Acer's Travelmate 634LC matches a high speed processor and a thin sleek design, albeit at a relatively high price point.
The TravelMate series from Acer is its thin-and-light line, and these machines actually live up to their name. On a sheer weight-to-screen ratio, our test unit, the TravelMate 634LC, probably has the most screen per kg of any notebook. There's no lack of speed as well, thanks to a 1.8GHz Pentium 4-M and an nVidia GeForce2 Go 200 graphics chipset.
Sleek But Pricey
The TravelMate 634LC comes with all the trimmings: Crisp, bright 15-inch LCD at high 1400x1050 pixel resolution; combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive that's hot-swappable; spacious 30GB hard drive, fast 3D graphics and Pentium 4-M at 1.8GHz. However, it's still svelte at 2.8kg and slightly over one inch thick.
Acer's quite keen on the inclusion of Smart Card readers with its notebooks, and the TravelMate 634LC is no exception.
Moderately Powerful
In benchmark testing, the battery life was average at 2 hour 30 minutes. The score could have been influenced by the higher resolution of the LC model; you may get better mileage with the lower-end models which have smaller screens and fewer pixels to push.
Performance was also average. We got scores that matched that of slower processors, perhaps due to the use of Acer's own ALi motherboard chipset, compared with the Intel 845 chipsets in other machines.
Our unofficial Quake III Arena Demo 1 test, however, was a bright spot: At a 800x600 pixel setting, over 100 fps (frames per second) were generated; at 1024x768 pixels, we got a playable 60 fps. This is where the nVidia GeForce2 Go 200 graphics chipset shines.
The TravelMate 630LC offers a tidy, lightweight package with the power to do almost anything, including 3D gaming. However, the high price point that these features generate means that it will remain the plaything of the wealthy for the time being.
Acer Travelmate 634LC
Company: Acer Australia
Price: AU$5799
Phone: 1300 366 567
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