardware problem. One could hear the harddrive clunking away (literally) as it tried to boot. Returned to the showroom where they had to take another day to replace the machine. By now, I figured it was already a wasted purchase. I mean, customer....hello ? Perhaps some other incentive could have helped an already frustrating experience. But no, the guys there seem to be doing me a favour.

Anyway, got a replacement. Software works fine (of course it does- it is not written by Acer- although some of their annoying laptop management tools are).

Now to the design features. I use the mouse with my right hand. So, of course I expected to have the mouse USB port on the right. Can you possible figure out why the geniuses at Acer would have 4, yes all 4 USB ports on the left side of the laptop. Could they not split 2 on each side to cater to both left and right handed persons if needed (not to mention peripherals)? Others have already commented about why the mouse is plugged in all the way on the left side...hey I don't know. I only use it. The CD drive is on the right as well.... I figure it being on the left would have been more intuitive (but this I can pass)

Now, I have used the laptop since the day I bought it (29 August, 2003). And gradually, the letters on my keyboard have disappeared. Yes, can you believe this? With every passing day, some portion of some alphabet on my keyboard is vanishing...help ! Now, it is a race against time for me to memorize my entire keyboard so that by the time I have only black squares left, I would know the location of each of the 84 keys, and that's not including the Shift, Alt and Function key combinations. All this within 4 months of purchasing the laptop-talk about durability !

I am also scared to click the mouse buttons on the laptop (you know the buttons next to the mouse tip/roller on each laptop)...why? They have started to sound clunky already with each passing click... I expect they could pop out anytime now or just get jammed into the casing, depriving me of the wonderful pleasures of the mouse, if it had not been for my foresight to get myself an external one (not from Acer).

One particular sticker on the laptop has completely eroded its ink during this time. And that was the Acer technical hotline.... the sticker is still on...oh they used good glue, just disappearing ink on both the keys and the sticker it seems. Sure I can get these numbers off the web site and the manual etc....but hey , when one spends more than US$ 2,200 on such a system, one expects the brains behind such a product to well, have brains and a bit of care!!!

My recommendation, don't waste your time on such a product, you are probably better off buying a Sony... those Vaio's are now looking exceedingly tempting.

To Acer: It is high time you shaped up your marketing and sales service teams in Indonesia. It is a huge market, and still growing. And please, do something about those keys or the prices!! If the system was cheaper, maybe I would have given it higher stars in keeping with the expectations.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Notebook Ever
Review: This is my sixth notebook computer and the best ever, replacing the worst ever (Compaq 1510US, barely a year old and barely working). The screen and case are nice, and I it has a nice host of features. But the big surprise is that this notebook is fast, seriously fast, and the batteries last 5+ hours on real work. I can work through a flight from D.C. to Los Angeles with no problems.

My only reservation is that the keyboard could be a little nicer. I'm not crazy about the arrangement of the Home and End keys, and sometimes the key caps feel a little flimsy. I think this description makes the keyboard sound worse than it really is, but I have used better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Notebook Ever
Review: This is my sixth notebook computer and the best ever, replacing the worst ever (Compaq 1510US, barely a year old and barely working). The screen and case are nice, and I it has a nice host of features. But the big surprise is that this notebook is fast, seriously fast, and the batteries last 5+ hours on real work. I can work through a flight from D.C. to Los Angeles with no problems.

My only reservation is that the keyboard could be a little nicer. I'm not crazy about the arrangement of the Home and End keys, and sometimes the key caps feel a little flimsy. I think this description makes the keyboard sound worse than it really is, but I have used better.


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