Acer TravelMate 350
The Acer TravelMate was easily the sexiest looking notebook of those we tested. The modern exterior was silver-grey in colour and the keypad was all black. The keyboard was quite different to all the other keyboards we tested. None of the keys matched up in a straight line. The whole arrangement was slightly curved, but this actually worked quite well. The layout of the keys is something we were not used to but it didn't take long for us to adjust to the new angles.
Located at the top of the keyboard, the Acer notebook had five buttons--three of these are user-programmable launch keys. The fourth button was a mail button which starts to flash once you have received an incoming e-mail, and the fifth was a Web browser button, which launches your browser.
The touchpad had three buttons located directly below the pad. The left and right buttons are similar to the left and right buttons on a conventional mouse. The centre button can be used to scroll up or down a page.
The Acer is equipped with an Intel PIII 650 processor, 128MB of RAM, and a 10GB IBM Travelstar hard disk. The hard disk pulls out quite easily from the right-hand side of the notebook. As with most of the notebooks we looked at, all you have to do to increase the system RAM or swap the hard drive is remove one or two screws from the bottom of the notebook. We found this to be a very simple arrangement and would imagine that anyone would have no trouble upgrading memory.
Most of the input/output connectors were located on the back of the notebook. There were two USB connectors, one PS/2 port, a VGA port, and network and modem connectors as well as an expansion connector. On the left-hand side of the notebook was one Type II PCMCIA slot and a Smart Card reader. This was the first time we had seen a Smart Card reader in a notebook.
The Acer has an all-in-one external floppy/DVD-ROM drive. The floppy drive sits on top of the DVD-ROM drive and connects straight into the external drive connector on the notebook. The Acer also comes with a handy IEEE 1394 FireWire port.
The 13.3in display was excellent and the display panel is quite strong as well. This notebook only weighs in at a tiny 1.862kg. Even though it was quite wide, it was the thinnest notebook in the roundup sitting only 21mm high with its display closed.
The Acer shipped with a Trident graphics accelerator, while the other notebooks came with ATI or S3 type accelerators. The Trident accelerator, however, did not perform as well as any of the other notebooks in WinBench Business Graphics and WinBench High-End Graphics. The Acer also reported similar performance in Business Winstone and High-End Winstone. While the Acer is not jammed packed full of punch it wins out in many other ways, including features and usability.
Acer TravelMate 350
Company:Acer Computer Australia
Ph:02 8762 3000
Price:AU$4,899
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