Building on an already-successful design, the Dothan-based TravelMate 8005LMi delivers an impressive combination of features, performance and battery life.

Acer's new TravelMate 8000 series updates the successful TravelMate 800 range of business-oriented Centrino notebooks. The top-end 8005LMi model reviewed here uses Intel's new 1.8GHz Dothan-core Pentium M processor. The AU$3,999 TravelMate 8005LMi is nicely designed, packed with features, performs very well and delivers decent battery life. Overall, it's an excellent choice for business users.

The TravelMate 8005LMi is a two-spindle 'thin-and-light' system weighing just under 3kg (2.88kg) and planting a footprint (332mm by 281mm) big enough to accommodate its 15-inch screen. Considering the features that are packed inside, it's relatively slim at between 33mm and 36mm high. The design is very similar to that of its TravelMate 800 predecessor, the main point of difference being the front-mounted 4-in-1 flash memory card reader, which accepts SD/MMC, SmartMedia and Memory Stick media.

Despite its slimline design, the TravelMate 8005LMi feels very solidly built. There's very little flex in the screen or keyboard, for example - two areas where flimsiness often shows up in other notebooks. The screen hinge and lid-locking mechanism also inspire confidence in their ability to stand up to repeated use. Underneath, Acer's rubberised Disc Anti-Shock Protection (DASP) helps to cushion he hard drive from any untoward bumps when you're on the move.

The curved Acer FineTouch keyboard has 85 keys that are generally sensibly laid out, although the Home and End keys are accessed via an Fn key combination, which not all users will appreciate. The pointing device is 2-button touchpad with a useful four-way scroll button. Between the screen and keyboard there are four quick-launch buttons, two of them user-programmable; the fascia also has buttons for turning Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on and off.

The TravelMate 8005LMi is built around Intel's 1.8GHz Dothan-core Pentium M 745 processor with 2MB of Level 2 cache, and has a feature set to match. The chipset is Intel's latest 855GME, which supports DDR333 RAM -- the 8005LMi has 512MB, expandable to 2GB. Main storage is provided by an 80GB, 4,200rpm Ultra-ATA/100 hard disk, while the optical drive is a multi-format DVD burner that can handle all of today's leading writable and rewritable media (DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW).

The modular AcerMedia Bay on the right-hand side accepts a number of options in place of the optical drive, including a second hard drive and a second Li-ion battery. With just the standard battery fitted, Acer claims 5 hours' life, rising to 8 hours with a second one added.

The graphics subsystem is one of the TravelMate 8005LMi's strengths, being based around ATI's top-end Mobility Radeon 9700 chip supported by 128MB of DDR video RAM. With full DirectX 9.0 support and hardware-assisted MPEG-2 decoding for superior DVD playback, this GPU will do justice to demanding graphical applications, games and movies. The internal display is a high-quality 15-inch SXGA+ (1,400 by 1,050 pixels) TFT, and you can plug an external monitor into the VGA or DVI-Digital port at the back and spread your Windows desktop over two screens. There's also an S-Video TV-out port, primarily for playing DVD movies.

The TravelMate 8005LMi is a well-connected notebook: not only is it equipped with Intel's latest PRO/Wireless 2200GB 802.11b/g wireless networking module, but it also has built-in Bluetooth for wireless cable replacement and Gigabit Ethernet for very fast wired networking.

As far as ports and expansion is concerned, there's a row of four USB 2.0 ports on the left-hand side, along with a single Type II PC Card slot, a smartcard reader, a FireWire port and a trio of audio connectors. At the back, there are VGA and DVI-D monitor ports, the S-Video port and RJ-45 Ethernet plus RJ-11 modem connectors. The fascia carries the above-mentioned flash card reader and an infrared port.

As you'd expect from a 1.8GHz system with 2MB of Level 2 cache and 512MB of DDR RAM, the TravelMate 8005LMi is a very good performer, scoring 191 on MobileMark 2002. That's well ahead of the most of the previous generation of Banias-core Pentium M-based notebooks, although it's actually only 4 per cent quicker than its 1.7GHz TravelMate 800 predecessor.

When it comes to 3D graphics, the TravelMate 8005LMi's state-of-the-art 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 GPU propels it to a 3DMark 03 score of 2,839. That compares pretty favourably to the fastest notebook graphics we've seen to date - from Dell's desktop-replacement Inspiron 9100, which uses the same GPU and scores 3,373.

Battery life is reported by MobileMark 2002 as 3 hours and 38 minutes - not the 5 hours claimed by Acer, but a decent result nonetheless. However, our testing is performed in desktop mode with relatively high screen brightness; you could easily extract more uptime with more conservative power management settings. We did not test the system with a second battery.

The TravelMate 8005LMi comes with a one-year international warranty, which isn't that generous. However, you can extend this via the Acer Extended Warranty Package if need be - albeit at a price. Telephone support is available and you can also get email support, driver downloads utilities and user guides via Acer's Web site.

Acer TravelMate 8005LMi (Pentium M Processor 745 1.8GHz, 512MB RAM)
Company: Acer
Price: AU$3,999
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 366 567

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