Carla Thornton
Acer TravelMate 611TXCi
The new touchpad-equipped Acer TravelMate 611TXCi weighs just 5.1 pounds (including a removable DVD/CD-RW combo drive) and sports a 14.1-inch screen--just like the eraserhead-bearing ThinkPad T series, until now the undisputed leader in this weight class. The new TravelMate line surpasses the competition's offerings by providing a Smart Card reader and an internal 802.llb wireless network card and antenna. The hot-swappable modular bay can hold a second battery or a second hard drive. Acer wraps it all in a handsome tricolor case of black, gray, and silver, with a stylish-looking crescent-shaped keyboard, the touchpad and mouse buttons set into a silver oval, and the power switch mounted in a chrome-colored plate on the front. Programmable shortcut buttons above the keyboard provide a half-dozen ways to launch frequently used applications or Web sites.Extra-tinny speakers and only basic audio connections--for headphones (or external speakers) and a microphone--hobble the 611TXCi as a multimedia machine. It also lacks parallel and serial connections, a problem for users still relying on legacy peripherals. The 610 series can use the same port replicator as other Acer laptops, but a hardware incompatibility renders the replicator's S-Video port unusable. Finally, the 2.3-hour battery life is shorter than we've seen for similar notebooks.
Easy-to-reach RAM and a removable hard drive should make upgrades a snap. Acer touts its curved keyboard as an ergonomic benefit, but after typing for a while and attempting to get used to it, we found it no more comfortable than other laptop keyboards. With a PC WorldBench 2000 score of 158 running Windows 2000, the 611TXCi came in just slightly below our average score of 163 for notebooks with the same processor, memory, and operating system.
Corporate types who opt for the TravelMate 610 line of notebooks instead of IBM's similar T series laptop can save some dough and stay in touch wirelessly too.
| Buying Information |
| Acer TravelMate 611TXCi PC WorldBench 2000 score of 158, Pentium III-850/700 CPU, 128MB of SDRAM, 256KB L2 cache, Windows 2000, 14.1-inch active screen, integrated Intel 815 graphics with UMA, 20GB hard drive, combination 8X DVD-ROM and 4X/4X/24X CD-RW drive, V.90 modem, network adapter, touchpad pointing device, 6.6 pounds (including USB floppy drive and AC adapter). One-year parts and labor warranty; free 24-hour toll-free tech support for one year. $ 2599 PC WorldBench 2000 score of 158, Pentium III-850/700 CPU, 128MB of SDRAM, 256KB L2 cache, Windows 2000, 14.1-inch active screen, integrated Intel 815 graphics with UMA, 20GB hard drive, combination 8X DVD-ROM and 4X/4X/24X CD-RW drive, V.90 modem, network adapter, touchpad pointing device, 6.6 pounds (including USB floppy drive and AC adapter). One-year parts and labor warranty; free 24-hour toll-free tech support for one year. 800/733-2237 http://www.acer.com/aac |